Chapter One

The cliff dropped away with no warning.

Daniel had been slightly ahead of Vala, racing through the thick, tall grass which came up higher than themselves when suddenly - he was gone. The ground just crumbled from beneath his feet and he disappeared, hurtling downwards without even having time to shout a warning to the others. He heard Vala's startled gasp as he vanished from right in front of her, then a little cry and he was aware that she was falling as well.

Daniel tried to grab at something, anything as he plummeted downwards but really – that was only how actors managed to save themselves in movies. The cliff face was sandy, with no roots or rocks protruding from it, the only faint hope that he had was that it was not a sheer drop but more of an extremely steep hill.

Tumbling rapidly towards the sandy floor of the valley, Daniel attempted to relax his body as much as possible. Still, when he finally hit the ground he felt the shock jar throughout his entire body. His right ankle twisted hard underneath him as he toppled with a grunt onto his side, smacking his head against the ground. The last thing he was aware of before he passed out was Vala landing in a flurry of dirt and flailing limbs beside him.

- o - o - o - o - o -

SG-1 had been heading back at full speed towards the Stargate, a dozen or so angry bandits hard on their heels.

The council in the local town, friendly and co-operative during their previous visits, had been surly and ungracious from the outset on this occasion. The whole team had felt edgy and tense – called in to a meeting with the elders they had been virtually ordered off of the planet.

When Colonel Mitchell had queried as to why the sudden turnaround in support the council chairman had briefly wavered in his stance. He seemed as if he was about to speak – right before several hidden men appeared from strategic positions around the room. Nobody doubted that they were either Lucian Alliance, or their very close allies.

SG-1, relieved now of their weapons, had been marched from the room and out of the building, heading off towards the east and the desert flatlands that lay in that direction. Mitchell thought that the Alliance probably had a ship out there.

But before they reached the boundary of the town several bolts fired from hidden crossbows hit a number of SG-1's captors who fell, giving the team a chance to run for the Stargate. They had managed a fairly decent head start before they heard other members of the enemy start to follow them.

Immediately Mitchell had shouted for the team to use the cover of the grass that grew along the edges of the flatlands. Everyone had plunged in among the tall, rush-like plants, and continued to race along at full speed.

Somewhere during their flight Daniel and Vala must have veered off, away from Teal'c and Mitchell.

The archaeologist found himself slightly ahead of his team mate before suddenly realizing that they were both far too close to the edge of the cliff. Vala had managed to pull back slightly, away from the drop, but Daniel felt the sandy ground begin to crumble under his feet and before he could do anything about it he was falling almost straight downwards, heading for the rocky valley bottom below.

Mitchell and Teal'c, further away from the cliff face had managed to keep on track - they continued to head towards the Stargate, unaware of the misfortune that had befallen their team mates. The DHD was already alight as the duo pelted headlong towards their escape route, the last chevron locking into place. One of their hitherto unseen allies stood next to it, waiting for them.

"Hurry, friends, hurry!" he had called, firing a bolt from his cross bow over their heads, before making his own escape through the long grass. "Do not think that all your allies on this world have abandoned you!"

"Go through!" Mitchell ducked behind the DHD. "I'll wait for Jackson and Vala!"

Teal'c, in the best tradition of all SG-1 members, had ignored his CO and crouched next to him.

"I too will wait."

"We have no weapons!" the Colonel looked angrily at the Jaffa. "At least one of us should get back to the SGC."

"We cannot leave DanielJackson and ValaMalDoran," Teal'c drew a hidden knife from inside his boot, and another from down the back of his trousers.

"Where..?" Mitchell's eyebrows were raised as high as they could go.

In answer the Jaffa hurled one of the weapons in the direction of a swiftly approaching adversary, hitting him in the neck. The man dropped to the ground, blood spurting from his wound. Another antagonist seemed to think better of it and retreated, running back towards the town.

"How did you..?" Mitchell was still bemused as to how Teal'c had managed to secrete the two knives around his person.

"Ronon Dex." His team mate spoke sombrely. "He is extremely skilled in the concealment of weaponry about his person. We exchanged much information on such techniques when last we met."

There was a fierce and sudden clap of thunder from overhead. The heavy, muggy air around them was fairly zinging with electricity. And still there was no sign of Daniel or Vala.

"We must both return to the SGC." Teal'c looked gravely at his CO. "It is already evening and twilight approaches. We should report to General Landry and return with reinforcements."

Mitchell paused, then nodded slowly. "Yeah." Sighing, he stood up cautiously. The wormhole was still pulsing and shimmering within the gate. "I hope they others' are okay. Let's just cross our fingers that they're stuck and can't get to us. C'mon."

He stepped away from the DHD as another huge roll of thunder rumbled around them, and led the way up the steps and back to the SGC.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Hitting the ground just a few seconds after Daniel, Vala had managed to shift position somehow as she fell, landing more or less on top of her backpack, which had cushioned the landing. Thus she had managed to avoid any serious injury, escaping miraculously with just scrapes and bruises. Struggling up, covered in sand and bits of plant debris, she had quickly realised that Daniel wasn't going to be coming back to the land of the living any time soon, so she'd pulled him tightly in against the cliff face, hiding them both in case anyone looked down from above.

Vala wasn't sure how long she held the archaeologist close against herself, but after a while it was obvious that nobody was aware of their manic descent, not even Mitchell and Teal'c. Leaving Daniel for a few moments she'd crept along the bottom of the cliff, looking for somewhere to hide. A couple of hundred yards or so further along the sand became more stony and earthy – another short distance and there was a long horizontal rock propping up several smaller rocks. At some point in the past it looked as if persons unknown had dug back into the earth – there was a short tunnel leading on a slight incline up into the cliff face.

