Life is Short, by DrGemini86 (DrGemini24)
Summary: Life is short, art is long, but what about love? Unending missing scenes and tag.
Pairings: DanielVala (the, ahem, 'canon'), SamDaniel, a little CamAmy, Teal'cIsh'ta
Rating: T
Category: New Romance
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Episode-related, Romance-focussed, Unending fix
Spoilers: Unending, and before that
A/N: It took me a while to think up a plot for the long planned Unending fix, but I'm getting there. I still haven't seen the episode, having got tearful on seeing the screen caps, reading the spoilers, and then making the mistake of watching the Have You Seen the Rain montage on YouTube. To those of you who think that Daniel and Vala are in 'wuv', answer me this – why did it take him fifty years to say anything related to 'I love you'? Fifty years. It wasn't like they were doing anything else – poor Sam was doing all the freakin' work (and Cam helped her out, bless him).
Quite frankly, while I'm in rant mode, I was disgusted by the way season 10, especially the last half, turned out. It was an insult to the existing fans of the franchise, who had watched from the good ol' early days as opposed to the more recent ones who already had a 'cast iron' opinion on DanielVala and their apparently 'sizzling' chemistry (bleurgh) despite only watching since season 8 or 9. How the hell is Prometheus Unbound a shippy ep (lol, ok, it could be a JackDaniel…)?! Our boy got beaten up! By that logic, Reckoning Part II is shippy because RepliCarter went evil Replicator psycho queen on his ass (I told him to get a mule, but what are you going to do…).
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Twenty years had come and gone with SG-1 still stuck aboard the Odyssey with only a time dilation field keeping them from being blown to smithereens by the oncoming energy beam of an Ori ship, while Sam worked on a solution to their predicament. Within an infinitesimal space of time outside of the field, and two decades within the field, the team had aged together and had experienced the painful loss of their commanding officer to old age.
The death of General Landry had struck an ominous chord with each member of the team, each knowing full well that they would soon follow him into the arms of Thanatos, but each equally not wanting to accept it. The onus was on Sam.
Not long after their incarceration had begun, Daniel and Vala looked to have found some light from the darkness that lay before them. The rest of the team had been happy for them, that they had found some respite from the pain of knowing just what was at stake as well as their slim odds.
While both Teal'c and Cam exercised regularly to stay in shape, and to alleviate the cabin fever that had struck them both, the latter in particular on several occasions, Sam worked on getting them out of the field without killing her team, the mournful sound of a cello her only respite from the ever present guilt.
Her head hurting as she worked for hours with the hologram of the Asgard that they would all miss the most, Thor, the Colonel decided that enough was enough and that she had to take a break as the letters, figures and glyphs swam before her eyes in a sleep-deprived haze.
She bitterly remembered the words of a hallucination of Daniel that she had had aboard the Prometheus so long ago, telling her that running the same hyper drive simulations over and over wouldn't throw up new results, and that she should take the opportunity to look at other avenues.
Where was he now?
She bent her head over the worktop that she had worked at for the best part of two decades, her now shoulder length pale-grey hair cascading down her shoulders, and she closed her eyes as she massaged her temples, vowing not to go back there.
'You let him go, Samantha. Stop it.'
She sighed in frustration and then got up, wincing at the strain in her limbs and her back brought on by a combination of long periods of sitting, and old age. Switching off the hologram as tears surged in her eyes, she walked out with a heavy heart, feeling as though the entire ship rested upon her shoulders along with the legacy of the Asgard, and the lives of her team-mates.
In the ship's Mess, using a device that she had created from the Asgard knowledge a few months into their imprisonment, she made herself a cup of coffee. Picking a spot that was on the other side of the room, the furthest point away from where anyone usually sat, she took the first sip of her beverage, closing her eyes as the hot, artificial liquid slipped down her throat.
'What I would do for real coffee…'
She leaned her head back and sighed softly as she remembered going to see Daniel earlier that day. He had been so busy working on translating the Asgard knowledge, just as a way of doing something…
'You'd think he'd be occupied with doing Vala…'
As soon as the thought wandered into her mind, she felt guilty. What right had she to stand in the way of her friends' happiness?
She had asked him why he kept doing it, why he kept it up, and he had answered that it was because it was something to do. She had told him that she had given up, and his positive reaction had given her a small glimmer of hope, and had resulted in her recent burst of work.
Before their imprisonment, their incarceration, their confinement… their relationship had inexplicably run into the ground. She had found him to be more and more distant, not spending as much time with her as he had on so many occasions, and looking angry whenever she said anything. She had confronted him on it once but he had shrugged her off, saying that he was tired before walking away from her.
She missed her best friend…she still missed him. Time had only intensified the pain and the memories, and the discovery two decades previously that he was seeing Vala had killed her inside.
She gazed out of the window, at the huge looming Ori ship whose energy fire had been slowed exponentially but would one day destroy the Odyssey, wondering whether she was ever going to get her friends out of this, alive. Not only did she have to save them, but she also had to ensure that the Asgard's legacy lived on, that their civilisation was not lost to the future. There was no way that she was going to lose anyone else on this damn ship.
