After Effects

By: ChristianGateFan

CATEGORY: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, UST

SEASON/SPOILERS: Season 9

WARNINGS: None

AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:

http://christiangatefankat.110mb.com/

CHAPTER 1

The wooden door of the 'cell' slammed shut, and the latch clicked on the outside. Harsh voices from the other side of the upright logs stuck in the ground in a smallish square that formed the outdoor holding pen yelled through the walls at them not to try to get out if they knew what was good for them.

Vala crossed her arms and glared at the logs. "Wonderful." She was acting like none of it was her fault.

Daniel stared at her incredulously. "Do you like being locked up or something?"

"No," she replied, looking miffed.

"Well, it certainly seems like it--it's only been five days since the last time."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please. That was not my fault. I did what you suggested, but did it work like you thought it would? No, most definitely not."

"Maybe that wasn't your fault, but this is," he glared.

"How so?" she demanded defiantly.

"It was obvious these people had already converted to Origin the minute we stepped through the 'gate, but you started spouting about how wrong they were anyway! The only good thing is that we'd already separated from Teal'c and Mitchell then or they'd be in here with us."

"Well, they know we've got to be in the area somewhere. They'll get us out; don't worry."

"You still did it."

"Well how was I supposed to know that they'd jail us for blasphemy!"

Daniel threw up his arms. "Half the people in the village were carrying around copies of the Book of Origin!"

Vala sat down against the wall. "Whatever."

"Don't do that."

She looked up at him, an eyebrow raised. "Don't do what?"

"Don't just sit there." He glanced around the cell. There were small gaps in-between the poles of wood--probably so the guards around it on the outside could keep something of an eye on prisoners--and the tops of the logs were spiked. He drew closer to her and lowered his voice. "Help me figure out how to get out of here."

"They'll find us."

"Vala…"

She looked at him for a moment, then sighed dramatically and stood again. "All right, all right; what do you want me to do?"

He frowned and put a finger in front of his lips to keep her quiet. She got closer. "Be quiet. We don't want them to know we're trying to get out," he whispered.

"Won't they figure that out?" she replied, but quietly now.

"Well, yeah, probably, but we'll have more time to try it unbothered if they don't know before-hand that we're going to do it."

"Oh…I guess so."

"Good--now start testing the beams. Maybe some of them are loose."

"Fine…"

She went o one side of the cell and started to do apply pressure to the logs, keeping her hands inside in hopes of not alerting their guards. Daniel did the same on the other side. For a few minutes, what they were doing wasn't discovered, but neither did they have any success.

Daniel was getting frustrated. They had checked almost all of the upright logs, and nothing. They were all held securely by the ground around their bases, and tied together tightly, the knots burned and melted together. The beams of the door of the cell and those one either side of it had no gaps in-between them, preventing them from trying to reach through and get the latch open.

He tried one of the last pieces, but in carelessness cause by annoyance his fingers slipped and went through one of the gaps, and his hand thumped against the wood. Vala jerked and looked over at him, eyes a bit wide. He froze. He could see one of the guards one the other side of the wall nearby. He left his fingers there for a moment. Pulling them back too quickly would be too suspicious. So he wiggled them some, nonchalantly tapped on the wood on the outside and whistled. No, Mr. Crazy Origin-Followers, I'm not trying to get out; I'm just sticking the fingers of my left hand through this hole 'cause it's there…

All in the same two seconds, there was a brief flash of metal through one of the cracks, an angered shout of 'Hey!', and a white-shot streak of pain sliced across the backs of his fingers.

Daniel shouted in pain and withdrew them quickly. Across the back of the first three, a gashed stripe stood out in red--and in the red line over his middle finger he could see a small bit of white. Suddenly light-headed, he bent over, gasping, clutching the offended appendage to his chest to quell the bleeding. It didn't help much.

"And keep them in there, or you'll lose them next time!" the same voice continued, before falling silent again. In the next second Vala was beside him, with one hand on his shoulder trying to pull him upright again.

"Daniel! Are you all right? What happened?"

With a little difficulty, he did straighten. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood on his hands. "Daniel…?"

"I'm okay," he gasped. Injured hand shaking, he pulled the other one away from it to look again. He groaned when he saw that he hadn't been mistaken--the guard's knife had cut all the way to the bone on his middle finger. Not that there was an abundance of flesh on his fingers that had been cut through, but it was still majorly disconcerting. And it hurt like heck. Vala stared for a moment, then swallowed and pulled off the scarf she had draped over the neck of her half-open green BDU jacket; she wasn't one to conform.

She gently pulled the injured hand away from his body, apparently intending to wrap it herself, and he tried to pull it away without hurting himself further. "I can do it," he insited stubbornly. He was gulping through pain to keep his voice from wavering. It didn't work.

"I highly doubt it, Daniel. It's your hand. Now be quiet and let me bandage this before you lose any more blood," she replied, pulling back. She jerked too hard that time, and a quick whimper of pain escaped before Daniel could stop it. Vala winced. "Sorry."

"It's okay…" He waited while she wrapped the scarf around his hand and fingers as tightly as she dared and tied it, and successfully managed not to cry out then, only grunt. "Thanks," he mumbled, not ungratefully.

"You're welcome," she shrugged, then retreated back to the other side of the cell. She sat again, so Daniel didn't stop himself from sinking down to sit against the opposite wall. He glanced down at his jacket. It already had blood from his hand on one side of the front, so that was what he wiped the blood off of his good hand on. Then, sighing, he let his head drop back against the beams.

Daniel still planned on trying to escape--just maybe not right this minute…

"Daniel, wake up." A finger poked into his shoulder.

He jerked, eyes opening. "What?"

"You were asleep."

"I was?" he questioned, squinting at her.

Vala nodded and sat back on her heels facing him. "For at least a couple of hours, yeah," she confirmed.

"Oh…then why didn't you let me sleep?" Daniel grumbled. He glanced around, and up. The sky was darkening, and right now it a deep purple and orange. It would have been pretty if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't stuck in this pen, for lack of a better word.

"People are coming; sounds like several."

He sat up straighter and listened, and found that she was right. Several voices and sets of footsteps were drawing closer. Daniel stood, and Vala jumped up more quickly and went to peer through the logs. A moment later she pulled away and spun around, pressing her back against the wood.

"Okay, that's bad."

"What's bad?" he frowned.

"It's the same prior. They have a prior with them and it's the same one."

"Which one? We've met several."

She shuddered. "The one from the planet we just left a few days ago; the one who also happens to have been the guy who had me burned to death."

Daniel blinked. "Oh." Oh, that one. Perfect…that guy really didn't like them.

"Just oh?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Nevermind…" She shook her head in exasperation. Daniel shrugged and started looking through the gaps himself. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to figure out how close the trees are."

"Why?" she asked, coming closer.

He spotted the tree line, at the edge of the clearing outside the village, where their pen was. They weren't as far away as he originally remembered; only about ten yards. Yeah…that was do-able.

"Because when I give you a signal, we're running for them."

"With a prior standing there? He'll stop us," Vala pointed out skeptically.

"We have to try; just do it, okay?"

"Well how am I supposed to know what 'a signal' is?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "You'll know." She crossed her arms and huffed.

They didn't have to wait much longer, before the outside latch was undone, and the door sung open. A few of the men who had been standing guard around the outside of their cell came in and herded them out, to where the prior stood waiting. It was the same one all right, and Vala was glaring at him venomously.

The prior looked them over. "I did not expect to see you again quite so soon," he observed.

Daniel glanced at Vala. "Well, sorry to ruin your day." Then he made a slight inclination with his head, and both of them bolted for the trees.

"Stop!" the prior yelled after them. Daniel could hear the guards taking off after them, but they had a lead now. All they had to do was lose them in the—

Daniel stumbled to a short halt, gasping in a pained breath. A pure streak of agony suddenly ripped through his torso from the lower right side of his back straight to the front of his body.

"Daniel!" Vala screamed.

Why was she screaming? What happened? Eyes wide, but vision blurry anyway, he looked down--and saw half an inch of a thin double-edged blade poking out through his jacket.

It was almost funny for half a second. He'd just been run through for the second time in only a few months. Jacksonkabob. Then he fell to his knees, and the impact with the ground caused a jolt that ignited the pain again. That was when Daniel cried out--loudly. Then the blade pulled itself out, and he barely heard it drop to the ground behind him over the gasp he gave. The prior had done it.

Insinctively he brought his hands up to quell the bleeding. Last time it had been from the front, and the blade a lot bigger…He shut the image down in his mind. Was this still enough to kill him? He was only covering the wound in front. There was one in back too, and it was probably bigger, and oh god if he died would Vala survive? Had the effects of the bracelets worn off enough? It was all too much to think about when it hurt so much…

And all of that, from the moment they had bolted, had happened only in a few seconds. Still on his knees, Daniel doubled over in pain, gasping hard, and Vala thumped to the ground beside him. She caught him when he tipped over, and his head landed pressed against her shoulder.

"Daniel? Oh no, nonononono…"

He didn't answer her. He was fighting too hard to breathe without screaming. He felt her fumble with his jacket at his back, and pull the bottom of it up to press it over the wound there. He jerked and groaned.

"Sorry, I'm sorry, but I've got to stop the bleeding and don't you dare even think about dying on me, Daniel, you hear me?" Her words came out in a rush, and a tone that tried to sound objective but failed horribly and just became worried.

All he could do was nod; he still didn't have enough left-over air to try speaking. And through vision that was still not good even through his glasses, Daniel saw the prior stalking towards them.

CHAPTER 2

Vala clung to Daniel, glowering at the approaching prior. "What was that for!" she yelled angrily.

The prior stopped just short of them and answered calmly. "I could not allow either of you to escape."

"Then why didn't you hurt me too?" she scowled.

"I knew that you would be concerned for him and not go on without him." Great. Now these guys were reading minds too.

Daniel, still leaning on her, twisted a bit to have a better view of the prior. Even through the pain on his face, he was glaring too, in-between gasps. Vala made sure to keep the folded-up back part of his jacket pressed against the wound there. He grunted in protest, but she ignored it. She was not going to let him bleed to death. But he was already fading fast. More and more of his weight was pressing on her shoulder.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

The prior looked about to answer, but by now the shell-shocked guards were snapping out of their stupor. One of them took a step forward. The knife holster on his belt was empty, and those of the others all contained a blade like the one on the ground next to Daniel. Apparently the prior had borrowed it.

The young man stammered. "P-prior, those long daggers…we only use them for hunting. They're coated in a poison from a local plant that--"

The prior held up a hand, and the man dropped silent. "I know. I also know that the poison usually kills animals, and can often do the same to men. I knew that before I used it to stop him."

