A/N: Thank you to all who review. I have a serious review addition. If you don't review my stories I go into withdraw, get the shakes, and can't write the next installment.
During and after "Unending"
Seconds after the reversal of the time dilation field
Claire grabs Sam's hands before Sam activates the time dilation field. Claire is startled by the way they feel. They are fuller, smoother, and without veins sticking up from the skin. She remembers with a start that these hands are thirty-two years younger than the hands she is used to.
"Who are you?" Sam asks looking both confused and concerned at the new figure.
"My name is Kaia," she says. Claire new she couldn't use her real name when they went back in time. They are trying to hide her identify, and her name isn't going to help with that. She'd repeated her new name over and over in the day before their plan was enacted, but it still didn't feel like it was hers. At least her father had helped her pick out her new name, but it still didn't feel like it was hers. She remember what her mother believes about borrowed names. Stripped of her Grandmother's name, stripped of Sha're's, stripped even of her last name she feels as if some strength has left her.
"Ok," Sam says, "Who is that? And I really need to push that button."
"I have a note in your own handwriting that says you don't. I've already separated the Asgard core from the rest of the ship. Let's get out of here," Claire says.
They obey her orders, but still they walk around her like she is an outsider. With them she is. The only people who did not view her as an outsider were gone. Not really dead, worse, erased from existence.
Her father…well, not really her father, Daniel lifts up her hair to check for a Gou'ald scar. Something he has done a million times in his life. Something she has always liked before, but this time…this time she does not like it. This time it means he doesn't trust her.
"Who are you?" Sam asks again. She's finished reading the note, and the ship has gotten to safety, so she has focused again on the intruder in their midst.
"I'm not supposed to tell you. It will mess up the space time continuum if you know. I am only supposed to tell you I was aboard the Odyssey with all of you in a time dilation field. The time dilation field went on for over thirty years. I am only supposed to tell my true identify to one person, Dr. Caroline Lam. She can confirm it."
Daniel looks at her. If the Odyssey's population increased, she is the child of people aboard. That hair, those eyes, his daughter. He remembers Shifu, the boy he promised he'd take care of. And he remembers Cassie. He told Sam he'd be there for Cassie. He'd never been there for either of them. Other people had taken care of those kids. He wasn't exactly the responsible type. But this woman, his full grown daughter. God, what kind of a father had he been? What had I done to her?
He feels something warm and bubbling in his heart. God, his daughter.
Vala takes less time to reach the same conclusion. The hair. She knows it's her daughter wearing her hair. Vala's chest gets all tight. Two full grown daughters that she didn't get to raise. Only this one…this one was raised by another her. Another her, but not her.
Daniel smiles at Claire. "Is traveling through time dilation fields exhausting?" he asks pulling her into a hug. It's just an excuse. From the moment he realized she was his daughter he had a desperate aching need to have her in his arms.
Claire relaxes against him. He smells like her father, and his shoulder feels like her father's, perhaps a bit more broad, but still. She has to remind herself that this isn't her father.
Vala pushes him away to get her own hug. She's jealous, and worried. She's already had one of her daughters fall for Daniel. She doesn't need Daniel falling for this one, particularly since she's obviously his daughter. God, those eyes.
This Vala is more different than the mother Claire knew than Daniel is from her fahter. Vala isn't used to hugging people. She's trying to hide her neck scar. She's posturing so Daniel can see her rear.
Claire pulls a hug closer, and runs her finger across Vala's scar. Claire doesn't know this mother as well as she thinks. She thinks this will make it better. But Vala shutters under her touch.
"Sorry," Claire says confused. Maybe it was only when her father touched the scars that it made them better. And, she remembered, he never touched her scars with his fingers, only with his kisses.
"Hi," Sam says awkwardly. For a split second when Claire announced her presence Sam wondered if this was her daughter. But the hair had been a give away, and the ease with which she held Daniel and Vala was another. Sam was relieved. Not that Claire didn't look like a great person to have as a daughter. Only…when she had kids, if she had kids, she said with a sigh, because she was getting old, she wanted it to be with the man she loved. The man she loved had not been on that ship.
