Begin Again

by Cynical

Daniel checked the sparking control panel. "Shields are off-line!" he cried.

"One more hit will take us out!" said Mitchell.

Landry hit the com button on his chair. "Colonel Carter!"

Sam pulled herself up from the floor in the control room and moved towards the Asgard control unit. She reached for the controls, but a hand shot out and stopped her.

"Don't!"

"Who are you?" asked Sam looking up at the young woman.

"Here, use this to disconnect the power-source and jump to hyper-space." She shoved a crystal into Sam's hand. Sam hesitated. "Sam, do it now or you'll all die!" Sam blinked stared at the blue eyes of this stranger and shoved the crystal into place.

"Activate the hyper-drive now!" she cried.

The Odyssey jumped to hyperspace and Landry called down to the control room.

"Good job Colonel we thought our goose was cooked back there."

Sam walked over to the com unit and hit the button still keeping an eye on their visitor.

"Thanks sir, I wish I could take the credit, but we have a visitor on board."

"Who is it?" Daniel's voice came over the box. The girl smiled.

"He said he was curious about everything." she said.

"OW!" They all turned as Vala got up from the floor.

"Oh my god it's you!" said the girl. "You look so young!"

"Why thank you so much! I enjoy all compliments, usually from strange men but…" she looked at the girl. "Who are you?"

"That's what I was about to ask." said Sam. "I know all the crew by sight if not by name." she said "And I've never seen you before."

"Oh, sorry, I'm Claire."

"Nice to meet you I'm Vala, this is Sam."

"Oh, I know who you are I'm from the future."

"Colonel, report." said Landry over the radio.

"Stand-by sir." said Sam.

"Look," said Claire. "I'd love to explain everything; I really want to see Hank, and Teal'c and my Da-Daniel again."

"Hey, if he's anyone's Daniel he's mine." said Vala.

"I'll tell you everything, I promise but it's very long story and I'd prefer not to have to repeat myself."

"General, I request you meet us in the dinning room, our visitor claims to be from the future, and those stories are better told in person." said Sam into the com panel.

"Alright Colonel, we'll get things squared away up here and meet you there."

It was several hours before the ship could be left on auto-pilot and the remaining crew gathered in the ship's main dining room.

"The information we saved from the Asgard could be invaluable, I'd like to start going through the database immediately." Daniel and Landry walked into the briefing room together.

"As soon as we get back to earth you'll have full access while the repairs are taking place." said Hank.

"Hello." The two men looked up at the greeting. Claire stood at the side of the table. There was something familiar about this girl thought Landry, something in the long dark hair, or the way she stood with her arms folded over her chest or maybe the slight smile that sparkled in her blue eyes.

"You must be our new visitor from the future, apparently." said Hank.

"I'm Claire." she said with a smile.

"I'm General Landry, and this is…"

"I know who you are." she said smiling, "I grew up with you, at least I would have if Sam had done what she was about to do."

"Which was what exactly?" asked Hank as the whole crew took a seat about the table.

"I was about to use the Asgard power-source to activate a time dilation field that would have essentially slowed time on the ship to give me enough time to figure out how to disconnect the Asgard drive from the ship." said Sam.

"That's right." said Claire. "And you did, have enough time I mean, it took a while but you got there and managed to reverse the time that had passed and allowed me to be protected so I could stop you from restarting the whole thing all over again." Claire stared at the table of blank looks.

"I'm sorry, maybe I came in late." said Mitchell, "but who are you?"

"I told you I'm Claire."

"Wait a minute." said Sam. "If in your future I activated the time dilation field that would mean we were trapped on the Odyssey for years maybe with no way off and only fractions of seconds passing on the outside of the field."

"That's right." said Claire.

"I think what Colonel Carter is trying to say is we were all stuck alone on the ship for all that time, so where did you come from?" asked Vala.

"I would have thought that would be obvious by now." said Claire.

"Your name is Claire." said Daniel thoughtfully.

"That was my mother's name." said both Daniel and Vala together. The paused and looked at each other.

Claire grinned. "That's what you said you'd do."

"Who said who'd do?" asked Vala.

"You did. I know you, I know you all. I grew up on this ship." said Claire. "I was born on this ship inside the time dilation field."

"But since all the crew got out in the escape pods." said Mitchell. "That would mean that you're..."

"Oh come on!" said Vala. "Isn't it obvious? Sam and Mitchell had a kid while we were all cooped up."

Claire laughed out loud and the two Colonels looked at on another in shock and then disbelief. "Sorry Mom, no dice." Claire pulled out two data crystals and handed one each to Daniel and Vala. "You both knew it would be difficult for you to accept me and so you left yourselves a message. I hope this helps you understand and accept the reality that I came from. I'm fully prepared for the reality that I don't exist in, I was a fluke. But I want you to know and you both wanted to make clear that what you had there was more than a reaction of circumstance."

Daniel picked up the data crystal without looking up at either Claire or Vala, who slid her own across the table and put it in her pocket. "I'll view it later." she said.

"I think we should take a short break, and allow this news to sink in." said Landry. "Colonel Carter, why don't you take our guest to one of the empty crew barracks?"

"Yes, sir." said Sam and motioned for Claire to follow. Mitchell and Teal'c left with Landry and Daniel and Vala remained at the table alone.

"So what does this mean?" asked Daniel finally looking up.

"It means at some point in her future, we actually had sex, at least once." said Vala with none of her usual levity on the subject.

Daniel gripped the crystal in his hand. "I think I want to watch this alone." he said.

Vala nodded. "Yeah, me too." she said and after a moment she got up and left.