Vala felt her chest tighten. "What…?" Daniel's face took on an alarmed expression. Had the effects of the bracelets worn off enough? Or would she die with him if he died…? No. He wasn't going to die.

Then the prior continued. "But it will not kill him. I will make sure of that. He does not need to die now; he and his friends need another object lesson in the power and wrath of the Ori. I will alter the make-up of the substance."

"Nothing can do anything to him if he dies of blood loss and trauma!" Vala cried. She knew priors could heal with their staffs--even bring people back to life. Maybe it was the power of the Ori, but if she didn't get him to use it Daniel was going to die in her arms right here. And she might go with him.

"I know that as well," the prior said more quickly than usual. For a prior, it was the equivalent of a snap. Then he tilted his staff toward them slightly, and the blue globe at the top began to glow.

Daniel hissed, and under her fingers and his jacket she could feel the wound in back shrinking. In seconds it was gone completely. The blue glow lingered for another few seconds, and the wound in front shrunk and stopped bleeding, but did not disappear. Then the staff went dark again.

"What are you doing? Finish," Vala insisted.

"I have done what I said I would do, and have healed him enough to ensure that he will not die."

Daniel, able to breath again now, tried to sit up, but grimaced and dropped back against her shoulder. "Yeah, great, thanks," he said sarcastically. Vala just glared. She was grateful that Daniel wouldn't die--and neither would she--but she wasn't going to let him know it. Especially since he'd also done something to the poison that had been in that dagger that didn't sound good…

"And what did you do?" she demanded.

He looked at her. "I altered the poison. It will not kill him, but it will have effect for several days."

"'Have effect'?" Vala echoed.

"What the heck…is that supposed to mean?" Daniel glared.

The prior didn't answer, but turned away from them toward the guards. "Put them back into the enclosure. It is the will of the Ori that you hold them here until further notice."

The guards all nodded deeply, almost bowing, and the oldest of them answered. "Yes, prior. We will do as you say."

"Wait a minute…what did you come out here for in the first place?" Vala questioned. The prior turned back to them.

"I knew when I set foot on this world earlier this day that you were here--and your other friends as well. I also knew that you still did not follow the Ori. Perhaps now you will, when you feel their wrath." Then the prior turned and started back down the path toward the village.

"W-well what's that's supposed to mean?" she said worriedly. But the prior didn't hear her, and kept walking.

Daniel tried to sit up again and failed, letting out a small cry. Vala caught him when he slumped back again. "I guess…we'll find out," he sighed.

The guards hurried over as the prior left, and two of them grabbed Daniel and pulled him up and away from Vala before she could protest. He shouted when they jerked him up so quickly, and she shot to her feet in anger.

"Hey!" But then they grabbed her too, and dragged both of them back to the pen. Daniel they were dragging because he couldn't walk, and Vala because she was struggling so hard. But they still got both of them inside.

The two of them pulling Daniel just dropped him. He shouted in pain and curled up, arms going around his middle protectively, and Vala could feel her blood boiling.

"Easy! You idiots!" They shoved her in, and once she had enough footing to turn she swung back around, but they managed to slam to door in her face before she could get back to it. She pounded on the wood.

"Hey! You're going to pay for this! And I don't care if that sounds cliché; you're still going to get it, prior, you hear me!!"

"Vala…"

She stopped and turned. Daniel was still on the ground, half curled on his left side and clutching his half open jacket over the remaining stab wound. "Just stop…no need to make them…any angrier," he grimaced.

Vala sighed and pulled away from the door. She went over and sat down beside him. "Are you all right?"

"I'll live, Vala, now could you….help me get something tied around this wound?"

She blinked at him in mock astonishment. "You're asking me for help?"

He rolled his eyes. "I would do it myself if one of my hands wasn't out of commission…and you know it."

"Fine, fine, calm down. What do you want me to do?"

Daniel seemed to think about that for a moment, then held up the hand that had her scarf tied around it. The length of the scarf wrapped so many times around the hand made it look like a ball.

"There's a lot of material here…I don't actually need most of it."

She shrugged, grabbed the hand and carefully started undoing the knots. When she had that done, she ripped it off at one point, leaving just enough stay around his hand and be re-tied. It didn't matter if it was torn; she would never have been able to get the bloodstains out of it anyway.

Daniel, winceing, used his left elbow to lever himself up for a moment just a fraction of an inch enough for her to get the rest of the material around him, and arrange it over his shirt, but under his jacket, so it wouldn't be in the way or get caught on something and come off. With his good hand he helped her bunch up some of the front of his t-shirt over the wound and held it there while she tied a knot loosely in the scarf. But she hesiteated before tightening it.

On his back now, Daniel looked up at her and sighed a bit. "Just get it over with. I'll be fine. Just make sure it's tight enough; I could still bleed to death if it's not."

"All right," Vala said finally. "Just don't kill me when this hurts."

"I've resisted killing you until now, Vala. I think I can continue to refrain from doing so for a while longer," he answered dryly.

She rolled her eyes, puffed out a breath, and tightened the knot hard. She didn't want to have to do it again if it wasn't enough the first time.

"AH!" Daniel jerked, his head popping up and then dropping to the ground again. He lay there gasping for a moment, the expression on his face similar to the one he'd made back on the Prometheus several months ago when she'd shot him in the arm--except this time his battered glasses and that funny little partial beard were in the way.

"Daniel?"

"What!"

Another difference was, back then she hadn't particularly cared whether or not he was in pain or not. He'd looked good, and if he wasn't going to give into her feminine wiles, then fighting with him was the next best thing, she had supposed then. But now that was changing. Daniel was hurting, and she felt an ache in her chest at the same time.

Vala swallowed. "Is that good?"

"Yes! I mean…" He paused for a moment to finish catching his breath. "That's fine, thanks…I think."

She nodded in answer and reached over and folded the end of the scarf into a double knot so it wouldn't come undone as easily, then drew her hands back again and just sat there, not sure what to do with herself. It was almost dark now. It would officially be night within the next few minutes, probably. Through the dark gray clouds overhead she could see a star or two peeking out.

"Maybe we should just…get some rest," Daniel suggested quietly. Vala looked back down at him, and we laying quietly, eyes closing and trying to smooth the pain lines from his face.

"Are you sure you'll be all right?"

He sighed. "I'll be fine, Vala."

"But what about what the prior said about there being a poison or something? Have you felt anything different since…?"

"No. Vala, please just go to sleep….Or don't. But be quiet."

Despite the fact that the prior had healed a good deal of the wound, he had still lost a good deal of blood. He was probably exhausted, and still in pain even though he would never admit it. She should let him get some sleep, even if she most likely wasn't going to be able to.

"Fine," she agreed reluctantly. Sulking a bit, she scooted back into the opposite corner, dropped her head back against the wood, and closed her eyes.

* * * *

Daniel jerked awake when a drop of water got past his glasses and hit him in the eye. He opened both of them, and saw the heavy rain clouds hanging above them in the dark. He couldn't make them out perfectly with the lack of light, but could feel the few beginning rain drops falling. It had cooled off, too, from the warm afternoon.

"Great…" he muttered. He started to try pushing himself up into a sitting position so he could move closer to the wall for at least some protection, but gasping and dropped again in surprise.

Instead of dulling over the hours since he'd been asleep, the pain from the wound was worse now. It felt like it was thudding at least dully through the whole right side of his body, but most of it was in the mid-section. Frowning in confusion, he tried again to move, and found that he could--but it hurt.

Eyes clenched shut and gasping quietly, Daniel pulled himself up, and pushed back into one of the corners opposite the wall the door of the cell was in. Vala was asleep leaning against the wall in the other one of those two corners. The cell wasn't that big, so she was only a few feet away. But she was already in a place where she had as much coverage from the rain as she could get, so there was no need to wake her.

Daniel huddled in his own corner, trying to ignore the pain in his middle and keep warm. Rain still hit him in the face when a breeze found its way down into the enclosure, and it didn’t take long for his hair to become thoroughly soaked from the rain falling directly on top of it. His pants and socks inside his boots got wet just as quickly, once the rain picked up, but everything from his waist to his shoulders he managed to keep relatively dry, but that only protected his injury. It wasn't comfortable.

The night went on miserably that way for what felt like hours. Of course it couldn't have been as long as it felt though, because if it had been it would have been morning. Daniel squinted at his waterproof watch in the dark, then remembered the small light it had. He pressed the button on the side, the light came on for a few seconds so he could see the time, and he gathered that was about three in the morning in Colorado back home. This part of this planet was a few hours behind, so...well, there was plenty of night left to go.

The rain and cold did nothing to help him feel better. The strange pain emanating from the wound area in his middle only worsened, leaving him doubled over and letting water run down his back as well.

"Oh, this is just great…"

Daniel glanced over in Vala's direction when she groaned a complaint over the sound of the rain. She was awake now, in her own corner and shivering.

"You can say that again," he muttered.

She probably didn't catch all of it, but it got her attention anyway, and she looked his way. "Are you all right?"

"What kind of question is that??"

Vala rolled her eyes, then glanced around at nothing in particular for a moment. Finally she seemed to decide something, and slid over beside him.

"What are you doing?"

"It's freezing, and I'm wet. So are you. We need to combine body heat," she said shortly, leaning against him.

"Uh huh. No."

"Daniel, all I want to do is sit here."

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to refuse again, but his breath caught on a sudden spike of pain. His face twisted in a grimace before it subsided.

"Daniel? Are you all right?"

"What?" he said. He let out the held breath . "Yeah…I'm fine."

"No you're not. I saw that. What's wrong?"

"Nothing--"

"You're recovering from a stab wound."

Daniel closed his eyes. "It's nothing to worry about."

"But--"

"If I let you stay where you are will you shut up?"

He sensed Vala looking at him for a long moment, before her head dropped back against his shoulder. She didn't say anything else, and he didn't, either.

The rain kept falling.

CHAPTER 3

Vala stirred uncomfortably in her sleep. Unconscious, she didn't know what it was, but something was bothering, pricking at her mind in her rest. She didn't know how long it had been there, but it was bugging the heck out of her subconscious self. She didn't know it, but it was a thin layer of pain covering her mind that was causing the annoyance. But it wasn't until it spiked suddenly that she woke.

She yelped and jerked away from Daniel without knowing why, but immediately the pain stopped. Frowning, she held a hand to her stomach. "Ow." The rain had stopped. It was still dark, and the clouds were rolling out.

That would have been it, and she would have tried to get back to sleep, ignoring the anomaly for exhaustion, but then the silence was broken by Daniel's sudden gasp of pain. It woke him up and brought him to a sitting position as it had her, but instead of seeming fine after the initial outburst as she had, he doubled over, gasping slightly like he was still hurting.

