Disclaimer: All usual disclamiers stand. Don't belong to me, yada yada yada.
A/N: God, it's been far too long since the last time I'd written for these two, but my passion was kinda rekindled by the last audio books. I'd really missed them a lot.
This takes place after the series finale, obviously, and but I left off Stargate Universe references all out. That show in my perfect happy world didn't get to happen, lucky me ;)
For the final note, this thing didn't get to beta-read, so all grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes belong to me, and again I didn't proofread it all that much either, just once, so possibly there will be weird things you native speakers will feel 'what the hell', I just say, bear with me. I might go and proofread it another time, soon enough!
Cheers,
G.
Edit: All right, proofread it the second time, and corrected all the mistakes and other such stuff as much as I could. Thanks for Rainbowcubes87 for the push, which was clearly what I was needing. Hope it's something a little more legible now.
Enjoy.
All was not well, but it was close enough. And the fate of two galaxies resting no longer on their shoulders, they were close enough too.
Samantha was the first one broadening her horizon, looking up for greener pastures. First it was Atlantis, then it was her new ship, and Vala was sure her greener pastures included one certain General in Washington too, and she was also sure commanding a space ship with Asgard beaming technology was a very hand thing when it came to long distance relationships.
She wasn't of course jealous, not at all. Sam had earned everything she had now after long years of constant fighting, both personally and professionally, but pedicures, manicures, and Victoria's Secret weren't the same without her as they were used to be.
Teal'c was the one who followed Samantha's step the next. One year after the Ori's defeat, while they were having lunch he announced he was going to join the Free Jaffa again to rebuild their nation which was always in constant chaos.
They just nodded. Vala knew each of them had been expecting that announcement for a time now. They had all felt sooner or later Teal'c was going to leave, no, sooner than later he was going to leave, and by that time Cameron had already learnt how to let go off his band. They were all looking up for green pastures.
Well, not all of them, but that was a thing Vala didn't exactly want to preoccupy herself.
Still Teal'c came, came and go, sometimes with a reason, sometimes without one, he came and Vala bugged him continuously in those brief times about the fifty years now was only real for him while they all gathered around the table in the mess or just the little steak house in Cameron's back street, and they talked, they laughed, they made a trip down into memory lane, and Teal'c stayed the night with them, but always left the following morning.
Vala watched him in silence as he left, Daniel standing next to her, Cameron just behind, her eyes misted with a longing and a subtle pain of missing that slowly sipped through her even before her friend vanished behind the event horizon. She never managed to get out of him even a single hint of what had exactly happened during the fifty years never happened to her, but she never missed the occasion to slip a little sheet paper in his pocket while hugging him. Someday you're going to tell me something.
Cameron was the third one, and he broadened his horizon in a way different than Sam and Teal'c. In two month following Teal'cs' departure, he went to visit his family, and when he returned, his blond high school sweetheart was draping all over him. They were already engaged.
One month later, they got married, and even though Vala liked the blonde girl enough, and they ended up a sort of friends of a friend, it wasn't the same. She was Vala from the Accounts with her, not Vala, not like with her friends. Besides, she had betted against the General's Daughter in the pool and she wasn't particularly happy with losing the bet either.
Daniel was the one who stayed the same, buried in his studies, but he was easier to laugh, his eyes twinkled with that spark more often, his shoulders weren't as hunched as before. She wondered if he was happy now.
Then one day he decided to make a visit to Atlantis, and something as heavy as mountains and as big as oceans sat on her heart. They shared a good dinner before his trip—strictly between co-workers and friends—in another fancy restaurant where they treated their customers leisurely, and she spent the rest of the night in his very much neglected house, covered with dust and books, and stall air, and Daniel's personal odor; vanilla and old books. She slept on his bed in his bedroom at night, while Daniel slept on his couch in his living room.
He had made a defense to take to bed since it was his house, but Vala hadn't heard any of it. She was a guest and guests should be treated nicely. And she couldn't still believe how Daniel went with it.
The next morning, when they returned, his baggage was already ready for a trip to another galaxy, and he changed into his BDU while she waited for him. They didn't exchange goodbyes, or anything, she just smiled, and said, "Come back soon," she then gave him a kiss on the cheek, "in one piece."
And he did, laid over a litter, his face pale, the light of his eyes diminished, but he came back in one piece.
Vala couldn't have guessed it was possible for someone to cry that much that long. She knew she was being ridiculous, it wasn't like that she had never seen him hurt before, or even worse, but it was different now. Even though all was not well, it was something close. The balance of the universe wasn't resting on their shoulders, the guilt of knowing that you might very well be responsible of bringing the universe in total annihilation or in a total domination, which were fates she wasn't sure anymore which of them was worse than other.
And there had been times when she could have had a very direct answer for that question.
Then a few months after the accident in Atlantis, the ancient city parked at this backwater planet she had come to call home, and Daniel finally decided to broaden his horizon.
