O' Daughter of Ours
By Fiera Sabre
Summary: Daniel and Vala have a daughter? When? How? Read on to find out!
--Rated T for safety—
General/Romance/SciFi/Action/Adventure
Daniel sighed in frustration and shut the book he'd been trying to reference from. It was no use! The dialect seemed too obscure for even him to translate. He was just moving to shut off his computer when he glimpsed a snatch of text that he could read. Amongst the rows of coded Ancient, there were a few sentences in plain un-coded Ancient. Daniel eagerly read the few sentences, hoping they would contain some clue as to how to read the rest of the text. His shoulders slumped in disappointment when he realized they were obviously unrelated. The few short sentences seemed to be more of a file heading than anything else; they read:
File: 274924830298395784
Experiment: 273849
Subject: Male human, Tau'ri, 6',
And the list went on to describe many more physical characteristics that Daniel wasn't interested in. He skipped ahead and found a companion to the first entry, female this time.
Subject2: Female human, Galactic, 5'9",
Again the list went on, but several details caught his eye this time. They sounded oddly familiar…
Hair: Black, Eyes: Grey,
Daniel's hand shifted, and he accidentally clicked on the sentences with his mouse, and a new file with several pictures popped up. Again, the writing was in Ancient, but it was all regular Ancient, not coded. He started reading, occasionally glancing at the pictures, they seemed familiar somehow… This appeared to be an expanded version of the file. There were still no names to the pictures, but there was a name for the scientist responsible for this experiment: Loki.
The file wasn't very detailed, but it outlined essentially that in his cloning work, Loki had sought to improve upon the Tau'ri stock by adding new blood from elsewhere in the galaxy. He had also thought to take and store the DNA code of each individual in the file for comparison with 'The Result.' As Daniel read on, he found that Loki had taken DNA from each 'subject' and combined them to somehow form a fetus. He had then implanted the fetus in another Tau'ri woman who was completely unrelated to either subject. She had given birth to the 'result,' and raised the child as her own since she had no knowledge of it's true parentage. Loki hadn't been satisfied with the result of his experiment, and retired it temporarily, but he had placed a marker or beacon of sorts in the child so he could find it later if necessary. Daniel noted that the project was dated about sixteen years ago. He scrolled down and found two simple DNA scans, each one labeled subject one or two. He saved the scans to a disc and trotted down to the infirmary, knowing that with all the teams on base it would be a quiet day for Doctor Lam. It was out of human curiosity that he wanted to see if it they were anyone they had on file. That, and the strange feeling he got whenever he looked at the pictures now. Like he'd known them at some point…
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Two hours later, Daniel's phone rang shrilly and he jerked his head off his desk where it had been resting. Yawning, he stumbled over to the phone and picked up.
"'Lo…Jackson here…"
"This is Dr. Lam, Daniel."
"Oh, yeah. Did you get those results back?"
"Sure did, and what's more surprising is that we have both people in our file."
That woke Daniel up. "What? You're saying they both work here? But the woman wasn't recorded as being from Earth, so it'd have to be…Vala?" Daniel was confused now. The chances of it being Vala had been so small originally, but to have it be her, and add to that that she worked on base now…That was weird. He cleared his throat, not sure if he wanted to know who the man was. He just had to ask, though.
"So…Who's the man?"
"You"
"No, I mean, who was the male subject in Loki's experiment?"
"You" was Dr. Lam's reply again. "I ran them both twice to be sure, and it's a perfect match."
"Ahh…" Daniel wasn't quite sure what to say or do. Strange emotions were roiling inside him, and he wasn't altogether sure that if he opened his mouth they would stay inside.
"I, uh, I should probably go…" Without waiting for a reply, Daniel hung up. He made it to his chair and sank down, his legs suddenly weak. He closed his eyes and tried to sort through all the emotions unfurling deep inside.