"Daniel?" Vala asked worriedly. She pulled him back up straight against the logs of the wall, and he leaned back against them, breathing deeply and slowly. His face was pinched. "What is it?"

He shook his head. "Nothing…I'm…I'm fine…"

"And I'm an honest woman. Cut the stories, Daniel."

Daniel gave her a short glare. "Look, I don't know, okay?"

She held up her hands. "All right, sorry…" She trailed off when she heard muffled grunts and thumps coming from outside their pen of a cell. Daniel shut his mouth too, and glanced around warily.

"You think it's them?" she asked quietly.

"Shh!"

There was one more muted thump, and then someone or something began to fiddle with the latch on the door. Vala hauled her waterlogged body to its feet, and kept an eye on Daniel as he pulled himself up, too. He was still breathing harshly, and leaned heavily on the wall, but his body was tense. So was hers.

After a moment, the latch broke, and the door swung open.

"We're here," a cheery, whispered voice intoned.

Vala sighed. "Colonel Mitchell." She only caught a brief glimpse of the colonel and Teal'c before Mitchell shined his flashlight beam in at them, momentarily blinding them. Daniel grimaced and shrank back against the logs farther. By the time she could see in front of her again because Mitchell had lowered the flashlight, she saw that he was frowning now.

"Hey, you guys okay? You don't look so good, Jackson. And you're both soaked." He stepped into the pen, and Vala noticed that both he and Teal'c had plastic rain ponchos over their BDUs.

"Of course we're soak; we got caught in the rain 'without' our packs," Daniel grumbled, straightening and standing away from the wall again. Or he tried to; instead he stumbled back when his breath caught and his face twisted in pain.

"Daniel--"

"Jackson!"

Vala and Mitchell jumped forward at the same time, and both of them caught an arm. The colonel looked concerned now. "Jackson, hat's up? You got cracked ribs in there or something?"

Daniel shook his head and took a breath. "No, I--I don't know."

Teal'c came closer, frowning. "What do you mean you do not know?"

"Well, the fact that he's got a stab wound in his side might have something to do with it," Vala reported. Daniel glared at her; he looked even cuter doing it when wet.

"What?!" Mitchell freaked out immediately, and Teal'c looked distressed.

"Stab wound?" the jaffa echoed.

"It's not deep, Teal'c, I'm fine," Daniel sighed, staring at his feet. "Let's just go home…" he started to take a step but crumpled, and this time Mitchell and Teal'c caught him. Both turned around to face the same way he was, toward the door, and pulled one of his arms over their shoulders.

"That sound like a good idea," the colonel agreed. "Let's get the heck out of here."

Vala just nodded in agreement, and never took her eyes off Daniel the entire walk through the dark woods back to the stargate.

* * * *

The pain had gotten worse in the night; that had been what had woken him up, apparently, and by the time they got back through the 'gate it was worse. Daniel couldn't even explain it, exactly. It was simply pain, fanning out from the area of the wound and leaving his middle aching horribly. It had begun invading his legs by this point, as well, and though he tried to fight it, his knees gave way under him as he stepped off the ramp. Luckily, he was still suspended between Teal'c and Mitchell.

Teal'c didn't budge, but the colonel grunted and dipped a bit at the sudden increase in weight. "Whoa. Hold on, Jackson."

Daniel only nodded miserably, and looked up just enough to see General Landry stride into the 'gate room.

"Colonel Mitchell, what happened?" he demanded.

"Ah…we're still not entirely sure, sir. Vala and Jackson here got nabbed by the locals, but we sprung 'em, and we're waiting for the full debrief from them, but…Jackson needs to get to the infirmary."

Landry sighed, nodded, and got out of their way, so Daniel's carriers could continue. Vala followed them--though she didn't have much choice--and they brought him to the infirmary. On the way Daniel struggled to make his legs cooperate with him, but only succeeded about half of the time.

Doctor Lam, the new chief medical officer of the SGC, came out from her office when the four of them tramped in. She didn't look particularly happy.

"What now?"

Vala was the one to speak up first. "Shallow stab wound, and the prior did something else; there's some kind of poison in him somewhere."

Lam's countenance changed completely, and suddenly she was all business. "Get him on a bed."

* * * *

Vala waited just outside the infirmary with Mitchell and Teal'c. Not only was she worried about Daniel, but she couldn't have gone much farther from him anyway. She didn't have one of the convenient wrist time-keeping devices--it was called a 'watch', though she wasn't quite sure why--so she didn't know how long it had been, but it seemed like an eternity before Doctor Lam slipped out between the double doors to them.

Mitchell went forward to her first, with Vala and teal'c close behind. "How is he?"

The doctor crossed her arms. "The wound isn't that bad. It's been cleaned and bandaged, and it should be healed rather nicely within a couple of weeks. His hand will be fine, too, though it may need a little bit of physical therapy. What's giving me trouble are the other effects. I have no idea what's causing them. I'm having blood work done, but it'll be tomorrow before we get the results on that back."

"How severe are these 'other effects'?" Teal'c asked, a concerned look on his face.

Lam shrugged. "I'm not really sure because the only way I have of gauging them right now is by how much pain he appears to be in, because that's all it is, as far as I can tell. For some reason the wound is somehow causing a kind of pain it shouldn't be able to, and it's spread through most of his body. And the really confusing part is that he's not responding to drugs--pain killers, sedatives, antibiotics--none of it's having any effect at all. His body isn't even rejecting them; it just isn't recognizing them."

"Crap," Mitchell shook his head.

Vala swallowed. "Well…it was a prior that did it. We already know the priors can do some pretty strange things. Is that really all that far-fetched when it comes to them?"

Lam sighed. "No, not really, but that doesn't mean I like it."

"Me either," Vala agreed quietly.

"And just how long is this gonna last?" Mitchell questioned.

"I don't know that, either," the doctor admitted. "But I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

Teal'c was scowling by now. "That would be consistent with the actions of priors." But it was obvious he didn't like it, either. The jaffa seemed downright angry. Then again, that made sense--he had known Daniel for a lot longer than the rest of them had.

Vala spoke up. "The prior did say it would stop though. He said a few days."

"And are we just supposed to let him suffer until then?" Mitchell glared at nothing in particular, getting angry now as well.

"Well, no…"

"I don't know that we have a choice," Lam interjected quietly. "Right now I don't know of anything I can do for him beyond making sure that the wound itself heals well."

So that was it? They were just going to leave him like that until it worked itself out? "But there has to be something we can do," she protested.

Lam shrugged again helplessly. "I won't stop trying, but right now there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry." With that, the doctor retreated, telling them that they could go in and see him if they wanted.

Teal'c pushed open the infirmary doors immediately, and Vala followed him with Mitchell as he made a beeline for Daniel's bed. By now the injured archaeologist was in blue infirmary scrubs--again; how many times had he ended up here in them since she'd been here? Vala wondered--and lying on his back on his bed, on top of the sheets. He was breathing hard, his eyes were closed, and half of the front of his shirt stuck to him; through the thing fabric she could see the outline of the bandages around his middle covering the stab wound. Gauzy bandages were tapped around his cut hand as well.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c got to him first and put a hand on his shoulder.

Daniel opened his eyes and squinted at them. "Hey guys."

"How are you feeling?" the jaffa asked.

He shrugged. "I've been better," he answered weakly. Then he gave a small amused smile. "But hey, I'm gonna live this time, so I'm not complaining."

Mitchell just shook his head. "Jackson…"

* * * *

After a little while Daniel managed to convince Mitchell and Teal'c to go and get some sleep. Vala curled up under the sheets a couple of beds away--because she couldn't go back to the room she usually stayed in, since it was a lot farther than a hundred yards away--and fell asleep almost immediately. It probably wouldn't take the other two very long to get to sleep, either.

It was a different story for Daniel. For the remaining few hours of the night he dozed fitfully, but the sleep he got was never good, and never long. It was enough to keep him from being half dead by the time morning came, but that was about it.

Surprisingly, Mitchell was the first one to wonder back into the infirmary that morning, and Vala was still asleep so they talked as well as they could with Daniel occasionally having to cut off to deal with a nasty spike of pain. It was kind of, funny, actually. Since the colonel had gotten here they hadn't had a whole lot of time to get to know each other, and now they could, with this happening. At least it kept his mind off how the rest of his body felt.

Teal'c came in around mid-morning or so, around the same time Vala woke up, and Doctor Lam arrived around noon with the blood test results. Unfortunately, it didn't reveal anything they didn't already know, nor any other way his condition could be helped. Great.

Upon hearing this news, Mitchell convinced Doctor Lam to let Daniel stay in his own room, since there was nothing she could do anyway. And it did take some convincing. But to Daniel's relief, she agreed. That way, Vala could stay in her own room across the hall. While she was often annoying, he didn't want to inconvenience her anymore if he didn't have to.

So, that was how Daniel ended up suspended between Mitchell and Teal'c again, who were taking him to his room, and Vala trailing behind them. Even though the wound itself didn't hurt so much today, the other pain was worse, and it had left his legs completely uncooperative. He would not, though, accept the use of a wheelchair when Doctor Lam had offered. Being half carried was almost better. It was only half so because he could still hold himself up by his arms around their shoulders.

Vala ducked past them and opened the door of the room for them. Mitchell thanked her briefly, Teal'c nodded, and then the other two men made their way over to the double bed and lowered Daniel onto it. He grunted some and winced.

"Sorry," Mitchell apologized.

"No big deal…" he assured.

"Are you all right?" Vala asked.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I'm as fine as I'm going to be for right-" He stopped and sucked in a breath, clenching his eyes shut to ride out a sudden wave of pain. It passed quickly, and he lay back on his pillows. "-now," he finished, eyes still closed.

"Uh huh," she observed skeptically. Daniel just sighed.

The rest of the day Mitchell and Teal'c took turns hanging around, keeping him company, and Vala drifted in and out, never far away, of course. It wasn't until late that night that he really fell asleep, exhaustion overriding the annoyance of the sharp aching.

* * * *

When Daniel finally, finally winked out for real, Teal'c, who had been there at the moment, left him alone. The jaffa motioned that she should go across the hall to her own room and let him sleep as well, as much as he could, and she nodded in agreement. Then Teal'c was gone, and vala was the only conscious person left in the room. Quietly she tiptoed around the bed toward the door, but before opening it stopped and looked back at him.

Daniel was asleep all right, but his expression was far from peaceful. The pain was still bothering him in his sleep. She only wished there was something she could do about it. She had turned and was about to open it again when something occurred to her.

