Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 isn't mine (probably a damn good thing considering what I do to it!)
Summary: He'd made her a promise and he would follow through on it even if it cost him everything. Daniel/Vala.
Rating: PG13.
Warning: Yep. I'm doing it again!
ooOoo
"Daniel," she didn't try and whisper and he didn't ask her too; far to content to just lie there, completely relaxed.
"Hmm…"
"Can you promise me something?"
"Uh-huh," whatever she wanted from him she could take, she knew that, but then she also knew that the best time to ask him for anything was after sex because cognitive thought did not correspond very well with being post-coital.
She didn't speak for several moments, curling her body around him, her head resting below his chin and her left hand tracing lazy patterns on his chest. He would have prompted her but his eyes were already closing despite his halfhearted attempts to keep them open.
"Are you still awake?"
His eyes opened again slowly and he shifted, moving his arm from beneath her body to wrap it around her "'m awake,"
"I need you to promise me," she lifted her head as she discovered he was struggling to stay awake and looked him in the eye.
He blinked at her, his free hand brushing her hair away from her face "what?" the concern lacing his voice was echoed by the frown on his face and suddenly the guilt that had started as a tiny sensation in the pit of her stomach seemed to come to life.
"If Adria… if she ever manages to brainwash me; make me belief in Origin. I want you to kill me."
"What?" he exclaimed, unable to think of anything else to say, wait, he could think of hundreds of things to say, in about seven different spoken languages and another three written but not one of them would be able to fully justify the indignant horror at her request.
"It may never happen," she assured him, putting a finger to his lips to signify that he should let her finish "but if she does. If she succeeds and if I ever try and hurt you or any of the team then please." Her eyes became wide in an expression he was not completely unfamiliar with, nor immune to because if it was his credit card bill would have been about half of what it was a year ago. "Please Daniel. I don't ever want to hurt you; don't let me,"
"Vala I-"
"Daniel," she cut him off as she recognized his tone of voice "please," she begged "I want you… need you to promise me,"
He was silent, staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.
"I won't just let her do it. I will try and stop her but I need you to do this for me… just in case,"
She'd already won the battle, but he wasn't going to tell her that, not directly. "I would fight for you," he whispered, his voice barely discernible in the way it always was when it came to him expressing how he felt whether it be through the tiniest of gestures or actual words.
It wasn't that he was shy or embarrassed about them, not really. Everything just meant so much more when it was done quietly and discreetly, when it was private. Yes sometimes she did want to tell the world that she was with him, or even just Sam, Teal'c and Mitchell at the SGC but then she would look at him and realize; privacy was better, if only because it meant that he was completely and totally hers.
"I know," she spoke so quietly it was a wonder he heard her at all.
ooOoo
"Burn them,"
The words echoed in his ears and Daniel could feel Teal'c's eyes darting methodically from the scene unfolding in front of them to the back of his head and back again, as if he were waiting for the archeologist to do something.
"Daniel Jackson-"
Daniel cut jaffa off with a wave of his hand to silence him, and although he was watching Sam and Mitchell he avoided eye contact with either of them. If he looked straight at them then the situation would become even more imminent and then the panic would set in which would not be at all conducive towards a rescue.
Both Lieutenant Colonels were chained in the middle of the town-square, there was no way they could escape from their shackles themselves and certainly not with everyone watching and waiting for the 'unbelievers' to be burnt alive.
Any element of surprise that the two un-captured members of SG1 could have gained was lost when four Ori soldiers seized them from behind, hauling them to their feet and urging them forwards with no amount of finesse. Once forced to their knees at the feet of the woman in the square Daniel kept his head down so as to avoid looking at Teal'c as well because there was no doubt that there was bound to be some form of trepidation in the jaffa's expression. And the last thing he needed right now was to feel that he wasn't the only one that blamed him for this situation.
However his downcast eyes did not go unmissed with the Orisi and she commanded quite serenely for him to look at her. He ignored her for a second, contemplating how defiant he could make himself look if and when he looked at her at all, but it was a second too long and a warrior took it upon himself to force Daniel's head up to look at her.
Adria shook her head slowly. Tracing her hand gently down the side of his face in direct contrast to her brutal personality which, as if on cue, was immediately displayed when she slapped him sharply on the cheek before looking to the villagers. "Burn them," she repeated herself and her tone made it perfectly clear that she did not like doing so.
"Wait!" Daniel exclaimed, as he heard the crackling of the fire reached his ears.
