Disclaimer: Don't own anyone/anything from Stargate Atlantis or SG-1...
In Sickness
He's closing up the school when he hears them mention her. The number of children falling sick has been steadily increasing this past week, and he sees no reason in keeping the school open for the handful that are left. The gossipy old women stroll past him, talking about how the café won't be opening up again for awhile. He walks home, thinking it will be awhile before he's dragged that way again. It doesn't bring him as much relief as he expected it to.
The next day, he's at the mercantile when he runs into Janet. She gives him a knowing look when he mentions the café and confirms that Vala has indeed fallen ill. More people have been getting sick each day and there are not enough left to nurse them. She looks at him pointedly before turning back to her conversation with Elizabeth. That evening, he walks past the café. The place is deserted and there's a sad air of neglect. He can see her cottage a short distance away but there are no lights on inside and he wonders why there's a tightening in his chest at the thought of her sick and all alone in there.
Two days later, he's visiting Sam when Carson comes by to check on her. He surprises himself when he asks the doctor how Vala is doing. Carson shakes his head before informing Daniel that he's been to check up on her every now and then but with no one to nurse her, she's been steadily getting worse. There's not much the doctor can do other than wait and hope that the fever will break.
That evening, he finds himself at her doorstep. He tells himself he'll only stay for an hour or so, but as soon as he walks into her bedroom and sees her pale and shivering, he knows the hour will stretch out far longer than a mere sixty minutes.
He's sitting by her side with cold water and a face cloth when he drifts off to sleep. His dreams are full of her screaming and crying, and he tries to move forward to help but his feet are frozen to the ground and all he can see are flames reaching for the heavens. When he wakes up, his ears are still ringing with the sound of her screams. She's tossing and flailing, and he starts when he realizes that it was her voice that penetrated his dreams. He tries to calm her, hold her hands down to stop her hurting herself. She's screaming at him to leave her alone, to not touch her. Threatening to hurt his manhood if he takes her again. There's terror in her eyes and his blood runs cold when he realizes what she's remembering.
He tries talking to her, hoping she will recognize his voice, tries the same soothing words that always worked on Sha're. But they only make her more agitated. Her eyes are wide and glazed, and there's a look of anguish and pain in them that scares him. She's crying now, calling some name that sounds like a brother or a lover, and begging him to give her another chance, to take her back. She looks almost lucid as she tells him how much she loves him and he looks away at the depth of emotion in her eyes. When he looks back, she's staring at the ceiling, great big tears dripping down her cheeks. She's stopped flailing, and he lets go of her to get more water.
He's seen her hold a gun enough to know that she is aware of how to use it, and use it well. He's known her long enough to know she hides far more than she reveals under a carefree façade of flirty sexuality. But now he wonders what demons she has been running from all these years. Hurt and abandoned by the men in her life, she has to have been on her own for a long, long time. The surge of protectiveness that thought brings scares him, and he needs a moment to remind himself that he doesn't care for her that way.
When he returns, her eyes are closed and she almost looks asleep, if not for the shudders racking her body. Her skin is painfully hot to touch. He falls asleep sometime between bathing her forehead for the thirtieth time and checking her for fever.
The morning sun rays on his face wake him the next day and his first thought is to check her temperature. Her eyes are closed in slumber and her skin feels cool to touch. The fever has broken. He sighs and ignores the intense relief he feels. For now, it is enough that one more person has lived through the night.
The sun is high in the sky when Vala finally wakes up. She blinks for a moment, trying to hold onto fading dreams of stolen kisses and school masters, before she notices the table beside her. There's a glass of water and some bread sitting there, but no other sign that she had someone at her side through the night.
A/N: Liked it? Didn't like it? I'd love for you to leave a comment telling me what you think...