Slowly Vala swiveled back toward Daniel again, thinking. Back on the other planet, when they had been trying to sleep the night before, she had felt something in her sleep, after she had been leaning on Daniel for a while, and it had stopped the second contact was broken. She hadn't known what it was, but now that she thought about it, maybe it had something to do with the lingering effect of the bracelets. Maybe…

Silently she went back around the bed to the side where his uninjured hand lay, and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed. She paused a moment to make sure she hadn't woken him up, then reached down, picked up his hand, and wrapped hers around it. If she was right, after a few moments or so this should start to help some.

For several minutes nothing happened. She didn't feel different, his face didn't look different, and Vala was afraid she'd been wrong. But finally, she began to feel something--a faint ache in her torso and legs. Another few moments, and it got worse. It wasn't really painful, just really annoying. But she didn't let go, because at the same time the pinched expression on Daniel's face was evening out. It didn't go away completely, his brow stayed a bit creased, but that was all, and he seemed to be sleeping a lot better now than he had been before.

Halfway bent over to ease her own discomfort, Vala waited a while longer, but it didn't get any worse for her, or any easier for him, it seemed. She didn't really know what she was doing, but she didn't have to know how it worked to know that she was helping him. She could share it.

It had to have something to do with the bracelets, though why it required physical contact to work she had no idea. The bracelets themselves didn't have anything to do with that, so it didn't make much sense, but then again the effect of those bracelets hadn't been meant to remain after they'd been taken off, either. None of it made sense.

But if she could help Daniel, well…Vala intended to do so. She would probably have to do when he was asleep like this, though, because he wouldn't let her touch him like this when he was awake. Oh well. At least she could do something for him.

Not quite sure exactly what do now, Vala stood up slowly, not letting go of Daniel's hand, and hooked a nearby chair with her foot to bring it closer. She winced when it scarped against the floor, but thankfully Daniel didn't wake up. She positioned the chair next to the bed, sat down, and rested her arms on the bed and her head in her arms, keeping hold of his hand with both of hers.

Vala had to close her eyes tight to ignore the discomfort level, but once she reminded herself that it was worth it, she was all right. Eventually she managed to drift off to sleep herself.

CHAPTER 4

Daniel took a slightly uneven breath as the pain returned with consciousness. He knew he was still on his back--in would have woken him up if he'd turned over in his sleep, because of the wound--but it took a few moments for him to gain full sensation in the rest of his body. That was when he realized that something was covering his right hand. Frowning, he turned his head to look, and saw both of Vala's hands wrapped around his.

"Hey! What the--" He tried to pull his hand free, but for some reason her grip was too tight, even though she was bent over the edge of the bed, head on her arms and fast asleep. "Vala!"

She stirred. "Hmmm?" But she wasn't awake yet.

"Vala, wake up!" he yelped in exasperation. He was still tired, injured, and hurting; he didn't have the time or the patience for this.

This time she jerked awake, but her hands stayed in place around his. "Huh? What?" Vala quickly looked around curiously. Her face creased for a moment, as if in pain--which didn't make any sense--and then she focused on him. "Daniel?"

He glared a bit and tugged on his hand again. "Would you let go?"

She sat up slowly and shook her head, yawning. Instead of letting go her grip tightened.

"Ow." He pulled harder, and suddenly her eyes flew open eyes and she was fully awake.

"Daniel, don't--!"

His hand came free from hers—

And Daniel immediately shouted in surprise and doubled over in pain.

"Daniel!"

The pain had almost tripled in an instant, and he was left gasping hard. One of Vala's hands came down on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry; I should have warned you--"

He shifted away from her touch and glanced up at her. "What…are you doing…in here?"

Vala frowned. "I was trying to help."

"Help what? Thanks, but…I would feel better…if you left me alone." Why couldn't she understand that her being around only made any situation more stressful? If somehow she really was concerned, and not just hitting on him, then why wouldn't she stay away when he asked?

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand again, but again he jerked it back. "What are you doing!"

"Daniel, you don't understand," she huffed. "I don't know what it is--it probably has something to do with the effects of the bracelets--but if I remain in physical contact with you for a few minutes, it starts to help with the pain."

Daniel rolled his own eyes. "And just how…would you know that?"

"Because you weren't sleeping very well, but after a few minutes of holding onto you, you settled down."

Now he was just confused--on top of being in pain. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Uh huh." But she was hiding something, and for once her thieving background wasn't helping her hide it. Daniel stared at her for a moment, and finally she crossed her arms and gave in.

"And…well…it I know because it does it by letting me take some of it," she admitted uncomfortably.

Daniel frowned. Now that he thought about it, he had slept better that night than he had the night before, but he couldn't pin down why. If what she was saying was true though--and it very well could be; those crazy bracelets were insanely unpredictable--then that meant she must have been—

"Daniel? What's wrong?"

He realized that his face was suddenly sporting a horrified expression, and he straightened it.

"Are you serious?" he asked, commenting on her previous statement and ignoring the question.

"Why would I lie?"

Daniel closed his eyes and breathed through a few heavy waves of pain before opening them again. Vala was looking at him with concern. "Well, are you going to let me help or not?"

She was acting like she really did care. Maybe she did, and right now it seemed like that really was true, but either way he wasn't going to let her do it anymore. Maybe she didn't really care, but he did, if only because she was another human being. He wouldn't let her hurt herself for him for any reason. "I don't need your help," he quipped.

She actually looked hurt at that. Did she really care that much?

"But Daniel…"

"I don't want you doing that anymore," he repeated.

"But--"

"Vala!" He really did not have the energy to argue.

Thankfully, though, he didn't need to. Looking defeated and angry, Vala stood and stomped out of the room.

Daniel closed his eyes, pulled the bedspread over his head and curled up as much as he could without hurting his wound too much.

* * * *

Fuming, Vala stalked out and down the corridor. She'd given herself a headache the size of a hu'tack doing what she'd done last night for him, and how did he thank her? He practically threw her out of the room.

She tracked down Earth's version of a mild painkiller--Tylenol, if she remembered correctly--in the infirmary, took a couple of the pills, then tracked back to the commissary to get some breakfast. Teal'c was there, so she dropped down into the seat opposite him at the otherwise empty table.

"Morning, Muscles," she sighed.

The jaffa raised an eyebrow at her. "Is there a problem, Vala MalDoran?"

Vala dug into her cereal, scooped a spoonful into her mouth, and spoke around it. "Yes. Daniel."

"I am aware of what has happened to Daniel Jackson."

She swallowed. "No, not that."

"That to what are you referring?"

As simply and quickly as she could, she explained what had happened back on the planet to give her the idea and then what had happened the night before and that morning just a few minutes before. Teal'c listened silently, and when she was finished, nodded.

"I see…indeed Daniel Jackson can be an extremely…stubborn individual."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"The jaffa word for similar behavior fits even more accurately, however I would not use it. It is not as…polite."

Vala snorted. That was certain. She knew the word he was talking about. It was basically a word combining the human meaning of 'stubborn' and 'pain in the mik'ta', which Daniel certainly was when he was acting like he was. She hadn't known him nearly as long as some of his friends, but she had gathered that much by now.

"Do you think you could talk any sense into him?" she asked on a chance.

Teal'c shook his head slowly. "I could attempt, but I am not certain that I would succeed; in fact I am quite certain he would not listen to me."

She had only taken a few bites, but now she didn't think she could eat anymore. Vala sighed and stood. "Thanks anyway." Then she left; she didn't need to stay this far away from Daniel for too much longer, anyway.

The rest of the day, Vala stayed out of Daniel's room. She still couldn't go too far for too long, but shutting herself in her own room worked just as well. If he wasn't going to let her help, why should she go in there at all? Besides…there was that growing feeling in her chest that ached whenever she saw Daniel in pain, and she didn't like it. It was unfamiliar; she'd never had such feelings for anyone before, except her mother, and the fiancé she'd had before she had been taken as host…And that love had ended in her mother's death and later in being taken away forever from the man she'd loved.

Wait…love?

No, this had nothing to do with that. It just seemed the same.

It couldn't be love, because Vala had sworn she would never love again.

It hurt too much.

* * * *

Vala didn’t see anyone else at all until that night, when there was a knock on her door. The one outside it identified himself as Teal'c, so she let him in. Despite herself, the first words out of her mouth were "How is Daniel?"

The jaffa gave an almost invisible knowing smile, but then grew serious again.

"His condition still progresses, I am afraid."

"You mean it's worse?"

He nodded once. "Indeed," he said quietly. For a moment she caught a glimpse on his face of the true depth of his worry for his friend, but the expression was wiped away when he spoke again. "However, I have just received word that tomorrow someone is coming who may be able to persuade him more easily than you or I could."

Vala felt her hopes rise a bit. "Someone who might be able to convince him to let me help?"

Now Teal'c did smile and nodded again. "I believe so."

She thanked him for letting her know, then looked at the clock and saw that it was getting late. Before she'd been too busy worrying about Daniel to notice; now she realized that she was exhausted. It was probably a combination of what she'd been doing the night before and the day filled with nothing but trying and failing to read or watch television and mostly pacing her room inwardly ranting at Daniel.

Tiredly she changed her clothes and climbed into bed, asleep almost before her head hit the pillow, but only able to do so because of the glimmer of hope Teal'c had brought.

* * * *

Daniel got no sleep that night. Alone and hurting, there was just no way it was going to happen. Mitchell had been around, and then Teal'c had stopped by and offered to trade out with him and stay until Daniel could fall asleep. Mitchell had said he could do that too, but Daniel had declined them both. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep this time, and the last thing he needed was one or both of them hanging around wondering and worrying about how much pain he was in that he couldn't even sleep…It was enough, and he didn't want them stressing over it any more than they already were.

Besides those two, the only other person he'd seen that day was Doctor Lam, who had stopped by once or twice to change the bandages on the wound. It was starting to heal, and from what Lam could tell apparently it was going nicely, but he didn't care. He had the other to worry about. However, that she had no advice on. The prior had said it would be days, but only days. That was all he had to hold on to.

* * * *

The next morning, a rumpled Jack O'Neill stepped into the elevator on his way into the SGC. He knew he probably looked like a wreck, wearing only blue jeans and a t-shirt and tennis shoes, with his hair mussed in all directions, but that was what he got for flying a red-eye out here the minute he'd heard from Carter what was going on. She'd heard from Mitchell, and wanted to go, but couldn’t get away from Area 51. In his position, it had been easier to take a day or two off, and here he was.

On the way down, Jack did his best to straighten his hair with his hands. At least he'd shaved. No one was waiting when the elevator stopped and opened, because only Hank and SG-1 minus Daniel knew he was coming, and when he'd called Landry to let him know, not even he had known exactly when he would arrive. Thus, he was forced to track down one of them. It happened to be Mitchell, who was just coming out of the commissary.