She closed her eyes and sighed for what must have been the hundredth or so time that day, and looked down at her coffee, feeling as though she was the lowest form of life in the entire galaxy. She moved to a different table to gaze out of a different window, at the infinite number of stars that reached further than she could see.
"Is this seat taken?"
She looked up in surprise to see an older Daniel waiting next to the seat opposite her, the Archaeologist forgoing his monthly haircut and allowing his hair to grow a little. She remarked with a strained smile, her voice pained,
"The dating scene's a little stale here."
Gazing at her with concern as she went back to looking out of the window, he sat down with his own mug of coffee and followed her gaze. He said softly,
"Beautiful, isn't it? We spent so long going to-and-fro on missions that we never really had the chance to stop and just stare at the sea of stars that surround us. And now that we have the chance, we don't take the opportunity."
She nodded slightly and replied, sounding tired, "This was my dream, to see the stars closer than I could from Earth, but look at where it's led me. We're all stuck on this damn ship because I can't find a way to deactivate the field without killing us all."
Tears in her eyes, she continued as he watched, looking greatly disturbed as her voice grew wobbly, "If only I hadn't sent down Marks or the other engineers… I can't do this Daniel, I can't, but I can't give up because it isn't my decision, it isn't only my life at stake. Because of me, the General's dead, and I won't be responsible for one more life, not like that. Every time I close my eyes at night, I see his face, I see him blaming me for not saving him."
His heart feeling heavy at the outpouring of her pent up grief, he held her hands and said, tears in his own eyes, "Sam, what happened wasn't your fault. You're working against pretty big odds here, we all know that. In fact, we all owe you our lives, because if you hadn't activated this field, we would all be dead."
She shook her head and said, sniffing back her tears, "He's dead, Daniel, he's never coming back, and what makes you think that the answer is going to suddenly jump out at me? I have been working on this for twenty years… I'm old, Daniel…"
"We're all old. Us two are sixty-two, Mitchell's fifty-seven… I've lost count how old Teal'c is, and as for Vala…"
At mention of their dark-haired team-mate, she exhaled as he slowly let go of her hands and she looked out of the window again. As he sipped his coffee thoughtfully, she remarked suddenly,
"Twenty years. It makes you think, doesn't it... the things that might have been, the things that could have been…"
He nodded solemnly, replying as he followed her gaze once again, "Teal'c would have eventually settled down with Ish'ta and had a bunch of kids… and we would all be privy to their violent rows."
She smiled briefly, and whispered, "Cam would have probably proposed to Amy."
They both paused, not sure of where to go from there, and he asked eventually, "What about you?"
She replied, glancing at him sadly as she recalled her lost chances and regrets, "Looking back, I guess I would have seized the moment."
He frowned for a moment and said, his eyes downcast, "I'm guessing Jack would have retired."
Confused, she asked, looking at him, "Why?"
He asked, now confused as well as inwardly pained, "You would have resigned?"
She closed her eyes and said defensively as she gradually realised what he had meant, "What?! No!"
She looked out of the window once again, he said, confused even further, "You said that you would have seized the moment, and seeing as you and Jack are in the same chain of command, one of you would have had to resign or retire to see your way clear to being together without getting into trouble."
Shaking her head sadly, she said softly, "No."
"What, not Jack? Then who?"
"Someone."
"Someone?"
She sighed, and he said, "I always thought you had a thing for Jack."
She shook her head and said, pain in her eyes, "No, I let him go a long, long time ago."
He touched her hand and asked gently, "Then who is it?"
She said, looking down at her coffee, "I better get back to work, Daniel."
She was about to get up when they both turned their heads on hearing a grey-haired Vala say, looking from one to the other with a hint of suspicion in her eyes from the end of the table, "What's going on?"
Sam said, her heart hurting as she got up, "I was taking a break."
Vala watched the Colonel leave before looking at Daniel accusingly, and she asked, her arms folded across her chest, "What happened?"
Daniel sighed slowly and said, not looking at her, "Nothing."
Vala sat next to him, her hand gently running up and down his thigh as she asked in a softer voice, kissing him on the cheek, "What did she say?"
Still not looking at her, his eyes on his cooling coffee, "She's upset. She feels as though everything's on her."
"Well it is."
"… and there is no way that any of us can help her. No-one else has the relevant skills and knowledge to help her work faster."
She said with a pout, "Well, I did ask her…"
He gently shook his head and finally gazed at her, saying as his hand rested on hers, stopping her caresses, "Vala, you're a lot cleverer than you let on. You know that she needs someone else like McKay… or… or, even one of the ship's engineers. We can't help her."
She gazed at him, sensing something that had always been there, something that had been between them for as long as their relationship, and she said, inwardly sad, "Come on Daniel, let's go."
Gazing at her with regret, knowing that she knew how he felt, he said gently, touching her cheek tenderly, "Vala… I never meant to…"
She shook her head and said, forcing back her tears as she met his gaze, "Don't, Daniel. Just, don't. Your words are useless. I know where I stand and it's enough."
Feeling like a complete and utter boob, he said, "If it was my choice, I would give you my heart, but…"
She closed her eyes briefly and held his hand, whispering, "I know."