Adria nodded to the Prior to pause the purging of the 'unbelievers' and then looked at the man at her feet; fixing him with a steely gaze that matched that of Teal'c next to him "well?" she prompted expectantly when he didn't say anything.
He didn't continue, holding her eyes for only a moment long before dropping them in defeat when he could not think of anything to say; he was a linguist, an anthropologist. Surely he should know how to get them out of this. How to negotiate with Adria for their release.
"Doctor Jackson don't try my patience," she warned; her voice sickly sweet.
He looked up again "take me,"
"Daniel-" Sam's outraged cry was cut off as she received what sounded like a backhand across the face.
"Let them go and you can have me," Daniel kept eye contact with her, despite how much he wished he could look anywhere else "let them all go,"
For a moment Daniel thought she might refuse the deal but she gave a delicate nod "agreed," then to the villagers "release them,"
Two soldiers hauled Teal'c to his feet whilst Daniel stayed down, and he heard the grunt of anger in his friend's voice as he instructed the men to release him or suffer their consequences, although maybe not in so many words.
"No!" Mitchell exclaimed, jumping to his feet before he had even managed to fully shuck the chains he'd been bound in "Jackson!"
"Just go," Daniel said, unresisting as he was hefted to his feet.
"We're not leaving without you," Sam said firmly.
He bit his tongue to keep from retorting with 'you left Vala'. But that had been months ago and this was her first mission back with them so technically it shouldn't count but he would never forget how it had felt when they had been searching and she was no where to be found. Landry had been forced to call of the search parties although he had neglected to prohibit the teams from selecting their mission destinations of choice from the list of planets that Vala might have been sighted on.
She'd been found by SG3 three weeks ago, she claimed to have no memory of what had happened since the mission that had resulted in her capture but he believed she knew more than she made out not that he wanted to press her on it. If it mattered she would tell him.
Upon exiting the wormhole, she had run from the 'gate room, dodging passed the airmen who were told to stand down by Landry as SG1exited the control room and went to join her in the corridor. She'd thrown herself at him and buried her face in his chest, crying with an intensity that had all propriety thrown out the window and three more pairs of arms engulfing her as well. They were yet to shirk the jokes about the 'team hug'; even General Landry had joined in the jesting.
He didn't know where she was right now, he just hoped she hadn't been caught and would understand why he was doing what he was doing.
"Get off me!" Sam wrenched her arm away from the woman who took it to try and guide her from the town-square. She then addressed Daniel, not that her tone of voice was much different, it was still edged with anger and, much as he dreaded to think about it, betrayal "we are not leaving you here Daniel."
Daniel whirled around and his fists clenched at his sides so as to prevent him from turning round and smacking Adria in the mouth to try and wipe that God-awful smirk from her lips. His guilt doubled when he saw Sam glance warily at his hands as if she thought his fury was aimed at her. Some of it was, but most of it was aimed at him, he wasn't about to tell her that. "Just go will you?" he shouted, "all of you, get out, get back home."
Mitchell was shaking his head and Daniel was grateful that Teal'c remained both silent and impartial, he could probably guess how much the jaffa wished he could just pick him up and carry him back to the 'gate regardless of what he wanted.
"Go!" he yelled again, before turning his back on them and refusing to acknowledge Sam's almost pitiful call of his name as they were escorted away.
"We can't just leave him there!" Sam snapped at Mitchell once they were free of the escorts and by the DHD.
Cam turned on her "you think I want too? We don't have a choice Sam!"
"The hell we don't."
Mitchell understood her guilt over Vala. Hell it ate at him too but he had to ignore it. Pack it away in that little box in his heart that held every memory he hated to admit was his. Alongside the ones where he had watched the men and women he had served with die around him, the one where he found out that instead of hitting it's intended target, the weapon he had released had killed a truck full of innocent people. They were there for when the guilt got the better of him and if he could still remember them clearly enough then he obviously hadn't had enough to drink. It didn't happen often but it was a solid reminder that made him all the more careful.
"We'll get reinforcements." He conceded.
Sam shook her head "they'll be gone by then."
Mitchell paused for several minutes and Sam wasn't certain that he had heard her and so made to repeat it when he spoke "c'mon," he sighed heavily, and if there was any protest from either of his remaining teammates he didn't hear it.