"General! You're here. That was fast."

He shrugged. "Ah yes, the perks of leadership. Where's Daniel?" Normally he didn't get right to the point that quickly, but it was different when a friend was in trouble.

Mitchell blinked. "Oh, he's uh, in his room. He might still be sleeping, or at least I hope so. If he got to sleep, that is. He wouldn't let either me or Teal'c stay with him last night until he did, so I don't know."

Jack sighed, and had the colonel show him where the room Daniel was using was. Outside the door, Jack knocked once.

"Who is it?" a strained voice asked from inside.

Jack winced to himself, and noticed that Mitchell was pulling away to go. Jack nodded that he should, and waiting until he was around the corner. Then he answered.

"Honey, I'm home!"

He thought he heard a snort from inside, before the reply came, an amused "Come in, Jack."

The general went in and closed the door behind him. Immediately he almost wished he hadn't.

Daniel looked pale and exhausted, and he still hadn't shaved either. He was trying to push himself up into a sitting position, but his heavy, hitching breaths that were heaving his chest weren't helping. Jack hurried over, took hold of his arm, gently pulled him up a bit more and settled him back against the pillows he'd already set behind him against the headboard of the bed.

"Take it easy, buddy, there ya go…"

Daniel winced and sighed, his eyes slipping shut as he leaned back. "Thanks."

"Welcome."

He opened his eyes part of the way to peer up at him again. "What are…you doing here?" he questioned.

"Well, Carter heard from Mitchell, and I heard from carter, and I was the only one who get away, so…" He shrugged, arms open. "Surprise."

Daniel tried to laugh, but it came out weak and ended in a moan with his eyes closing again. Jack grimaced and slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. It hurt to see one of his best friends in pain.

"Gosh, Daniel…"

"I'm okay, Jack."

"No, you're not. But you will be, as far I've heard, and I'm staying in Colorado until you are."

His eyes opened again. "You don't have to do that," he protested tiredly.

"And how are you going to stop me?" Jack answered defiantly.

Daniel shook his head and closed his eyes yet again. "Whatever…"

Jack sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I wanted to check in on you first, so I should go say hi to Teal'c and Hank now, but I'll be back, ok?" Daniel only nodded, so Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze and left again.

He planned to go to Hank's office first, then search out Teal'c, but outside the door he was ambushed by the very same jaffa and a dark haired woman he had never seen before. From what he had heard from Daniel and others over the past few weeks, however, this could be none other than Vala MalDoran.

Teal'c nodded. "It is good to see you, O'Neill."

"Yeah, Teal'c, you too…what's up?"

Vala spoke up quickly. "We need your help."

CHAPTER 5

Jack stared at Teal'c and Vala incredulously for a moment. The three had sequestered themselves in Vala's room across the hall from Daniel so she could explain and problem. And it was a whopper.

"So, bottom line, you're telling me that because of this weird connection thing, you can help him, but he won't let you?"

Vala nodded. "Basically."

Jack shook his head. "That stubborn son of a--"

"O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted. "Now is not the time to vent frustration over how stubborn Daniel Jackson can be. We must convince him to allow the help."

"Are you sure you wanna do that though?" Jack asked, eyeing Vala. "I mean, from what you said, it helps him but it hurts you, and I would understand if--"

She nodded again, more vigorously this time. "Of course I really do want to help. And it doesn't literally hurt me; it just lets me share what he's feeling so it's not all on him. I think. I still don't know how, though."

"Well, that's not important…" he stood. "I guess I should go talk to him again then, shouldn't I?"

"I'd appreciate it," Vala agreed.

Teal'c nodded too, and Jack sighed and moved toward the door. "I gotta go let Hank know I'm here, and then Daniel's going to be hearing from me; I can promise you that."

So he headed toward Landry's office, wondering why Daniel was always complaining about that girl. Vala didn't seem as horrible as he sometimes made her out to be when ranting about her latest antics over the phone. Right now she actually seemed pretty decent. Anyone who would willingly do what she wanted to do for one of his friends was all right in Jack's book.

* * * *

Daniel opened his eyes again when he heard the door open, and squinted through his blurred vision at Jack as the general came back in.

"Hey," Jack said casually. He strolled over and sat on the edge of the bed again, looking at him. Daniel consciously tried harder to fight the pain back so as not to alarm his friend.

"Hi again….what took you so long?" he asked, attempting a wry smile. He only got halfway there.

"I was talking to Teal'c and one Vala MalDoran," he informed him. "They had some interesting information for me."

Daniel closed his eyes to escape the searching gaze Jack was fixing on him now. "Great…" Even though his mind wasn't at it's sharpest at the moment, it wasn't hard to figure out what that meant.

"Why won't you let her help you, Daniel?"

He started to reply automatically. "I don't need--" But he was cut off by sudden wave of agony and gasped, grimacing.

"Daniel?" Jack asked in concern.

He waited for it to stop, but it didn't go away after the first wave, which only lasted a couple of seconds. It came again, and again…Daniel knew he was trembling, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't stop the moaning, either. Faintly he heard Jack curse and slide closer to him. One of his friend's hands went into his and squeezed, and the other clamped on his shoulder.

"--ld on, Danny, hold on…" Jack's voice became clearer as the pain finally faded back to its usual lower level, and Daniel pulled in a deep breath and opened his eyes. Jack was looking at him with a thoroughly worried expression.

"Daniel?" he asked again. "You okay?"

Daniel forced a tight smile. "I'm okay," he nodded weakly. Jack nodded and let go of him, sighing.

"You know, you really should re-think the whole 'I don't need help' thing."

"Jack…I'll be fine. This'll be over in a day or two; there's no reason to inconvenience anybody else."

"But if it's only going to be another day or two, then why not let her help make it easier on you? She wants to," he countered.

"I just don't want her doing it, Jack."

"Why not?"

"I told you."

Jack looked skeptical. "Uh-uh. So you don't want her doing it, huh?"

"Right…"

The general stood, crossing his arms and looking thoughtful. "Okay, I get it now."

"Get what?" he asked, confused.

"It's all about you."

"What--??"

"Ah ah, don't interrupt me. You don't want her to help you because you don't want her to be in any pain because of you, so you don't have to feel bad about it."

Daniel sighed. "Jack, that's not what it is at all."

"Oh? Then what is it?"

"It's just--" But he stopped. "Never mind…" It was almost too embarrassing to explain, the real reason. If he told them, neither Jack or Vala would ever let him hear the end of it.

"What?" Jack asked, sitting down again. Daniel shook his head and looked away. "Well, whether you ever get smart or not, I repeat that I'm not leaving until you're okay."

That he didn't have a problem with--as long as Jack didn't get in trouble for staying away from Washington. He turned to face his friend again and voiced that concern.

"Ah, it's okay. I'm in charge of Homeworld Security now, remember? I can do whatever I want," Jack assured him with a cocky smile.

Daniel smiled just a bit at that. "But that doesn't mean you don't have responsibilities."

Jack put a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "Daniel, don't worry about it. I'm staying, so you're stuck with me for another few days. And don't think I won't keep bothering you about the other thing either."

It was annoying, because Daniel knew Jack would bug him about it, but even so, the way he said it was funny, just because Jack was being Jack. He chuckled, but only got half of it out before he cried out and doubled over, sending a painful twinge through the healing wound in his stomach.

"Daniel! Crap…" Jack caught his shoulder and pulled him back again. It was worse this time, even though the last time had only been a few minutes ago. Hopefully that meant it was coming to its peak and would begin to taper off soon--or just stop. However it worked. Not knowing didn't help any.

It was even longer, and wave after wave of pain fuzzed out the world for a few moments. This time when the pain faded again and his gasps toned down enough for him to perceive the world around him once more, Daniel found Jack holding onto him tightly. He wasn't leaning on his pillows, he was leaning on his friend.

"J'ck?" he questioned weakly.

The general gently pulled Daniel away from him and laid him against his pillows. But this Daniel saw that Jack's face wasn't only worried. He almost looked afraid--or something.

"Is it supposed to get that bad?" was the first thing he asked.

"--don't know…" he answered truthfully, barely managing to shrug.

Jack swallowed visibly. "Well, just…hold on. Don't worry; I'm not going anywhere."

Daniel nodded and let his eyes close.

* * * *

Teal'c and Mitchell drifted in and out of Daniel's room the rest of that day, going back and forth between helping with the stricken archaeologist and keeping Vala calm. She remained upset over the fact that Daniel refused to allow her help, and wouldn't come out of her room.

Jack stayed with Daniel through the entire, long, terrible day. It all went downhill from the morning, and only got worse. By evening Daniel was suffering horribly and barely conscious, but neither was there any way he was getting to sleep. Jack watched another tremor of agony shake his friend's body, heard the choked sob that escaped from his throat, and his jaw clenched.

He gave Daniel's hand another squeeze and stood from his chair beside the bed.

"That's it. I'm not gonna sit here and watch this anymore."

Teal'c looked at him from his similar station on the other side of the bed and raised an eyebrow. "O'Neill?"

Jack started for the door. "Stay here with him; I'm getting Vala." He heard Teal'c say something in the affirmative from behind him, so he opened the door and swept out into the corridor, going quickly to the door across the hall.

After a moment it opened and a tired-looking Vala looked out at him. "What?"

"You need to get over here and do something--now?"

She perked up a bit at that. "Did he change his mind?"

Jack scowled. "He's half conscious. He can't change his mind right now, but I don't care. I'm not going to let him suffer alone like that anymore if something can be done. As long as you still want to, that is."

Vala looked at him for a moment, then frown. "No, I don't want to. If he doesn't want me to, why should I help him?"

He stared at her for moment. "What are you talking about?"

She started to back up. "I'm not doing anything if he's still being stubborn." Then she closed the door in his face.

* * * *

Vala closed the door and leaned back against it, tears springing to her eyes. Daniel had let it get that bad without even asking for her help?

There was a moment of silence outside the door before Jack started pounding on it. "Vala! Come on, don't do this! You've gotta help him!"

She wanted to. She didn't want him to suffer any more than his friends did. But he didn't want her to. Why didn't he want her to? Did he hate her? Was that why he wouldn't allow her help? Because he didn't want her near him?

"Vala!"

"Leave me alone!" she called through the door. She tried to keep her voice from wavering, but didn't entirely succeed.

"Look, you can't ignore this just because Daniel hasn't cooperated. I know he can be an obstinate idiot sometimes, but just because he'll never admit to needing help doesn't mean he doesn't need it!"

Vala crossed her arms and tried to keep ignoring him, but now he was beginning to make sense, and it was breaking through her own stubborn barriers.

Jack pounded on the door from the other side again. "Vala! Please!"