"Sam," Claire says tenderly, "You did a nice job figuring out how to back up the space time continuum. Of course I figured out how to add fifteen seconds to your formula."
Daniel grins, "You out astrophysiced Sam?"
"Don't get too cocky, Da..niel, I can also translate Asgard faster than you," she says with a hair toss which reminds everyone of her mother.
Cam examines the figure before him. He hasn't quite done the math that made everyone else realize in an instant she's the daughter of someone one the ship, "Excuse me, exactly how did you get aboard our ship?" he asks.
"You know U…Cam you really don't look like Caroline Lam," Claire says with a smile.
"So we're just accepting that as an answer?" he asks looking from one of his teammates to another, "That didn't sound like an answer to me," he calls as the rest of the ship shrugs and goes back to the business of flying the thing.
"Uh Kaia," Vala says, "Look we'll find you a room, altering space time and saving our as…butts is probably pretty exhausting."
"Thanks, M…alDoran," Claire says with a smile she hopes is big enough to cover up her near mistake, "I have a room," she pauses, "No, I guess I don't, not anymore," she says biting her lip.
Vala figures her daughter's old room is probably the room next to Daniel's current one. Sure can see herself moving into his room far easier than him moving into hers. But she isn't about to put her daughter there now, even for the sake of Kaia's comfort. She's worried that Daniel is falling for his own daughter, and she wants to keep them as far apart as possible. So she gives her daughter a room next to her own.
Claire stands there a moment after entering the room and thanking Vala again. She wants to say something to her mother. She can see the pain on her mother's face as plainly as she felt the shiver under the touching of her scar. She hates to see her mother in pain. Hates that just six years before she entered the world her mother was in such a sorry state.
"Goodnight, Vala," she says tenderly touching her arm. Vala's arm at least is scar less.
Vala stands in the doorway for a time after she returns to the bridge of the ship. She looks at Daniel. God she loves that man. Some other her, and some other him, had gotten a happily ever after for thirty some years. Some other her, and some other him, had made a beautiful girl. But what of her? What of him?
"I think we should lock her up," she hears Cam say.
"I do not believe that will be necessary ColonelMitchell," Teal'c says strongly.
"We don't know who this girl is," he says, "She could be an Ori plant."
Vala's stomach hurts. She brought one Ori plant into the world. But she knows he didn't bring another into the world. This one is Daniel's little girl. She knows with ever fiber of her being.
"Listen, she's not our prisoner," Sam says.
"What exactly did that note say?" Cam asks snapping it out of his hands. He finds the note saying little more than turn off the time dilation field and have her talk to Dr. Lam.
Daniel sees Vala standing at the doorway and gives her a smile. Daniel smiles a lot, when he's caught up in his work, when he has some riddle to solve, when he's trying to ease tensions with some off world diplomat. But he doesn't often smile at her.
She can't help but return it. It feels strange on her face. It feels strange to his eye. It's a genuine happy smile. It is smaller and more real than her usual manipulative one.
"Cam," Daniel says, "You ever taken a biology class?"
"I mean, the population of a ship in a time dilation field increases that means…" Daniel begins waiting for Cam to fill in the blank. His face is blank.
"Of for crying out loud, Cameron! Two people on this ship had a baby!" Sam exclaims.
Cam's eyes go wide. He's in shock.
Daniel gives a quick glance to Vala, who is careful not to be looking at him. Teal'c surveys them both. He does not understand this earth custom which seeks keep esteemed warriors from mating. But he suspects it is the reason that humans are weaker than Jaffa. Jaffa warriors mate with other strong warriors to produce even stronger warriors.