Daniel stood up after a moment and inserted the crystal into a display at the front of the room. Then he took the place at the head of the table and hit play. Even though he was expecting it, he was surprised to see the older version of himself lumber into the shot.

"Hello." said Old Daniel. "If you're seeing this then Claire has done it, she survived the ship's destruction and the reversal of the time field and managed to convince Sam not to repeat her mistake. Good for her! Now this is where things get complicated for us, and by us I mean me and the young me who will be watching this recording.

"So you don't have any memory of the last thirty years in the time field because we've prevented that from coming to pass. However, you will have to deal with the consequences of my actions. By that I of course mean Claire, she's a good girl and she shouldn't have to bear the fall-out from our emotional retardation. Now don't pull a face, I'm old I don't have to be tactful. We made a choice to keep them all at arms length and frankly my arms were getting tired before this mission even started.

"She's a good woman, Vala I mean, we have more in common than I know you're willing to see right now, but you do know that much. Her feelings are real and if you let your guard down a little you'll find it's easy to return them as well. I'm not saying you have to love her. We both know that's not the way it works, but it won't kill you to give her a chance. Just because we were trapped here doesn't mean we were forced together." he paused to smile wistfully. "Oh, no, I fought myself every step of the way and I fought her too. It took a long time to let down those walls, don't expect it to happen overnight, and don't give in just because of Claire. She knows how hard it's been for both of us and she understands that what we've done to save ourselves may in effect invalidate her existence, but she's grown up with that knowledge its part of her identity. Be a friend if you can't be a father, I know it's a difficult thing to ask, but hell I'm you I know you can push yourself to do it for her. She's a great kid and she'll love you for who you are now, and not for who I am. I'm sorry to do this to you especially now, but she's my daughter and I couldn't let her die to save myself." He stood and turned off the camera.

Vala went to her bunk and stuck the crystal into her own viewer. She sat down and watched her old self come into view. "I went gray." she said.

"I know what you're thinking." Old Vala said on screen. "I went gray. We always said if it went gray we'd dye it, but quite some time ago I realized there are more important things. If you're watching this, younger me I mean, that means Claire is there too and well Claire requires little explanation since she is the result of doing what I've wanted to do since I zatted Daniel on the bridge of the Prometheus and tied him up." Both Valas smiled at the memory. "Take care of her, she's special the best of both of us and more than we ever were alone." Old Vala paused as if trying to phrase her next thought. "He's afraid, Daniel that is, he's afraid of letting himself be with anyone, he's afraid that the feelings you have aren't sincere, it took time for those barriers to fall and if we were truly meant to be then you'll have to be patient. I know it's not one of our virtues, but he was worth changing for, and he was worth surviving for, so maybe for you as it was for me, he'll be worth waiting for."

Sam showed Claire to the crew quarters and they went inside.

"So," said Sam. "Daniel and Vala…"

"Are my parents. Yeah."

"It's so funny; I always thought that I'd be the one."

"I know, but limited options, and everyone looking to you for the way out. You couldn't let yourself settle, you never could."

"What does that mean?"

"Mom and Dad have lived through so much tragedy and loss in their lives that once they both saw the option was open to them for happiness in a difficult situation, they took it." Claire shrugged. "You're a scientist you knew that your life would go on once you'd solved your problem. You couldn't allow yourself to settle down in the now, because you're always living in the possibilities of the future. You did it you were right you solved it and now Mom and Dad have to deal with the fall-out as usual."

"They were happy together?"

"They were happy, and sad and annoyed and frustrated and besotted and perplexed and euphoric and ecstatic and melancholy." Claire smiled. "They were in love."

Daniel returned to his quarters after viewing the recording and sat for a while, with his journal, writing himself in circles trying to figure out how he felt knowing that in that alternate timeline he'd been with Vala, and not only that had a child with her. He wasn't sure if this would make fending off his teammate easier or harder, knowing he went to her only while trapped could work for him, but that he went to her at all worked against. Did he really want to fend her off anymore? His older self was right, he was tired of holding them all at arms length, but was he ready for a real relationship, and with Vala? It boggled the mind. Daniel stood he need to walk to think more.

Vala walked up the corridor unerringly to Daniel's compartment; she needed to see him, to know that this wouldn't screw up their friendship, if nothing else she still needed to be with him even if only in the limited way that he allowed. Just then the door opened and Daniel stepped out.

"Oh, hi." said Vala. "I was just coming to see you."

"You were? I'm surprised, I'm still not sure what to make of all this, I mean it's still a little strange."

"I guess they were in an extreme circumstance."

"Temporal paradox's give me a headache." said Daniel. "But I know that just because something happened then doesn't mean it will happen now, but it also doesn't discount other happenings under other circumstances." Daniel frowned. "Does that make any sense?"

"Not really." said Vala smiling, "but I understand. I just wanted to let you know, that I don't care." Daniel looked confused. "I don't care about alternate timelines or other realities where people and places are different from what they are now. I don't care. All I care about it right here and right now. I care about you, and whether you believe me or not or return those feelings or not it doesn't matter, that's the truth right now." She reached up and cupped his cheek, holding his gaze with hers. "I've never cared about anyone, as much as I care about you. And I don't care if it takes you a week, or two months or ten years to open up to me, for me. All I care about is keeping what I have, our friendship, a corner in your life that I can be near you and help you and tease you and frustrate you." she smiled. "And maybe even love you. I'm willing to wait, and let you find your way here to me." She reached up and pecked him on the cheek and then walked off.

Daniel watched her go in shock and disbelief. He touched his face where she had kissed him, he felt something come over him, and he smiled.

This one I blame on Cleo, she's the one that's made this ship acceptable to me, with her great D/V stories. I may never write another ship story but this one is one is all your fault Cleo:-D

Cynic