Somehow that got through. Maybe it was because she understood what he was saying, or maybe it was only because he seemed like the kind of man who would never normally beg, and when he actually did, it meant something. It was important. She wasn't really sure herself. But Vala turned around and opened the door again.

"All right," she said. "I'll do it."

Jack sighed and nodded, lowering his arms from where he'd been about to knock again. "Thank you." The general turned and swiftly headed back toward Daniel's room, and Vala followed him. She was unsure about whether she was doing the right thing until she stepped into the room. Immediately, she saw Daniel and knew that she was.

He looked so much worse than the last time she'd seem him the previous morning that it was heartbreaking. He was lying still, eyes closed and if he was conscious at all he couldn't be aware of much. He probably didn't know she was in the room.

Vala exchanged glances with O'Neill and Teal'c, who both nodded. Sighing, she sat down where she had before and took his uninjured hand in hers. After that there was nothing to do but wait. The general paced tensely, and the jaffa stood impassively. She didn't know where Mitchell was until he came in a moment later. When he saw her there his eyebrows went up, but he said nothing.

It took several minutes, but finally she began to feel discomfort, and then slight pain. But the expression on Daniel's face didn't ease at all, as it had before. He must have been hurting too much. Only taking on this much of it wasn't really helping any. Swallowing, Vala waited anxiously for it to get worse, for it to be enough to be helping him…but it never did.

"What's wrong?" Mitchell asked when she frowned deeply.

"It's not working…"

"What?" Jack quipped.

She took a breath. "I mean…well, it is working, but I'm not feeling anything worse than what I did last time, and I know he has to hurting a lot worse than that. Just look at him."

"Perhaps you are only capable of taking a certain amount of the pain from him, and that limit has been reached," Teal'c suggested.

Vala winced to herself before answered. "Maybe, but…that can't be right. I have to be able to do more than this; this isn't going to help him at all at this stage."

There were a few moments of silence.

"Maybe you need more contact," Mitchell said slowly.

Jack looked at him and repeated, "What?"

The colonel shrugged. "I don't know, but maybe little contact equals little help and more contact equals more help. Don't ask me; it's just a hypothesis."

O'Neill looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, it's one worth trying, I guess." He looked at Vala for confirmation, and she nodded. Keeping hold of his hand, she stood and started trying to pull his body up off of the bed some. The men came over to help, and pulled him up so that she could sit behind him. Once she was situated sitting back against the headboard, still clutching his hand so as not the break the connection, Jack and Teal'c lowered him back so he was leaning against her shoulder.

Vala wrapped her arms around him, and the men stood back and waited. Jack paced again. Daniel shuddered in a wave of agony, and Vala felt a sudden spike in the pain she was feeling, too. That went away, but after another few moments, the pain grew steadily worse. She pulled in a breath and grimaced, holding onto him tighter. Daniel shuddered again, but this time it was only a slight shiver. A moment later he sucked in a ragged breath and opened his eyes.

"W-what…?"

Vala glanced down at him and smiled a bit around the pain. "Hi."

But he was already frowning. "What are you doing?"

Jack came closer and answered before Vala could say anything. "Uhm, yeah, Daniel, I know you really didn't want me to, but I kind of had to call in the cavalry anyway. It was getting ridiculous"

Daniel just stared at him.

"I don't guess you're still not going to forgive me, are you?" the general smirked.

"I don't know; I haven't decided yet," he answered dryly.

Jack snorted, then looked thoughtful for half a second before clapping his hands once and rubbing them together. "Well, boys, I suggest that we leave these two alone for a little while now. I think they had a few things to discuss."

Thank you, Jack O'Neill. Vala certainly had a piece of her mind to give to Daniel, but she hadn't been about to do it around the others.

Daniel seemed to pick up on this. "What? No…it's okay, Jack, you…you don't have to go anywhere."

O'Neill just smiled, and herded Mitchell and Teal'c toward the door. "I don't mind; don't mention it."

"But--"

But it was too late. Jack, Mitchell, and Teal'c left, and Daniel was left sputtering in Vala's arms. The moment they were gone he started squirming.

"Vala, I'm fine. You can let go now, thank you."

But she knew he wasn't fine, because she was feeling what he was. Instead of wasting energy arguing with him, she just held onto him tightly until he slumped back against her, gasping shallowly from exertion and the pain he was still feeling himself.

"All right, Daniel…spill. Why don't you want me helping you?" she said then.

His eyes closed as he took deep breaths. "I just…I don't need help," he insisted.

"You know, Daniel, you think you're good at lying, but you're really not very good at it at all."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…" She had to pause to gasp once herself. "I don't believe you for a minute."

Daniel seemed about to snap something back to that, when the pain spiked, and both of them cried out at the same time.

But it didn't stop.

It wasn't a wave, it was a straight increase. What would have happened if he'd had to take that alone, as bad as he'd already been?

Vala pried her eyes open and saw that Daniel looked really worried now.

"You…should really…let go now," he hissed, eyes clenching shut.

"Are you kidding?" she gasped. "As bad as it is for both of…us right now, it could …kill you if I let go now."

Her vision was blurring from the intensity of just her half of it already. Her thoughts were jumbling. This couldn't be good. How could it have gotten so bad so quickly? But it wasn't even finished yet.

Daniel shouted as it jumped up again, and Vala shrieked.

"AH! What was that!" she yelled in alarm.

"Don't ask me!"

"This is bad."

"Let go."

"Are you insane?!"

Daniel glared through his shouts of pain. "No, you are!"

"This is a really stupid to--OWW!--be arguing about right now!"

"I know--AH!--that! So stop it!"

"I am NOT letting go!"

"Vala--!!" He was going to continue that, she was almost sure of it, but she didn't have time to wonder what or why, because at that moment the pain erased all other thoughts. Faintly she could hear screaming, but she couldn't tell if it was one or both of them, or what. For several seconds--but then again, it could have been minutes, or longer, or only one second; she couldn't think--it was that bad…and then it stopped.

The pain abruptly stopped, and the world faded to white, and then to black, and then brightened to white again.

White?

CHAPTER 6

When the white faded back to color, Daniel knew immediately that he wasn’t in his room at the SGC anymore. He could still feel Vala sitting behind him, still feel her arms wrapped around him, but they weren’t sitting on the bed anymore. Instead of looking at the dull tones of walls and ceiling of the underground base, with the lights dimmed, wherever they were now was much brighter.

That was all he managed to gather before he toppled backward when Vala fell.

They both tipped over onto what looked like a hard, marble floor. Having been sitting, they didn’t fall far, but since they weren’t where had been before, he assumed that without the support of the bed headboard she’d been leaning back against, Vala was too surprised at their change of location to keep herself from falling over when it disappeared. They landed in a tangle of arms and legs, and Daniel quickly extracted himself and scooted a foot or two away on the floor so that she could get herself upright as well.

Daniel almost forgot about her then, when he glanced around at the room they were in now. The walls were bright, smooth poloished stone. To one side of them heavy double wooden doors marked the entrance, and just in front of them…metal grated gates were closed in front of the controlled flames that raged on the other side. He stared at them in shocked horror.

“Where are we?” Vala asked from just behind him.

“Celestus,” he gulped, standing.

She stood too, and came forward to stand beside him. “What?” she said incredulously.

He answered her, but he was still staring at the gate distractedly. “When that prior led me out of the room they’d shut us in when we were here, this is where he took me. But there was someone else here then.”

“Wait a minute. How could we be in Celestus? That’s in the Ori galaxy, and that must be millions of light years away.”

“Actually, it could be more like billions, and it probably is; we don’t know for sure.”

“What does that have to do with anything!” Vala exclaimed in frustration.

“Look, I don’t know how it happened, but I know where we are,” Daniel shot back, finally looking at him.

She glared at him briefly, and he didn’t blame her. She couldn’t be very happy with him right now, but he didn’t mind. After all, he’d only done what he’d done for her own good—not letting her help him before. He hadn’t wanted her to get hurt.

“Okay…then how did we get here? That device we used last time got vaporized,” she pointed out, crossing her arms.

He sighed and spun, searching for any clues.

“Uhm…Daniel?”

“What?” he asked, turning to look at her. Vala was staring at him bug-eyed. “What is it?”

“Well…you turned, and your hand should have smacked into that wall beside you, but it went right through it,” she explained calmly.

Now he stared at her. “What??”

“Don’t ask me.” She took a couple of steps closer and poked him in the shoulder.

“Ow.” He poked her back in the arm. She rolled her eyes.

“Maybe I was seeing things…” she admitted slowly. “But I don’t think so.”

Daniel rolled his own eyes and turned to the wall, swinging his hand out to touch it. “Look, see? Solid as—“ He stopped when his hand didn’t connect with the wall.

It went right through it.

“Yow!” he yelped, pulling his hand back. But it was only out of surprise. He hadn’t felt a thing.

Vala smirked at him when he looked at her. “See?”

“Only your minds are here.”

Both Daniel and Vala spun to see a prior even more elaborately dressed than usual strolling into the room through the double doors, which opened by themselves for him—or rather, by the telekinetic power he had to make them do it without touching them.

It was the same uber-prior that had been waiting in this room when Daniel had been here last. The Doci, if he remembered correctly.

This could not be good.

He and Vala looked at each other when they heard what he said. Now that Daniel thought about it, the stone floor here should have felt cold when they’d been down on it just a few moments ago. But he had felt nothing. Vala took a step sideways. There was no sound.

“Ooookay. What are we doing here?”

The doors closed behind the Doci, and he regarded them cooly. “You were the only one who was meant to arrive here, and that was accomplished by the poison a prior planted in your body. It is by the power of the Ori you are here, because your lesson is complete, and now you must make your choice. I do not know why the woman is here as well.”

He’d just called Vala ‘the woman’. So he didn’t recognize her, or him either. They’d been in different bodies the last time they’d been here, so he shouldn’t. Hopefully the Doci only knew them as part of the annoying group of humans that had been causing trouble for the priors in the Milky Way for weeks. Not that that wasn’t bad enough. The prior that had done whatever-exactly-it-was to him back on the other planet had been supremely ticked-off. In a prior sort of way.

If the end of the pain had triggered some implanted, programmed action to send his mind to this place, though, then Daniel had a pretty good idea why Vala was here too. It was because she had been sharing the pain. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted her doing it; something could happen.

And something had.

“Why is the woman here as well?” This question was directed at Daniel, as if the Doci assumed he would know. Well, he was right there, but that didn’t mean he was going to tell him. That could be used against them.

“How should I know?”

The Doci narrowed his eyes at them, and Daniel saw Vala gulp out of the corner of his eye.

“You are not being truthful,” the Doci said finally. “But that can be helped.” With no other explanation, the strode over to the gates.