It was all Vala needed to see. She had ran back to Daniel, taken her jacket off and tied the sleeves under his armpits. Grasping the bottom of the garment she then used it to pull her team mate slowly but surely along the ground towards the small cave. She was panting and red faced by the time that they arrived – the sticky, hot climate of the local area not helping her.

Vala had wiped her sweaty hands down her pants and carefully lugged Daniel into the shady recess. Inside the small cave the air was only marginally less sultry than outside, but at least it gave a degree or two of relief. The first rumble of thunder rolled overhead as she slipped back along the cliff face to collect the two backpacks. Vala winced as she hauled one up onto her bruised shoulders and began to drag the other along behind her.

When she reached the small cave again Daniel had been mumbling unintelligibly under his breath. He stirred momentarily as his breathing hitched and Vala thought that he might come to, but he drifted away again. Tipping some water from her bottle onto a tissue she had used the cool cloth to gently wipe across the archaeologist's forehead, being especially careful around the large bruise she found on the right side.

Daniel didn't move.

Sighing, she expertly ran her hands gently over his body as she felt for further injuries. The grossly swollen right ankle was soon discovered and attended to with more damp wipes.

Daniel had winced and turned his head on the makeshift pillow.

"Sssshhh." Vala stroked his face very gently, watching as he settled again.

So now, several hours after their swift descent down the cliff, Vala sat beside the archaeologist, in a rapidly darkening cave, with a thunder storm rumbling about outside. She could only hope that their two team mates had managed to reach the Stargate and get help. The fact that she hadn't heard any weapons fire from the top of the cliff at any point gave her some hope.

Rummaging about in her backpack, Vala pulled out an energy bar and scoffed it quickly. She eyed the bar of chocolate which was in the same pocket – pressing it dubiously she pouted, realising it was undoubtedly more of a chocolate puddle inside it's wrapping by now.

Oh well, still chocolate, she thought to herself, unwrapping it as best she could and polishing it off in a most unladylike manner, with a lot of slurping and finger licking.

Vala had just sucked the last bit of chocolate off of the paper and was licking her fingers individually when she was aware that Daniel was watching her from where he lay against the wall.

"Hello darling," she crawled over to him, and gently lifted the damp tissue from his forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm not sure," his clear blue eyes were puzzled. "Did I fall off of a cliff?"

"You did. Me too." Vala stroked his cheek gently. "It most definitely wasn't my fault though. You definitely went off the edge before me. I'm an innocent party in all this!"

She looked virtuous. Lightening zigzagged outside the cave and a huge crack of thunder rang out overhead. Daniel was not unaware that his team mate cringed closer to him.

"You okay?" Daniel tapped her arm.

His team mate plastered the wide, insincere smile across her face. "Absolutely darling. I'm not scared of a silly old storm." Vala laid her hand carefully against his ankle. "How does this feel?"

Distraction, she thought to herself. Don't pay attention to the storm. It can't hurt you. Don't pay attention to it.

Daniel screwed his face up in pain as he tried to move his right leg. "It feels like Teal'c sat on it," he told her. A pause. "Did he?"

Vala chuckled. "No." Her expression sobered. "I don't know what happened to Muscles and Cameron. I just hope that they managed to get to the Stargate."

"We were running." The archaeologist lay quietly, trying to remember. "We were running for the 'gate – through long grass, right?"

"Mmm." More thunder. Vala's fist clenched tightly on Daniel's shirt. She barely realized as he gently untangled her fingers and rubbed his thumb across her palm.

"That's the last thing I remember," the archaeologist carried on speaking. "Long grass, falling. Then what happened?"

"Well, I landed on my rucksack and discovered that you'd already managed to knock yourself out, you silly boy." Vala flicked her hair over her shoulder. "So I sneaked along the cliff and found this lovely little cave and then went and brought you here." She paused briefly. "I don't think that they know we're here. I mean, I suppose that they would have sent some horrible, grumpy locals to come and root us out if they realised where we were."e kept hold of the smaller hand in his own.

"Well done." Daniel smiled, feeling suddenly weary. His head was thumping, he felt sick and his ankle was killing him.

Vala smiled – not the fake smile but a gentle, caring one. Unwillingly she pulled her hand slowly from his before holding her water bottle to his lips. "Here." She helped him take a long, cool drink, then took a quick swig herself. Afterwards she unwrapped another energy bar and popped it into Daniel's mouth, a little at a time, making small talk to distract him from the pain of his ankle. When he'd finished she rummaged in one of the pockets of her pack and produced some Advil which she told him to take, in no uncertain terms.

"You're turning into Carolyn," Daniel grinned tiredly, knocking the pills back with another swallow of water.

Vala reclaimed the bottle, eyeing it's contents thoughtfully. We'd better be careful, she thought, we don't know how long this is going to have to last for.

The thunder broke like an explosion directly overhead mere milliseconds after a flash of lightening lit up the interior of the cave, as brightly as if it were midday.

Vala jumped visibly.

"Hey," Daniel winced as he pushed himself up a little. "Come here." He tugged his team mate's arm gently, succeeding in pulling her closely and very carefully against him.

"I'm not scared, darling, you know," Vala told him, gray eyes wide and apprehensive. "I just think that perhaps you need a bit of comfort this evening. You know, having hit your head and all that. Not that I need to be protected or anything. Or be looked after, because as you well know, it was me doing all the looking after business today. I mean, you'd be still lying at the bottom of that cliff if it wasn't for me, darling. Getting very wet by now undoubtedly."

Another crash and long roll of thunder. Daniel stretched his arm further around his team mate.

Vala turned and snuggled as close against him as was humanly possible. "I'm not scared," she repeated, her hand clutching at the front of his shirt.

"I know." Daniel rested one cheek against her dusty hair.

Lying in silence, they waited for the storm to pass.

TBC...