The houses provided to be reasonable cover as everyone had gathered in the square for the 'purging of the unbelievers' and as they crouched behind the house closest to the gathering Cam turned to his teammates "you two try and get Daniel. I'm going go find Vala,"
Reluctant nods of ascent sent them on their way and Mitchell began his meticulous search for the brunette. Not that it took long as he saw her standing in a clearing just off the broken path that led to the Ori mothership that had landed some hundred feet west of his current position.
Edging closer he saw a couple of guards with their backs to Vala come into view and he curled even further into the shadows "Vala," he hissed "Vala!"
Vala turned her head, smiling brightly at him.
He beckoned her over, his actions growing bigger when she frowned as if in confusion at him. He thought she had finally understood when she glanced back at the warriors but he was very much mistaken as she actually called the soldiers over and pointed to his hiding place. Too shocked at her selling him out he froze in place, only moving when they had almost reached him and he regained his senses.
Jumping up he aimed his P-90 at the warriors, absently grateful that the villagers had returned their weapons, for what reason he was yet to fathom but now wasn't the time to study their actions. Not giving it much thought he shot at the warriors and they fell to the ground, bullets peppering the front of their armor and momentarily Cam felt guilty about killing them but logic quickly won out as he forced himself to the conclusion of 'didn't have a choice'.
"What the hell was that about?" he said, a little breathlessly, then as he lowered his weapon; "come on. Adria's got Daniel,"
Vala blinked at him "I know,"
Cam looked at her as if he thought she was stupid "we need to get him back," he said slowly "and we don't really have much time to do it."
Vala just smiled at him.
"Vala…" he said slowly.
"Hallowed are the Ori," she whispered, still smiling at him "hallowed, are, the, Ori," she repeated, slower.
"Stop fooling around Vala," Mitchell snapped, desperately trying to ignore the chill that swept through his insides and made him shudder involuntarily "since when did you think that the Ori were hallow?"
Vala smirked pitifully at him "since my return to Earth," she answered "you mustn't blame him," she continued cryptically.
"Blame who for what?"
"Daniel," she answered "he loves me, it's not his fault. I'm trying to save him; save you all,"
"Save us from what?" his fingers twitched on the trigger of his gun but he didn't raise it "Vala just-"
"You are unbelievers and you must be purged." Vala replied in a voice that suggested she had heard it many times before and she was simply mimicking it, "I've convinced Adria to let me try and help you. If you agree to follow the path then no one will get hurt."
Instantly blocking out all emotional attachment to the woman in front of him Cam raised his P-90 only to have it telekinetically thrown aside as Adria walked up the ridge, Daniel behind her, and two warriors behind him. Briefly Mitchell found himself wondering why Adria bothered with an armed guard at all, they served little purpose except as a display of those she had managed to brainwash into believing as she did.
"Mother," she greeted warmly, dismissing the warriors behind her and gesturing back to the village, no one spoke or moved as the two men marched back to the town.
In a fluid movement Mitchell opened the holster on his thigh and pulled out his sidearm, aiming it at Vala, cocking it and trying to ignore how unnerved he was that Adria hadn't done anything about it.
"What're you doing?" Daniel exclaimed.
"She's not Vala," Cam hiss through gritted teeth, gripping the gun so tightly to try and shield how much he was shaking.
"What? Of course it is."
"Dammit Jackson! She's been brainwashed!" well that sounded ridiculous even in his own ears so how it must have sounded to Daniel he did not know.
Adria and Vala shared a barely discernible look before Vala walked over to the dead warrior's bodies and picked up one of their weapons, powering it up casually as if she had never seen one before she then aimed it at Mitchell who swallowed nervously; who had quicker reflexes?
"Orisi!" there came a cry from the village and Adria sighed, fixing her mother with a questioning look.
"Go," Vala said, "I'll be fine. Leave Daniel behind,"
Adria looked a little disgruntled at her mother's request but did not argue, moving gracefully back down the path, but not before flicking the handgun from Cam's grasp.
Vala turned to Daniel once Adria was out of sight "I'm sorry I lied to you," she said, and she sounded sincere.
"What do you mean?" he frowned in confusion.
"I was trying to save you," she didn't ease him "I still am,"
"Huh?"
If the situation wasn't so serious Cam was sure he would have laughed at how intelligent Daniel did not sound at that point.
Vala turned her head to look at him, but kept her weapon trained on Mitchell "hallowed are the Ori," she announced quietly.
Cam wanted to be sick, because if the words weren't enough to send his stomach on a series of unnatural acrobatics then the expression on Daniel's face was one hell of a catalyst.
"Vala-"
"I'm trying to save you Daniel," she assured him.