Fear, love, joy, apprehension, hope? A strange combination. Vulnerability is lurking in there somewhere too. What am I supposed to feel? I've just learned that I was part of an unsanctioned Asgard's project, and because of that, I have a child! And Vala is that person's other half, the one Loki paired with me to make this happen. Perhaps the worst thing about it is that I don't have any recollection of it.
Deciding that he'd appropriated enough time to thought on the matter, Daniel turned back to the file, trying to find more information on the tracking technology used in the child. His search came up empty, mostly. He did find a sample of DNA from the child, and saved it on a disc, his curiosity in overdrive now. He had to know if she was someone nearby. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she was, but he had to know. Daniel asked Carolyn if she could do a comparison search on all DNA samples in the United States, since he had narrowed the geographical spread of where she might be to the USA.
Carolyn looked apprehensively at the disc. "Daniel…You do realize that this could take a while?"
Daniel nodded vigorously. "Of course. Maybe you could start in the area around the complex and work your way out?" He put his best charming look on his face, making his eyes just a bit wider, and brightening his face with hopeful anticipation.
Carolyn narrowed her eyes at Daniel. When he did that to his face… She was sure Vala had been coaching him on that look, and she found her excuses crumbling and her lips already forming the word "Alright…" Darn! She hated it when he did that…
Carolyn set a search system up and left it to run overnight while she went home to sleep in her own bed. Daniel also returned to his home that night, and fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.
The following morning…
Daniel grabbed a mug of coffee in the commissary then headed for Dr. Lam's office instead of his own. Halfway down the corridor, he doubled back and snatched another cup of coffee for Dr. Lam. He doubted she was really a morning person, as he'd seen her nursing a cup of coffee much like he himself did. It was a little ironic, when you considered all her warnings about coffee being bad for your health. When he did reach her office, he found her there with her head in her hands and no coffee in sight. Daniel set the steaming mug down with a dramatic flourish and gave her a light tap on the head with one finger.
"Morning, doctor." Her head jerked up to find Daniel grinning down at her, a cup of coffee clasped in one hand. She frowned. "You know, that stuff is going to kill you someday…"
If it was possible, his grin got bigger and his gaze shifted from her to just in front of her. She followed his gaze with her own and found the companion cup to his own sitting in front of her. Completely forgetting her previous warning, she eagerly grabbed the cup and took a sip, letting the aroma and flavor-not to mention caffeine- wake her up to a state of comprehension. With that, she realized what he'd just done. She glared at him over the rim of her mug. "That wasn't fair, Daniel!"
Daniel smirked at her in reply. "So are any search results in yet doc?"
"Lemme check…" Her voice trailed off as she opened up several files on her computer. "Yep. And there's…A match."
Her voice held as much surprise as he felt. "A match? Where?" Surely not in Colorado Springs…That would just be…weird. Not that his day to day life wasn't weird, but that would be possibly beyond the normal range of coincidence.
"No, not Colorado Springs, at least not in the town itself. Her last known address is on the outskirts of town, out in the country. Should I be doing this for you?"
Her question caught him slightly off guard. "Why not? I mean, you already have the information up, so why not tell me?"
"Why indeed…" She gave a quick smile before turning her attention back to the screen. "You know, you should probably tell General Landry about this. Write up a report or something, I find that works best."
"Yeah…" He sighed, wondering just how he was going to broach the subject of…this. "Well, if I'm going to do that, I should probably get started. I'll see you around." With that, he left for his office, now trying to sort out all the information that he would have to include in the report.
A/N: Ok, This probably looks like a Daniel/Carolyn shippy fic, and I'll admit that it's tempting to see where it might go, but I have plans for Daniel and Vala here, so it'll have to wait for another fic. –sigh— Anyhoo, This will probly be the last thing I put up before I leave, so you'll all have to wait for the next chap! Since this is a new fic idea, please, please, PLEASE!!!! review!!! I shall await your reviews…randomness(I'm still listening to the POTC3 soundtrack…) /randomness