“What is he doing? What is that?” Vala whispered.

“The Fires of Enlightenment,” Daniel replied quietly, suddenly feeling more nervous. When she looked at him in confusion he restated. “The Ori themselves.”

“What?!” she hissed.

He didn’t bother to reply to that, just started back up. “You know, I would suggest we find a way out of here now; an open door, a way to wake up—“

Their whispered conversation was interrupted by the creak of the opening metal gates, and the Doci spinning to face them. “No mind can resist the power of the Ori.” That was all he said, but that was when a gust of the flames burst free from the wall of fire and into the room.

Vala stumbled back in surprise. “What the—“

But the hovering flames ignored her, and shot straight for Daniel, purposefully.

“Daniel, look out!”

He tried to dive out of the way, but it was too fast. The shimmering mass slid effortlessly into his body, even though it wasn’t really there, and immediately every inch of his flesh was in pain. His body wasn’t even here, but it hurt like it was. Not surprisingly, it felt like he was burning. But there was no outward evidence. Just the excruciating pain. And the attack on his mind.

The Ori were searching for the answer to the question.

Daniel screamed, and kept screaming. His body trembled, and all he wanted to do at that very second was lay down and die, but his body wouldn’t even collapse. The flames inside him held him where he was, standing rigid. His eyes were clenched shut tight, but that was the only control he had as the presence inside him tore at his memory, ripping and clawing inside his mind, looking for what it wanted to know.

Daniel continued to scream.

Despite how hard he tried to prevent it, after only a few moments the flames had their answer. Daniel had tried resisting, hiding the information, but trying had only caused more pain, and in the end it hadn’t taken long for them to tear through his defenses. Now they knew why Vala was here, and a few other things, too.

The fiery mass slipped out of him again, and he collapsed. His screaming stopped, and the floor rushed up to meet him. He hoped for a moment that the impact would knock him out, but it didn’t happen. He didn’t feel the impact at all. He wasn’t here.

But he felt Vala’s hand on his shoulder a moment later, demanding that he talk to her, say he was all right. All Daniel could manage was a half nod.

* * * *

Back at Stargate Command, millions, or maybe billions of light years away, twenty-something floor under Cheyenne Mountain, something unusual happened on the screen in the security office that was being fed by the camera in the room that Daniel and Vala’s unconscious bodies were occupying.

Daniel’s body began convulsing hard, though he made no sound.

But that screen was in a far, almost hidden corner of the room, and was almost never looked at because it was private quarters, and it was usually ignored because of its location anyway. After several moments, he went still again, and that was the end of that. All that had changed was that the convulsions caused by the attack on his mind far away had knocked his body out of Vala’s grasp.

No one ever noticed.

* * * *

It took a few moments before Daniel could clear his head and sit up, and when he did Vala was still looking at him with concern. He started to open his mouth to tell her that he was fine, but then closed it again. Even he had to admit that he wasn’t. He was sitting up, but his head still hurt horribly. His brain felt like Swiss cheese.

“Daniel…?” she questioned quietly.

He didn’t have an answer to give her that would satisfy her, and he knew it. So he ignored her and used her shoulder to help pull himself to his feet. One might have thought that would be easy, since his body wasn’t really here in the first place, but it wasn’t easy. Not in the slightest. By the time Daniel was standing, Vala had stood and helped pull him up by one arm, and he was breathing hard again.

His eyes scanned for the Doci, and found him standing just on the other side of the gates, arms open wide as a fiery mass the same as the one that had attack him came out of his body and retreated into the wall of flames. But, of course, it hadn’t hurt him.

The Doci backed out of the gated area and closed and locked the gates themselves again. Then he straightened and turned to them.

“So that is why both yours and the woman’s minds were brought here: this strange connection caused by malfunctioning technology. It is for such reasons that we have no need of such machines.”

“Well, we like our technology just fine, thank you,” Vala glared.

The Doci glanced at her for a moment, silent, then looked back at Daniel. “Now you must both make a choice. But be warned: because of this connection between you, either you must both accept the teachings of Origin now, or you will both die.”

“What??” they echoed together.

“You can’t do that,” Daniel added.

“The enemies of Origin must be exterminated. If you will not accept the truth, you will be killed. But if I understand this connection correctly, if only one of you dies, so will the other. Thus, you must both accept Origin if you are to live.”

“Now would be another of those good times to leave, wouldn’t it?” Vala whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

Daniel swallowed. “Yep. Pretty much.”

“You must decide. Now!” The Doci couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but he obviously didn’t like their hesitation.

Daniel glanced at Vala, and she looked back. He could read her expression clearly. Maybe they were good at annoying one another, but there were some things that came easy to agree on. Just a tiny few. Or maybe just this one. Whatever. He knew what to do. He looked back at the head prior, setting a determined expression on his face despite the fatigue the attack had left with him.

“Then we decide not to accept Origin. You can do whatever you will to us for it, but we will not compromise what we know to be true just because you threaten to kill us if we don’t see things your way. All I know is that the Ori are not gods, and I’ll tell you again that you can never change my mind.”

He glanced at Vala again, and she nodded firmly in agreement. “You tell him, Daniel,” she said, smiling just a bit.

By now the Doci was scowling deeply. “You both hold this opinion?” he demanded, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“We do,” Vala answered. Daniel nodded.

The scowl disappeared, but apparently the Doci’s intentions id not. “Then you will both die.”

They didn’t know exactly how he planned to try to accomplish that, but at the same time both of them started to back up slowly. Vala tapped his arm urgently.

“Pinch me; maybe I’ll wake up. Then I’ll wake you up from there.”

Out of sheer lack of ideas, Daniel did it, pinched her arm hard, even though he suspected that if he could have gone through as much pain as he had just a few minutes before and not woken up, that wouldn’t wake her up either. It didn’t.

“Ow! Not that hard!” Vala yelped, slapped his hand away.

“You asked for it.”

“You cannot escape. Your minds cannot leave here now unless I send them away,” the Doci informed them. “And I will not do that until your fates have been sealed.”

“Huh interesting. And how did you plan on doing that again?” Daniel asked, licking his lips nervously.

The Doci’s answer was given when he swept his arms forward them. Before either of them could react, a flash of orange-golden light sprung from the prior and took Vala down. She didn’t yelp, didn’t scream, didn’t anything. She just went down.

Daniel spun. “Vala!” She was on her back, staring up at him in wide-eyed shock and trying to breathe. But it wasn’t working. “What did you do to her!” he shouted angrily, glaring over at the Doci. The head prior only looked back at him calmly.

“You will watch her die, and then you will die with her,” was his only answer. Then he strode for the door.

“No! Come back here! Stop this!”

The Doci ignored him. Daniel glanced back uncertainly at Vala, who was still struggling for air, or something—he wasn’t really sure what was happening to her, since it was their bodies that needed to breathe, not their minds…But he didn’t know what else to do. He lunged at the Doci.

His body passed right through the prior. He stumbled to a stop on the other side of him, next to the door. The doors opened, the nearest one going right through him as well. The Doci turned his head for only a moment, giving him a look that was almost smug, and then he was gone, and the doors closed again.

That wouldn’t help. There was no help. They were on their own. He was on his own. If either of them was going to live, it was up to him now.

“D-Dan-l…”

Daniel spun and ran back to Vala, dropping to his knees besides her. It still didn’t hurt. He didn’t feel the floor.

Vala looked up at him weakly, and he knew she was slipping away. And strangely the fact that he would die too once she was gone wasn’t what he was worrying about at all at that moment. But what could he do?

Without hesitation, he grabbed her hand and held it tight. He wasn’t really sure what that would do, but if they were already in physical contact back in the SGC, maybe being in further contact here would help more. He didn’t know. All he knew was that he didn’t have any other idea for keeping her alive.

“Listen, Vala, stay with me, okay?”

She wanted to fight it. Daniel could see that. But her eyes were drifting shut.

“Vala, come on!”

Her lips formed a word that looked like ‘sorry’, but there was no sound. Then her eyes closed, and she went limp.

Daniel’s eyes went wide. “Vala!”

CHAPTER 7

Daniel checked, but Vala wasn’t breathing, though she still had a weak heartbeat. But even that was fading fast. But what could he do? CPR wouldn’t do any good here, because these weren’t their bodies. They were only an echo of what was happening to their real ones.

As if on cue, the fire lit room around him faded, the sensation of Vala’s hand in his faded, all of it faded, until he was back at the SGC. Maybe the Doci thought they were both as good as dead, that there was no reason to keep their minds trapped there. He was probably right.

Daniel sat up quickly, but immediately regretted it. His head hurt just as badly here, and he bent over, sucking in steadying breaths. That was when he realized that he wasn’t touching Vala anymore. He’d been flat on his back on the bed before he’d sat up. How had that happened?

It wasn’t important. Immediately he searched for Vala, and found her still half sitting up, leaning against the headboard. And she wasn’t breathing. Swallowing, he checked her pulse again, and as before, found a quickly fading, weak beat.

“No no no, come on, don’t do this…” He muttered. Not knowing what else to do, he pulled her away from the headboard and gently laid her on her back and started CPR, hoping to get her breathing again. Maybe if he did that, her heartbeat would re-gain strength. But it didn’t help that he didn’t know exactly what the Doci had done to her and how it had carried over to her body here in this galaxy.

At first, Vala was unresponsive, and for a few tense moments Daniel was, against his will, on the edge of hysteria. Tears for fear and frustration stung his eyes, but he wasn’t even sure exactly why.

“Please, please, please!” he hissed desperately.

Finally, finally, she gasped in a small breath. Her chest heaved, and she started to breathe again, but still she didn’t seem to be any closer to consciousness. Except for the movement of her chest, she stayed limp. He put his fingers against her neck again and felt her heartbeat jump in strength for only a second, and then fade again.

“No, come ON-!” His voice choked, and he gulped back tears. Why wasn’t this working? Maybe…maybe he’d been on the right track before, back in Celestus. Just keep physical contact, share strength, don’t let her slip away…

With no other choices, Daniel took her hand again and lowered himself from his hands and knees over her until he was laying on his stomach right beside her, only up on one elbow so he could keep an eye on her and keep tight hold of her hand, as close as he could without being inappropriate. Vala had said something like more contact helped more…Well, he couldn’t get in much more contact than this without it just being wrong.

He only hoped it would help.

Daniel swallowed again and stared at her face. Her breathing was slowing again, fading. It wouldn’t last much longer, and neither would she unless something happened. His head still felt like someone was pounding a nail through it, but he put as much mental focus as he could into keeping her alive. He wasn’t sure that a mental component had anything to do with it at all, but it was worth a try.