The shock wears off. Cam wonders if he's a father. He can't really imagine himself with either Sam or God forbid Vala. But thirty some years is an awfully long time. Long enough that boredom and loneliness could have caused him to do things that he would never normally do. He's terrified. He should feel something now. Something other than panic and nausea. What do parents of adult children do anyway? What would his role be? Host Christmas? But he still went to HIS parents for Christmas. I she is his daughters he could invite her to be sure, but that would be a little awkward. He could just imagine himself saying, "Hey, mom and dad meet my daughter who is only ten or eleven years younger than me. How well were you watching me in grade school anyway mom and dad?" Yeah, he could just imagine that going over well. Of course they could come up with some cover story. There is always a cover story. Adopted her after saving her from some horrible wreck maybe? Although it would be odd to adopt someone in their thirties when you are in your forties. They'd probably think he was ashamed to admit he was dating her. He hoped she wasn't his daughter. His life was complicated enough.
"Look, we might not lock her up, but we have to consider that the SGC is probably going to do that," Daniel says.
"They didn't lock me up," Vala says quietly.
The whole room turns to her, "Well, you had less reason to trust me than we have to trust her. I was from another planet. She's clearly from this ship. I don't see as how it could be a problem."
"Daniel vouched for you, he knew you. And they still guarded you," Sam says.
"Well, I'll vouch for her," Vala says raising herself up to her full height.
"As will I," Teal'c says going to stand next to her.
"Hell, we're all going to vouch for her," Mitchell says. He doesn't want his daughter, or the daughter of his friends to be locked into a cell.
Daniel finds himself wanting to put his arm around Vala. They had a baby together. He loved her. He'd loved her for a long time. But did she love him? He tried to study her face. Tired to read her, but he never could read Vala. He isn't going to put his arm around her until he knows for sure. Could Vala love him? His heart rises up for a second until he tempers his joy. He would not hope yet.
The next day
Vala takes a deep breath as she walks into her daughter's temporary quaters. It is the one Daniel stayed in when they were connected with the Gou'ald bracelets. It's across from the room she still sleeps in. But Vala's room hasn't had guard by it for a long time. She hates that her daughter's room does.
"I'm sorry about this," she says gesturing to the guard.
"It's ok," Claire says with a smile, "I expected it."
Vala shut the door, "Anything you need? Did you eat yet?" This elicits a smile form Claire. It is so much like the mother she knows.
"I'm fine, Vala, thanks."
"And Dr. Lam?" Vala asks.
Claire's stomach sinks, so is her mother nothing more than a spy to figure out if she posed a threat? "She conformed my story," Claire says.
"Of course she did, Kaia," Vala says swiping hair off her forehead, "I mean you checked out alright? Did traveling through time have any negative effects?" The concern in Vala's eyes touches Claire all over again.
"No, I'm fine, but I didn't really travel through time, exactly. See, I've existed my whole life in a time bubble. I traveled back only a few seconds before the time travel began. So I supposed I did travel through time, but less than a second. Otherwise it was just a reversal of a natural process," Claire explains. Her mother's eyes glaze over somewhere in the middle. But Claire is Daniel's daughter and she doesn't notice. Her other mother, as she was beginning to think of the Vala she'd been raised with as, never got bored when they were talking about time dilation. But her interest had been born out of a frantic need to save her daughter. Now that daughter was safe.
"Right," Vala says, "So you can't tell me anything about what happened in the time dilation field then?" she asks.
Claire carefully examines her mother, "Sam seemed to think it would change the space time continuum. But I don't think so. That time, my time, that was separate from this time. Not the future, not the past, not an alternate, just a bubble. Decades trapped in less than a second. If what happened in the bubble influences things outside of the bubble, it has nothing to do with the flow of time. The bubble is separate from," she's babbling again, but this time she hasn't lost Vala. She's watching with enthralled interest, "Besides, altering the space time continuum is not necessarily bad. You are just as likely to change things for the better as for the worse. And we altered things just by me coming back…"
Vala cuts her off, "So if I asked you a question, you would answer me?"