He asked his assignment to the ancient city as the chief of Archeology and Linguistics Division, and one week after his request he started to pick up his things into little carton boxes. The same night Vala started to do the same thing.
He didn't say anything, and she didn't either, she was his unofficial research assistant after all. They tidied up his study together, categorizing each item and carton box specifically. It was a boring and dull affair, but Vala went with it, though she might have gone with it with an attitude less than tolerable, even for this new somewhat less harsh Daniel's standards, so even she wasn't so surprised when he threw her out of the study at the end of the third night.
They still didn't talk about it but.
The ancient city was really a greener posture for Daniel, and Vala saw the Daniel she had come to see more often after the defeat of the Ori; the Daniel who took her out for meals, the Daniel who let her watch soap operas in his study, the Daniel who let her sleep in his bed while he took the couch in her place in his Wonderland.
The life was good in Atlantis, the mysteries were never ending, although she had shockingly already learned that the treasures and mysteries always didn't lead you to good places. So when she felt particularly bored, more than usual, she learned how to keep herself amused; after all, that had been always one of her best skills.
At first Daniel was very understanding for poker games, but the discovery of her cheating surfaced—Daniel, just a false accusation from that woman—you know she's so jealous of my hair—darling, you know, I'd never do such a thing—the weekly games had to come to an end.
She decided to make an amendment to lure her boys once back again, and it turned out her boys weren't as affronted as they pretended to be when it came to strip poker, and one week following the disastrous last game, they were all sitting around the round table, the garments on the table piling up with each passing hour.
The following morning Daniel was furious, and she couldn't have guessed why. It wasn't like she had gone anything further than her camisole, and her pants had stayed on where they belonged. The same thing couldn't be said for the rest of her gaming pals, but well, she would think that he would have thought it was better them than her.
But of course, Daniel being just Daniel, hadn't seen her perfect logic.
So the next month, after another failed attempt when she had tried to pick up how to do roller stake, when Daniel walked into his room, Vala was already there, standing in the middle between his bed and the door, wearing a black lingerie, lips bearing a wicked smile, one eyebrow suggestively cocked up.
The reactions she received weren't the ones she had particularly wished, but still she couldn't say that they were unexpected.
He narrowed his eyes, growled out a worthless grunt, and turned to leave. Well, at least, that was a change. Normally it was her who was thrown out of the room.
"What?" She yelled after him before the door closed on his back. "No games, no strip poker, and now we can't even have a little fun. What am I supposed to do now, Daniel, masturbate?"
He didn't reply back, but his steps faltered, though only for a second, and the next he walked out. He didn't neglect to bang the door behind of course. Quite a drama queen, if she was to be asked.
Then one day, out of the blue, he decided to turn back to SGC, started to pick up his things, and Vala started doing same again, and it was rather shocking how much her things came out of his places. Daniel shook his head, and yammered how inordinate and disorganized she was while he threw the full collection of Star Wars he had pulled out from one of his drawers into a carton box.
Vala rolled her eyes, shot a sarcastic comeback, but they didn't still talk about it.
The base looked like how they had left it; buried under tons of the world's weight upon it, and the dull, metallic walls came a little strange after the sparkling brightness of the ancient city, but after the first night she fell in sleep in Daniel's quarters, it started to come back as home again.
The next day they learned Cam was going to be a father six months later.
Yes, all was not well, the ending of House was a terrible thing if you asked her, but still it was something enough close. The Lucien Alliance bothered them time to time, but what life meant without a little fun, right?
So all was well as much as it could be, so one morning, not particulary different from others, after she raised up from the bed, she decided that it was her turn to broaden her horizon now.
The following day, sitting in the mess alone, she pulled one of napkins on the table, found a pen and wrote down three things.
The first one was the citizenship. IOA was ready to fuss about it but Daniel called Jack, and Jack called the President for a favor, and the end of the month she was sitting in front of a migration officer to fill in her citizenship papers.
The second was that fixing herself a place, a permanent one, belonged all to her, and when she said Daniel about her plan, he looked at her, with that look of his, the one penetrating through her, the one making her feel like she was all transparent, flesh and blood, and he could see all over and beyond.
IOA continued to make a case of it, but Daniel didn't hear any of it. So the next month she was in her apartment; two bedrooms, one living room, and two bathrooms, and it was just a twist of a good fate that one of Daniel's neighbors had moved to Boston last month.
They started to spend the evenings in her home, instead of his, and Daniel left the base each night whenever they weren't off world, but he still ended up sleeping in the couch in the living room, for she didn't offer him her bed. Oddly enough, he didn't ask for it either.
Idiot, she would have gladly shared it with him whereas.
So it brought her to the last entry in her list, the one would be the most challenging. First she tried to play at his jealousy streak and it backfired on her tremendously. It was only because of their inability to break out whatever it was that thing that compelled them to each other, because of that invisible bond, they came out of it somewhat still unscathed.