"Shut up," he breathed, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides, she wasn't… she couldn't… she wasn't…
"Daniel," she chastised softly "my Daniel,"
"Shut up!" his voice rose and Cam found himself jumping at the sudden increase in volume; he would have felt sheepish if anyone had noticed.
Vala's eyes narrowed "fine," she snapped "kill me then,"
"No,"
"Kill me or I kill him," she shook the weapon in her hands to emphasis her point and Cam swallowed the lump that had risen to his throat.
"I'm not going to kill you," Daniel replied, the statement was more of a plea and Vala picked up on it, something else flickering to life in her eyes that Cam couldn't quite place. The unspoken 'please don't make me' echoed in Mitchell's ears.
"You kill me Daniel," she instructed, taking her eyes away from the man she had at gunpoint "kill me, or I kill him,"
Daniel shook his head defiantly.
Neither one of them noticed as he silently crouched and shifted forwards, flinching when he knocked the gravel and he closed his eyes for a second as he thought he heard Vala turn. When nothing happened he reopened his eyes to find that she was to busy looking at Daniel, on a mental count of three he lunged forwards and picked up his P-90, getting to his feet slowly he ensure the safety had been slipped off and aimed it at Vala. The soft click had Vala whirling to face him.
Turned out they were both pretty evenly matched for reflexes and the only reason neither of them was hit was because Daniel suddenly threw himself at Vala and sent the energy blast from her weapon flying off towards the trees and the P-90 bullet hurtling off into the distance.
Sam knocked Teal'c's arm with the back of her hand, and pointed at Adria as she swept back into the town-square and began talking, in a rather irked manner, to the Prior there.
Teal'c nodded his agreement to her unspoken plan and took lead in the direction that the Orisi had come from. Once they were out of sight from the village they straightened and walked in companionable silence up the path, their pace only quickening at the sound of a gunshot ringing through the air.
Daniel scrambled to his feet as Vala did. The metal of Cam's sidearm burned in his palm and he wanted more than anything to throw it aside but he couldn't.
"I-"
Vala was cut off as Sam yelled out to them; the smile on her face faded instantly as Vala span around and aimed the re-powered weapon at the duo as they ran up over the ridge.
"What's going on?" Sam asked, confused and dropping her P-90 against her chest, her hands up in a surrender motion.
Teal'c was less inclined to lower his gun and stopped, putting a hand out in front of Sam to stop her going any further as well "Vala Maldoran," he said smoothly.
Vala just looked at him before turning back to face Daniel and the Ori weapon back on Mitchell "don't move," she ordered as she head Teal'c shift behind her "nobody moves,"
"Vala put it down…" Sam spoke warily, glancing intermittently at Mitchell as she said it, jaw almost dropping as she saw Daniel raise the handgun to level with Vala's chest.
Vala shook her head but didn't take her eyes off of Daniel "I will kill him," she stated "I will do it and-"
The shot rang out across the area and it seemed for a moment that in a clichéd manner the world had stopped. There was nothing but her and him and the gun in his hand. The silence was bearable until it went away and then everything came back so loud it hurt his head.
All three of them started calling his name but he ignored them; frozen in position, in time, unyielding and immobile as he watched her fall to her knees. Blood rushed across her chest so fast it was almost laughable, her skin went from tan to ivory and her lips became even redder as blood bubbled up her throat and seeped through her open mouth all in a matter of seconds.
Mitchell rushed over to him as Sam went to Vala as she slumped forwards. The other man's fingers had been like fire against his skin and he relinquished the hold on the Beretta and stumbled forwards to where Sam was checking Vala's pulse even though she knew it wouldn't be there.
Sam pressed the backs of her fingers against her lips as tears spilled down her cheeks and Daniel sat next to Vala silently and pulled her into his arms. Teal'c took the blonde's elbow and helped her to her feet, as Mitchell stood where Daniel had, the gun held loosely in his hand as he stared at the lifeless form of the woman in the archaeologist's arms.
The tears were heavy and fast, the sobs were non-existent and he wrapped his entire body around hers possessively, squeezing her so tight she would have, not sixty seconds ago, complained it hurt.
He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, how long any of them did. It felt like a lifetime before Mitchell holstered the gun with such haste it was as if he blamed the weapon itself not its beholder for… Vala.
"We have to go," Sam said, her voice hoarse and painful, her cheeks red where she had tried uselessly to scrub away her tears "before… before Adria comes back and…" she licked her lips and looked at the heavens, squeezing her eyes shut; she didn't continue her sentence.