Claire bites her lip. Sam would kill her. But she thinks about the way her mother flinched beneath her touch. Her mother needs to be healed from all the pain, and her father is probably the only way that is going to happen. "It depends if it would be good for you to know or not."
Vala takes a deep breath, and looks anywhere in the room but her daughter, "Your childhood…" she says, "what was it like?"
"Amazing," Claire says without hesitation.
Vala dares to look at her. There is something in Vala's eyes which terrifies Claire. Something dark and dangerous, like a caged animal. "And you and I? Were we?" she pauses, "Were we friends?" she asks.
"We were close," Claire says with a smile, "There was a lot of love between us."
Vala fixes Claire's hair, even though it doesn't need fixing. Claire's heart aches for her other mother, the one who did that all the time, but did it knowing the hair was from her daughter's head.
"It was a brave thing you did," Vala says. "Going back by yourself. I'm…you know proud of you," she says.
Claire squints at her, wondering if she knows. She can't know. No one was supposed to know.
Daniel bursts into her room unannounced and in the middle of a sentence. Claire isn't startled, this is the father she knew, but Vala is taken a back, "Kaia, it took a direct order of the President of the United States of America, do you know what a president is…." He stops, "Vala," he says with an awkward half smile.
Vala feels her stomach flutter. Flutter like it hasn't since she was seventeen and the mayor' son asked her hand in marriage. But no, that was more than that. She hadn't loved him, only been foolish enough to think it might be love.
"What did you require a presidential order for, Dan'yel?" Vala asks. A shadow crosses his face as she says the words. She thinks back through her words trying to figure out what offended him.
She calls him Dan'yel. They all do, the women who break his heart, the women that love him, either way you slice it it's the same group. Cursed in love to be sure. Every time he opens his heart up, some alien steals her away. He's afraid to love Vala.
Not afraid to love his daughter. He can't help that. Involuntary, like the taking of breath.
"Uh…they are going to be getting Kaia an apartment later this week. In the meantime I brought you a computer," he grins like he's just offered her the world.
"We had computers on the Odyssey," Claire says laughing at him like he's silly.
"Not with internet," he says sitting down next to her on the other side of Vala and opening a browser window, "See you can put anything in here and find out information, videos, or pictures of it," he exclaims.
"Pictures?" Claire says bouncing a little on the edge of her bed. The need to bounce has not left since she was baby.
"Yeah, what do you want to see?" Daniel asks loving her enthusiasm, recognizing it as his own.
She shuts her eyes for a long moment, "First a tree, then a dog, then…" she starts.
Vala gets up in an attempt to hide a sob. It's an attempt that doesn't work, because her daughter knows her too well. Daniel sees through it to, he is beginning to see her. Beginning to learn that Vala pretends to be bullet proof only because she is a full of holes as a sieve.
"Tree," Daniel says placing the laptop on his daughter's lap.
It displays a stylized, abstract, tree full screen. The roots of the tree are twisting through the same air the leaves are reaching through. Claire takes a tentative hand out and touches the screen, barely, with the tips of her fingers. "My God, he," she smiles at Daniel, "I mean you…you were right. It's the most beautiful….no, way beyond that. They told me it was like Landry's plants, only bigger. But it's something different all together, not only is scale and form, but…in soul. It's better than I could have imagined it."
"Wait until you see one in person," Daniel says.
Her eyes sparkle, "I'd love to sit on a bench in a park," she says, "Do you think we could do that?" she asks looking at Daniel.
"It's a date, as soon as they spring you from this place," he says with a smile.
Vala's stomach drops at his words. Stupid man, someone is going to have to tell him he just made a date with his daughter! Not that she's volunteering. No woman dreams of telling a guy they aren't in a relationship that they are having a kid together, the fact that the kid happens to be in her twenties doesn't actually make it any easier.
One week later
Someone should have told Claire about doorbells. As it was she was getting annoyed with the "klaxons" that just wouldn't stop. More alarming, she couldn't find the cause of the alarm.