Then she understood she was making a tactical mistake. So she decided to change the direction of approach, and dropped the flirting stuff all at once, but instead of growing closer, Daniel grew more suspicious. Though the amount of frustration of every kind known to mankind, and the stress of playing the good girl didn't make wonders to her mental wellbeing, and they still ended up tearing each other, literally.
Then as while they were rolling around the floor, her fingers fisted in his hair, suddenly the nature of the fight shifted, and they started making out on the floor, their motions as brutal, hot, and intense as their fighting.
And just when she was about to be free of all clothing and just before Daniel finally made his way in, he suddenly stopped, looked at her, again that look, then she saw lust, desire, and anger lifting off his gaze as if a veil lifting up, and his eyes filled with sorrow and defeat.
He pulled himself off her, gave her a final look, and turned to leave.
And her heart broke into million pieces.
"Don't go," she choked out, letters stuck in her tight throat like beads of glass, and it was a struggle to get them free. "Don't go, Daniel, please."
He stopped on his retreat, but didn't turn back. "Why, Vala. Why?"
She didn't speak, she couldn't, there were more than one million reasons she could think of to tell him why he shouldn't leave, and none of them seemed important, none of them seemed relevant, neither meaningful, nor enough.
Then he spoke in her place, "I'm just tired of this game, Vala."
She sat on her knees, and let out a deep sigh, and confessed, "I am too." And she was, gods knew, she was.
He finally turned, and looked at her, again with that look, the full brand of Daniel Jackson, the same look possibly had seen something in her worth to believe in. The same look possibly had made even an Ancient understand how rare it was to see someone have.
"Do you love me?"
Honesty, she decided then, it was time for honesty. "I don't know." His brows knitted up, and the sight of it looked even more challenging in his current un-Daniel-like dressed state. She stood up and wrapped the thin blanket on the couch over her almost naked body. "I don't know," she repeated, tugging the edge of the fabric in, and lifted her head up to look at him. "How do you know you loved Sha're?"
His brows furrowed even further as he squinted at her. "I—I just knew it."
"That's it," she asked back, voice cracking, "You just knew?"
And the Daniel Jackson, the mighty Daniel Jackson, the men who had defeated false gods, and gods alike, the men who had come back from death countless times, the man who had walked among the gods once upon a time as one of their kind, the man who could talk with every language ever known to mankind, couldn't open his mouth and give her an answer.
Letting out a heavy sigh, she dropped herself on the couch. "I don't know that, Daniel, but I know a thing."
"Which is?"
"Life, my life, this life-it's a way better with you in it than a life I don't have you in it. You make life something more worthy. And what you offered to me, what you're still offering is very precious to me. You are precious to me." She paused to see his reaction. His features had loosened a little bit, his eyes now looking fierce. He started to walk over her, and crouched between her legs.
"You're very precious to me too, Vala."
She waved a hand around. "This isn't just a game, Daniel, not all the time. Why can't you see it?"
"Who says I don't?" he asked back.
"Then what are you afraid of?" she asked exasperated, and gave him a look, fear and anxiety clouding her eyes, "Of me? Are you afraid that I'd hurt you?"
"No," he replied. "I'm perhaps just afraid of being hurt, not particularly by you—" he looked at her, "Though you're possibly more capable of hurting me than any other living soul in this galaxy."
She shook her head. "I'd never hurt you, Daniel, not as long as I'm…possession of myself."
Even the mention of such a prospect was enough to darken his eyes and strained his muscles but a second later he relaxed. He then faintly laughed, and softly touched on her cheek. "Vala, you already did hurt me."
"No, I didn't," she objected, "Though sometimes I really wanted."
He bowed his head, shaking it. "You have no idea what you did to me, what you're doing to me."
"Doesn't seem too much of anything," she grunted under her breath, then let out another deep breath. "Look, I care about you, and you care about me, we care about each other a lot. We're a little bit destructive to each other, but it's not something that we can't work over. Daniel, I want to try this. I don't want labels, I don't care about labels. I want to be with you." Her eyes found his, and she smiled, nicely, shyly, restricting herself to give him a wicked, sly one. "I'm sick of just dreaming it. I want to experience it."
And it worked, wonders of wonders, it finally worked, the reflective look in his eyes darkened before it turned to a disapproving one. "Don't tell me you don't find me attractive."
He let out a laugh, strained, and full of incredulity, "Don't worry, I do find you very attractive."
She smirked, and her eyes fell downwards, towards his pants, where a curious bulge was there to prove correct his words. "So it seems."
He shook his head. "You just can't help it, can you?"
She shrugged. "No, not really." She gave him another look, and licked her bottom lip, "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Well, a few things come to mind," he said thankfully before leaning on her, then pushed her down on the couch.
They didn't make until the bed, but Vala decided the poor coach had deserved this little gift anyway. And when Daniel made his way in, and she wrapped herself around him tightly, her nostrils breathing his scent in, all was Daniel, and all was finally well.