There! He could sense something. He’d focused, and…there it was. Somehow, the connection between them was letting him sense that he was losing energy—energy to breathe, to keep her heart beating, everything. He had jumpstarted her breathing a couple of minutes ago, but whatever the prior had done to her and sucked out her ability to keep it going by herself. Unless she was given enough energy back. He hoped.

Daniel had no idea exactly what he was doing or how he was doing it, but he focused on giving her as much of his own energy as he could, and it happened. He could feel his own energy draining into her, but it would be all right. He was already weak from the attack on his mind, but he would be all right. He only needed to keep enough to stay alive. He could get the rest of his strength back on his own, but right now Vala couldn’t. Not just after what the Doci had done to her. She needed it more than he did. He had to balance out her energy levels so she could stay alive.

His grip on her hand was weakening with the rest of his body. “Come on…” he pleaded weakly. “Come on…” His elbow slipped out from under him, and he was flat. He couldn’t see her anymore. But he held on. This had to work. It HAD too. For both of their sakes.

He couldn’t keep this up much longer.

Just as unconsciousness started to close it, he heard Vala gasp in a deep breath, and felt her pulse grow faster and stronger under his weak grip on her hand and wrist. Daniel let go and his arm dropped by his side. Breaking the contact kept him conscious, but he didn’t have the energy to move. All he could see was her shoulder beside his face.

Vala lay where she was for a moment, just breathing deeply and probably trying to orient herself, but he didn’t mind. It was the sweetest sound he’d heard in days.

After a few minutes, she scooted back a few inches so she could roll over, and turned to look him in the face. Her eyes weren’t quite wide, but they looked bigger than usual anyway. A confusion of emotions played across them, and for the longest time she didn’t say anything. Daniel was afraid he would pass out before she spoke.

Finally she gulped. “You just saved my life…”

Daniel noted that, for some reason, she looked a lot blurrier than she had a few moments ago. And that his head hurt a lot worse now. But it didn't matter. She was going to be all right.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out at first and he had to lick his lips and clear his throat a bit. “Are you okay?” he managed to get out. It was still only barely above a whisper.

Vala nodded, frowning in concern. “I’m fine. But you look horrible.”

“Thanks a lot,” he answered dryly. Vala was going to say something else, but he didn’t catch it before the blackness claimed him.

* * * *

Vala sat up, shaking off the lingering confusion. "Daniel?" But he was out. She checked, just to be sure, but his pulse was there. It was a little weak, but it was steady. She sighed in relief, and that must have covered the sound of the door opening, because seconds later Jack O'Neill's voice spoke from by the door.

"Vala?"

Surprised, she jerked and looked up. "Oh. General."

O'Neill took a step closer to the bed, closing the door behind him. "Is he okay? What happened?"

Vala swallowed. "Uhm…well, I'm afraid that's a little difficult to explain."

His eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I'll explain later, but it's over. He should be all right, but right now I think he should be moved back to your infirmary."

O'Neill hesitated for a moment, keeping his eyes on Daniel, then nodded and opened the door again. "I'll get the doc."

Doctor Lam came back with the general, and Vala explained as best she could what had happened. Then Teal'c and Mitchell helped them move Daniel back to the infirmary, and all of them waited for him to wake up. They wouldn't know anything else until then.

But he didn't wake up in the next few hours. Into the night, O'Neill convinced Mitchell and Teal'c to go get some sleep, and then fell asleep himself in a chair beside Daniel's bed. Vala curled on the bed next to his on the other side, but she couldn't fall asleep. All she could do was stare across the three foot space at Daniel, worrying. Several weeks ago, she wouldn't have cared, but now…if anything happened to him because he'd saved her, she didn't know if she could ever forgive herself.

A soft groan came from Daniel's bed. Vala jerked, and when her eyes caught a glance at the nearby digital clock and saw that it was four in the morning, she realized that she must have actually dozed off. Sitting up and blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she realized that there was movement in the next bed. Daniel was waking up.

O'Neill was still asleep, so she slipped off of the bed she was on quietly, and padded in her socks across the short space to Daniel's bed. His eyes flickered open just as she looked down at him.

"Hi," she smiled. Hopefully, this time his reaction would be nicer.

Daniel grimaced as if in pain and blinked up at her. "Vala?"

"MmHmm," she nodded. "Are you all right?"

He slowly brought up a hand to rub at his forehead. "Except for the headache, yeah, I guess so…" he answered tiredly.

She felt like cheering, grinning like an idiot, and crying like relief all at the same time. He was going to be all right; she knew it. But instead of doing any of those things, she simply replied, straight-faced. "Good. You didn't have to that, you know."

"Of course I did; otherwise we'd both be dead," he said, rolling his eyes and then shutting them.

Vala shrugged. Yes, maybe that was true, but whatever it was, exactly, that he'd done to keep her from dying, he could have been more careful. But no, he'd probably been reckless, hadn't thought much, and here he was flat on his back again worrying the heck out of all of them. "What did you do, anyway?"

"I'm not sure, Vala...but I do know that I'm not going to be awake much longer."

She sighed. "All right, sorry. You go back to sleep."

He nodded off again almost immediately, and it wasn't until then that O'Neill snorted awake, sitting up suddenly and looking around. "Huh, what?" His eyes zeroed in on her standing beside the bed. "Was he awake?"

Vala put her hands on her hips and whispered back. "Yes, he was, but now he's asleep, so shush. He's going to be fine."

O'Neill nodded and settled back into his chair. It couldn't have been a comfortable one, but he felt back to sleep quickly too. Men.

Shaking her head, she crawled back into the bed she'd been in, and fell asleep herself.

* * * *

When Daniel woke the next morning, both Jack and Vala were still asleep, and his head didn't hurt as badly. Unfortunately though, it hadn't edged off enough that Doctor Lam didn't notice and make him take something for it. She did, and it helped, and he was just starting to feel decent again--except for the tiredness part--when Jack stirred.

"And I thought it was you that was supposed to be waiting for me to wake up," Daniel smirked when his friend was awake enough.

Jack rolled his eyes and scrubbed a hand through his thinning hair. "Oh be quiet. Wait. Scratch that. Then you wouldn't be able to lie when I asked you how you were feeling."

"Hey--"

"What? You're gonna do it. How are you?"

"Fine."

"See?"

Daniel sighed. "Whatever…shouldn't you be getting back to Washington?"

Jack shrugged and leaned back, stretching. "Ah, thought I'd stick around for another day or so to make sure you're okay--"

"Jack."

The general smirked. "Kidding, I'm kidding. I'll probably head out this afternoon."

"Good."

"Trying to get rid of me?"

"No; but you know I don't--"

"Want me to get in trouble, yes, I know. Thanks for the sentiment, but don't worry about it." Jack stood up and patted his shoulder. "You just worry about getting your strength back, and I'll go get breakfast. Hungry?"

Daniel smiled briefly. "Yeah, I could use something to eat, thanks."

"That's my boy," Jack grinned.

Jack brought enough for himself, Daniel, and Vala, and after breakfast, the day passed quickly in a blurry stream of groggy wakefulness and sleep. He remembered Vala wandering around, but never going far, and Jack saying his goodbyes late in the afternoon, but not much else was especially clear until the next day.

By then, Doctor Lam was sure enough herself that he would be fine that she allowed Mitchell and Teal'c to move Daniel back to his room. He couldn't go by himself; no one let him try, but he was pretty sure that if he'd tried to get up by himself, that he would have ended up on his face on the floor. His muscles weren't cooperating with his weak body just yet.

At that point, Vala could have stayed in her own room again, but this time she never did. She slept on the couch in his room, and was always nearby, making sure he was all right and keeping him busy. It wasn't always pleasant having her around constantly, even after what had happened, but it was better than before. And he was never bored.

It was a week before he was back to work, and even then Lam wasn't letting him drive. Not that it really mattered; he couldn't go anywhere without Vala, anyway. He was still wondering how much longer it would be before the connection wore off, and after spending his recovery with her insisting on staying not much farther than arms' length away, he was beginning to get impatient again. It was nice that she really did care for once, but by then Daniel was feeling smothered.

He looked up from his desk when he heard something clank, and saw Vala fiddling with a random artifact from his shelf, a small statue. She was examining the face carved into it, but her elbow was about to knock another from the same shelf off onto the floor. Jumping up, he ran over and rescued it, inadvertently knocking her away from the shelf.

"Be careful!" he yelped. Vala huffed, peeved, but at least disaster had been prevented.

"Well excuse me, but there's nothing to do." She set down the statue she still had in her hands--and a piece of it's foot broke off. So much for that.

Daniel closed his eyes on Vala standing there looking innocent, trying not to overreact. He'd certainly done that one too many times to her before.

"Just don't touch anything else, okay?" he said, looking at her again. She shrugged. He couldn't make her promise, because she probably would anyway. Women.

"Can't we do something?" she asked suggestively, waggling her eyebrows and trying to hook one of his arms. A week later and already she'd gone from over-protective back to…this. Oi…at least things were back to normal, anyway. Things weren't as confusing this way.

Daniel pulled away. "Uh, no, we can't. I haven't gotten any work done in almost two weeks, and I would really like to get something done today, if you don't mind. I know you can't go far, but do you think you could at least try to find something to do elsewhere?"

She crossed her arms and smiled at him teasingly, tossing her pig-tails back. "Well, you finally shaved, so I suppose I should give you a break for one day, at least."

His only response to that was to groan and head back to his desk. She caught his arm and he turned back around.

"What?" he asked, annoyed.

Vala hesitated a moment, which was uncharacteristic for her, and then hugged him. She did it from the side, almost awkwardly. It was in no way sensual or flirtatious, was only friendly. Surprising himself, Daniel didn't move away after his initial jerk of surprise. He didn't return it, either, but he didn't move away.

"Thank you for saving my life," she said briefly.

Daniel swallowed. "Uhm…you're welcome," he said uncomfortably. He caught a glimpse of a smile as she let go of him and started to turn and go, and before he did, he said something else. "And ah…I never thanked you for helping me before…"

She turned and looked at him curiously, raising an eyebrow part of the way.

He cleared his through self-consciously and didn't look at her fully. "I…I didn't want you to then…because…I didn't want you to get hurt. That was why. It was really the only reason, I just…I'm sorry." Why was he telling her that? That was what she wasn't supposed to find out. Was it possible that he--?? No. No way.

Vala quirked a smile at him. "It's all right." And somehow she seemed to mean that to go for everything.

Daniel smiled back a little, but she didn't seem to notice that it was uncertain. As she all but skipped off, Vala seemed to assume that he would stop beating himself up about that and everything else just because she had told him he could.

And somehow that made it easier to do just that.

** The End **

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