"Kaia! Are you ok?" she recognizes the panicked voice of her father, and flings the door open.
"Thank God! You ok?" he asks examining her with a soldier's eye. It was something that was altogether foreign to her father. Something that had faded as quickly as it had developed, so Claire had never seen it.
"Of course," she says.
"For future reference, that ringing, means someone at the door," he says pushing the doorbell for emphasis, and to check if it's working.
She claps a hand over her mouth, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know why the klaxons were going off!" she exclaims.
"Klaxons?" he ask, "Right, childhood on a space ship," he mutters, "So I just wanted to see your new place. Make sure the Air Force set you up alright," he says craning his neck to look behind her to her room.
She giggles, "Would you like to come in?"
Daniel knows the intimate details of dozens of Ancient cultures. He has a unique view of American culture. He's always been an outsider looking in. He was the book wormy little boy trying not to get noticed by foster siblings modifying his habits to fit those of house after house, family after family.
He knows how to behave, how to set other's at ease. But he doesn't do this now. He opens Claire's cupboards without regard to privacy.
"What are these pots made out of?" he asks tapping them ruefully. "You know some of those non-stick surfaces can be dangerous," he says.
"You know, I'm sure they are fine," Claire says smiling. Being with him like this makes her homesickness ease.
Daniel bites his lip, "Are they Teflon?" he asks.
"You know Da..niel they kind of came with the place."
"Ok, we'll get you new ones. Start a list, is this your couch?" he asks.
"Look the couch isn't that comfortable, but…" she begins.
He breaks her off, facing her for the first time since he entered the apartment, "Didn't the Air Force give you enough money? You know, I can help you."
"They offered me more than I took. I want to make it on my own," she says. He hears the strength in her voice. He likes it. But he hates that she has less than perfect living arrangements.
"Then a job, can I help you get a job?" he asks.
"I already have one," she says with a smile.
"You have on earth three days, and two of them were spent on a secure military base, and you have a job already? Doing what?" he asks.
"Translating the Asgard repository of knowledge. After all I am the most fluent reader of Asgard on the planet," she says coyly.
"Even better than," he stops himself from saying 'your old man' just in time, "me?"
She does a Japanese style bow, "The student has surpassed the master." She's funny. He wonders where she got that from.
"But isn't that thing an Ori magnet?" he asks.
"Well, my first task will be trying to fix that problem. Sam and I got that figured during the time dilation. The hard part is going to be the power source. Once I have those two problems solved it will be time for translating. Well, you and I had most of it translated on the ship, so it will be easy going for awhile. Just typing up what we already did the grunt work on."
"Couldn't bring the translations with you huh?" he asks.
She smiles, "I did smuggle some past Sam. She disapproved of course, thinking it would alter all of history or whatever, but honestly her theory makes no sense. I also snuck my theses past," she says with a blush.
"Theses?" he asks.
"Yes, well I know they aren't official or anything, but I wanted the title of doctor. You and Sam taught me what I knew, and I wrote a couple of theses," she says.
He looks at her intently, and she can read the pride in his eyes. She wishes he knew who she was. Wishes he knew he was giving that pride to his daughter, "I'd like to see them sometime."
"Sure," she replies easily, "Actually Sam took the astrophysics one's to some of her colleagues. I really want to be 'Dr…'" she pauses and blushes having almost spilled the beans by revealing her last name, "A doctor for real," she finishes.
"I can understand that," Daniel says, "I could do the same for your…what are your other papers in exactly?"
"We called it Asgard studies, so not exactly the sort of thing you could show around a university. The one I did for my Master's is pretty linguistic, but my doctorate is pure anthropology. I studied the evolution of gender roles is Asgard society as marriage became obsolete," she says.
"Impressive," he says.
"The real title has more big words in it," she explains.
"I'd imagine so," he says, "You sure hit the ground running on the whole earth thing."
"Well, I had my whole life to plan out what I'd do if I ever got to earth," she says.
"I can see you've got a lot of check marks on that list," he says.