Teal'c went and picked up the P-90 that lay on the floor and Mitchell took it in a daze, clipping it back to his vest before leaning over next to Daniel "come on," he took his arm gently but firmly as Teal'c went to take Vala from him.
"No," he replied firmly "no,"
"Daniel…" Sam begged.
"Jackson please," Cam ran a hand over his face, wiping the moisture from his eyes in the same movement.
"No," he said again, his voice thick and definitive.
He wasn't sure how they got him back to the 'gate.
The shot was still audible now, four hours after it had been fired.
She'd asked him to do it. Made him promise to stop her.
There had to have been another way.
"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely "I… you made me promise."
That was wrong. Blaming her, making out like it was her fault. That promise had been made nearly a year ago – was it really that long? The others didn't even know yet. He laughed wryly.
"You remember… a little while after you came back from the Ori Galaxy, I took you to dinner? You looked beautiful… you did everyday," he smiled "you knew that." He paused in reminiscence, there was a sound out in the hallway but he ignored it, his smile fading. "You made me promise," he accused her "you knew I couldn't say no, you knew I wouldn't be able to turn you down and yet you asked me anyway," he stopped, taking several deep breaths that were far from calming "how was that fair? How could you ever possibly think that asking me to do what you did was fair?"
He got to his feet and sideswiped the chair viciously. It clattered against the wall before falling over and the morgue was plunged into silence again. He turned his back on the gurney before turning around again "well guess what? I did it!" he gestured wildly, his hands once more unwilling conduits "I killed you, I killed you!"
His breaths were loud, deafening in his own ears.
"You can't hurt anyone now – is that what you wanted? Is this what you wanted?" he gestured to the morgue walls "because if it is you were sicker than I thought."
Words were flying from his mouth like poisonous arrows; each held their own value in truth but all so wrong in their attack that it made him nauseous to think that he was actually saying what he was saying.
"Is this what you wanted?" he shouted so loud he thought his throat might tear and if he had been capable of thinking straight he would have wondered if anyone had heard him – why were morgue's always in the basement? How did a mountain have a basement?
His throat was constricting again, his chest tightening and his vision blurring as grief and fury converged as one to send him into a spiral of vertigo he as too tired to fight yet unable to surrender too.
"I loved you," he said thickly "why did you…" he swallowed, ignoring his tears as they ran, unbidden, down his cheeks, "I tried!" he exclaimed defensively "I tried and… and… and…"
None of the others even knew. He and Vala had – officially - been together a year and they were going to tell everyone else tonight. There was no real reasoning behind the secret, it just never came up and it… what a way to spend your fucking anniversary.
It was Sam's birthday and even as he tried not to remember her last one where one to many drinks had sent both he and Vala on a trip where truth was their only guest and each other their only companions, it just became clearer. The night had ended much differently to how it had started and whilst he knew honestly that he didn't regret a second of it or the year that followed, right now most of him was protesting under the emotional strain of what they had stumbled into.
The anger was dissipating and he hated the gaping hole it left; it was if the universe was hell bent on leaving it wide open. First his parents to open the bottomless void, then there was Sha're, Janet now Vala… wasn't he ever meant to be whole?
The team was supposed to be going out to dinner later and he and Vala had planned to tell the others about them then. Jack was even coming back from Washington to help Sam celebrate; Daniel was supposed to meet him at the airport in two hours.
He flinched when he felt something hit his leg and he saw Vala's arm had slipped from the gurney. Lifting her hand like it was porcelain he went to put it back under the sheet but the light caught something and he looked down; she was still wearing it.
He ran his thumb across it before he replaced her hand back under the sheet. There was no need for them to know, not now. For now the secret was his too keep, not that it should ever have been a secret in the first place.
They hadn't asked about it yet and if they ever did? If they ever did then he'd tell them but for now he didn't have the words to say anything.
Because how do you explain away a lie so big?
How do explain why neither of you said anything, by yourself?
How was he supposed to explain away an eighteen-carat engagement ring on Vala's left hand?
Every promise has a price, and not all promises are worth keeping. The prices to high, the risks to great… something mundane and menial that in the grand scheme of things is completely ridiculous.
His promise had a price far larger than he had been willing to pay but that price hadn't been even half of what it had cost.
His promise had cost him her.
Author's Notes: Okay, so should I be at all worried that my 'specialty' seems to be death fiks?! I seem to be able to come up with a multitude of ways for the characters to die no matter what the fandom…