"No, I haven't even started it yet. What I really want to do is see a park," she says looking steadily at him, "but I kind of wanted to see a park with you."
Emotion hits Daniel like a lead weight in the chest. He can't even think for a long second. "Yeah, let's go to the park. But on the way home will you at least let me buy you some new pans?" he asks.
"Nope," she says with a grin.
"Please?" he begs.
She shakes her head.
He drives. She's never seen a car besides the one the Airman used to drive her to her new apartment earlier today. They frighten her, and she tries not to show it. He reminds her to buckle up. She fumbles with the seatbelt in a vain attempt at imitating his motion. He reaches over and buckles her. She pulls her knees up to her chin, and closes her eyes, wishing the ride completed.
"We're here," he says softly. She lifts up her eyes. She can't believe it. Better than the picture.
"I thought you were crazy," she says with a voice full of awe.
"Excuse me?" Daniel says.
"You, the other you, told me I couldn't imagine a park. That it was better than I thought, but…this? This is amazing!"
She walks around slowly turning amazed at the beauty around her. She's never really seen beauty before. No nature. No art. A fine turn of phrase some times, written by an Asgard historian. But the Asgard as a race are neither students of the liberal arts nor literature. No Claire had never really known beauty.
"Come," he says leading her beneath a tree. He's glad she came in October, nature has painted the tree's leaves. The crispness of the air, and the slight breeze swirling the colorful leaves make it all perfect.
"It's so pretty, Da…niel," she says.
"You can call me Dad, you know," he says. She turns to him with a look of surprise. He smiles at her, "In fact I'd be honored."
"How did you know?" she asks turning on her side. As interesting as trees are, she suddenly finds herself more interested in her father's face. The one that is strangely young and creaseless.
He laughs, "If your hair and eyes didn't give it away, the fact that if anyone is going to fall in love on that ship, it would be your mother and I," then suddenly his voice changes into one filled with concern, almost agony, "it was love wasn't it?"
Now it is Claire's chance to laugh, "Oh, yeah, it was definitely love."
"What is your real name?" he asks. She looks at him in surprise again, "Besides the fact that I would NEVER name a child of mine Kaia it was a dead giveaway that you called yourself, 'Earth.'"
"You did help me pick out Kaia," she says.
"Well apparently I get dumber with age," he says with a grin, "Ok, so what was the original name."
She sits up, proud to resume her true name, and all the power it contains, "Claire Sha're Jackson."
His eyes cloud over.
"I'm sorry," she says even though she isn't sure what upset him.
"God, you are your father's daughter, apologizing for your name," he says.
"In Mom's culture there is a tradition to name your daughter after a strong woman who has passed on…that she will get that woman's strength," Claire offers.
"You must be just about the strongest woman ever," he says.
"Mom," she pauses glancing at him.
"I know who your mother is," he says with a laugh, "Much as I love Sam there is zero we're going to have a kid together. If I fall in love with anyone on or off that ship, I know who it is."
"Right, well Mom thought by naming me after them it would make it hurt less. I don't know if it worked. I do know that Mom and you… you have a lot more pain now, then you did back then."
He looks at her tenderly, "You have this backward, parents are supposed to worry about their kids not the other way around."
"Really, couldn't tell from the Teflon freak out back at my apartment," she says.
"Claire," he tries out the name. It feels right on his tongue, "What kind of Dad was I?"
She has never seen him so worried, "Seriously Dad? Amazing!"
"Yeah," he says rolling away from her, "Not like you have anyone to compare it to. This is coming from the girl who calls doorbells Klaxons."
"Never once did I walk into that hologram room you worked in and you didn't stop and play with me or talk to me or include me in your work. Not once in twenty-seven years were you to busy for me." He turns back to examining her face, "You tucked me in every night until I was…I don't know a teenager for sure. It was Sam who finally put a stop to it. I think you tucked me in until right around my prom."
"Prom?" he asks.
"Yeah, you guys put on a prom, and seven graduations. Some really wild birthday parties. On my twelve birthday party, my golden birthday since I was born on July 12, you let me spacewalk. You used to sneak me chocolate when I refused to eat the space meals. Whenever Mom punished me you'd sneak around the punishments. I was so lucky. So loved," she says with a smile.
"I always figured I would kind of suck at the whole parenting thing," he says. Wondering if she is lying. She is after all Vala's daughter.
"Shifu?" she asks.
His eyes fly to her quickly.
"He would have basically become a Gou'ald if you kept him. You couldn't give him what you needed, and you found someone who could."
"You know Claire. I'm proud of you. I love you."
She's crying. Just like her mother's tears, silent tears. But Daniel hasn't seen Vala cry yet.
"Hey, hey, what'd I do wrong?" he asks pulling her to his chest.
"It's just…when I left, you…the other you warned me that you wouldn't love me. That I'd have to remember his love," she says.
"What did I say? Stupider with age. I loved you the second I knew you existed," he says smoothing down her hair.
"That's exactly what he used to say," she says.
An hour later
Vala is a little nervous. She doesn't know exactly what the social protocol for dropping in on your grown daughter is. From Earth TV shows she's determined that mothers are generally viewed as a pain by their grown daughters, unless they happened to have them when they were sixteen years old. Then they are best friends.
She has just started up the stairs when she nearly runs into Daniel.
"Sorry!" he exclaims in a much to cheery voice.
"Where were you?" she demands.
He doesn't see the green eyed monster so mistakenly in her eyes, "I just went to visit Cl..aia. We went to the park, she's never seen the park before," he says gleefully.
He's about to walk past her, but in panic she grabs his arm, "Daniel, you should not be spending so much time with Kaia."
He raises an eyebrow, "And why exactly is that?" he asks.
"You don't know who she is!" she says.
He grabs her arm as she starts past him,"Oh, right, what you think she's dangerous? You think someone snuck onto a ship in a time dilation field or something? You know what, if you're going up there to accuse her of something you can just leave. Seriously, I don't even want you near her," he says. The way his eyes flare as he says the words she doesn't doubt him for a second. She knows he'd protect her from anything, and that worries her.
He's just worried about his daughter. His daughter being accused of something by her own mother. It would destroy her.
She shakes her arm free of his grasp, "I just meant you shouldn't get to close to her," she murmurs.
"Close to her! Of course I'm going to get close to her!" he says. Then he catches sight of Vala's horror, and laughs, "Oh, my God!" he exclaims sitting on the steps, "You think I…have a romantic interest in her?" he laughs again.
"What she's a beautiful woman," Vala says. Relieved, but more than a little insulted that he find a relationship with his daughter so laughingly ridiculous.
"Yeah, she gets that from her mother. But she's my daughter for God's sake Vala!" he says still laughing.
She breathes a sigh of relief, "I didn't know you knew."
He looks at her seriously. He knows the other Vala, the one trapped on a ship for over thirty years, the one who had had a child with him, that one had loved him. But he didn't understand that much about the space time continuum. He didn't know how it worked. He wasn't sure if this Vala was the same as that Vala. If this Vala could ever love him. "Her real name is Claire. We named her after my mom," he says glancing away.
He's sharing, and Daniel almost never shares. She offers a part of herself. "On my planet we believe in naming our children after strong people," she says.
He smiles, touching her hair. He's never touched her hair before. She likes it. "Should have named her Vala then."
"That would get confusing, and the tradition stipulates dead strong people," she says.
"Then I hope I never meet someone named after you," he says with a smile.
She clears her throat and looks away. His hand drops from her hair. He knew she could not love him. What a fool he had been! "I have two grown children, it makes me feel old," she says.
"I know, can you imagine, we're still six years younger than we were when she was born!" he says.
"You talked to her about her childhood?" Vala asks fixing her eyes on her.
He nods.
"I know I would have tried to be a good mother," she says each word is clipped short and terse. She is terrified he will never love her now. Now that she sees her as she is.
"Rave reviews Vala, of both of us," he says. She looks at him in startled surprise, "Trust me, I'm just as shocked as you are. I never thought of myself as the model father."
"So how does this work?" Vala asks. "If we don't have sex on a certain date and time, will she disappear like on 'Back To the Future'?"
"First of all you watch too much TV, second of all I didn't ask, third of all God I hope not, because that would be an awkward night."
Vala looks crestfallen. He would dread having to have sex with her even to ensure the life of his daughter.
He sees what she is thinking. Sees an honest emotion for the first time from Vala. Well, the first time that he believed it was an honest emotion. He lifts up her head so her eyes meet his, "I just mean that I'd keep thinking about my daughter, and that would make it awkward. Not you, you wouldn't make it awkward at all."
"Daniel, you don't have to pretend. That was another us who had Claire. You don't owe me anything," she says.
He wonders who Vala was named after, because she certainly embodies strength, "And if I want to owe you something? If I want to owe you everything?" he asks.
She looks at him critically. He smiles. She pulls him in for a kiss. Actually sort of a kiss to end all kisses. He pulls away (after a time). He takes a moment to catch his breath. Her stomach is beginning to hurt. She is afraid she misunderstood. Afraid he could never love damaged goods like her.
"Vala, we need to slow down. I can't do this," he begins. As soon as those words have left his lips he sees her fall apart. So he rushes on, "unless you are serious about it. But you are aren't you? You'd better really mean this. It can't be some game."
She looks at him, judging him for a moment, and trusting him. She melts into his arms, and whispers in a language she knows he understands, "I love you Dan'yel."
"Really?" he asks, pulling her away. Love for Daniel had mostly been temporary in the form of foster families, short term girlfriends, and a wife who was taken after a year. But he'd had thirty happy years with this woman.
"Dan'yel, I don't lie as often as you think," she says.
"I love you with all of my heart," he says kissing her temple. This action causes her to dissolve into silent sobs.
"You cry just like Claire, now why are you crying?" he asks pulling her close.
"Claire!" Vala exclaims standing up.
"Right, I suppose you want some alone time with your daughter, but we should go on a date," Daniel says standing too.
"Are you going to deny it is a date this time?" she asks. It is a joke, but there is something serious behind it. She does not want to hide her relationship from others this time.
"Never again," he says.
"Ok, well let's go up, and tell our daughter we're together, and then you can scoot, because apparently I have to make up some time in order to be the favorite parent," she teases.
"Oh, I think you'll have a lot to make up for. Apparently I snuck her candy bars, and got her out of your punishments," he says with a grin.
"Now that is just playing dirty. That was another Daniel, and another Vala. I call only since she came back through the time bubble counts!" Vala protests.
"Well, in that case I gave her her first hug, and took her to the park, so I am still winning," he says with a grin.
Vala ponders, "Do they have roller coasters near here?" she asks.
He grins, "Absolutely, but I'm not telling you were."
They tease each other like that all the way up to the door. Vala rings the bell. Daniel rolls his eyes, "She's in there trying to figure out the klaxons," he explains knocking. Vala turns to him confused. The second Claire opens the door and sees them together, sees the way they are both relaxed, for the first time since she arrived in this time, she knows.
She pulls them into an excited hug, "I'm SO glad for you guys!" she squeals. "Come in and let's celebrate. I think I have some….wine. It's not exactly champagne, but it will do."
"You have alcohol already?" Daniel says disapprovingly.
"I'm over twenty-one, and besides Mom gave me my first drink on my sixteenth birthday," she says.
Daniel fixes a glare on her.
Vala shrugs, "Drinking age is different where I come from."
"But it's not like I had more than a few sips until I was older. And I don't get drunk," she says pouring them a glass.
"So, you are still my little girl," Daniel explains.
Claire grins. They may be different parents, but yeah, she is Daddy's little girl.
