Well, here ya go. Don't worry, there will be action later. This isn't just a fluff fic, I promise, but anyway, you know how kid-fics work. :p lol. Okay, I'll shut up and wait for your reviews. Thanks!

Chapter 2

"What in the world…?" Mitchell finally uttered. Teal'c didn't seem to know what to do.

Daniel glanced back at the others. Theras was muttering worried phrases to himself, truly looking concern. Wkfar was frowning deeply. Sam was still just staring.

"Oh…oh dear. What has it done?" Theras said aloud. .

Taking a deep breath, Daniel looked back down at the control panel, which was scrolling ext past his eyes. He scanned it, reading as much as he cold. "It thought she was a Goa'uld…and it tried to neutralizing. But it couldn't pinpoint the snake itself."

"Because it is no longer there," Teal'c nodded.

Daniel swallowed and nodded, still read. "It…it didn't know what else to do at first, but apparently it's programmed to neutralize any potential threats, so it did the only thing it could."

"But…how does turning her into a child neutralize the threat of a Goa'uld?" Mitchell questioned incredulously. In the pod, Vala--if it really was her--was still out.

"It would render anything a Goa'uld could normally do useless," Sam said, coming forward and speaking finally. "It's true that a younger mind would be easier to control, because in some ways it's isn't as strong, but at the same time it wouldn't be strong enough, or possibly it would be too strong in other ways, for the Goa'uld to be able to do much with the body. It wouldn't be able to operate a hand device; the hand would be too small, and there wouldn't be enough of the human brain power there to channel their own mind power through. It just wouldn't work."

Teal'c seemed to be catching on more quickly than the rest of them on this subject. "And a child's body is much weaker than that of an adult. Even augmented with the strength of a Goa'uld, it would not be considerably stronger than any normal human."

"So it wouldn't help. A small child with a Goa'uld in them would be nothing more than a kid with flashing eyes and weird voice," Daniel added. "I guess I can see where it was coming from…"

"Okay, that's just crazy," Mitchell complained.

Daniel ignored him. Slowly he moved around the control panel and went to the pod, the first to approach it since it closed. He looked at the little girl's face, and even though it was much smaller, and it had a little more meat to it, it was still composed of the same long, elegant features he knew. The thick black hair was curling in the way he was used to, and he knew it was her.

The others didn't say anything as he reached down and tentatively picked her small body up and cradled it in his arms. The BDUs she'd been wearing looked almost like balloons now, and hung out of him arms halfway to the floor. He had to gather them up in his arms and wrap them around her to make sure she was covered. Her chest moved up and down gently in the steady rhythm of sleep. Teal'c and Mitchell had moved back around to stand with Sam, and he turned to look at them.

"What do we do?"

Daniel didn't realize that Theras and Wkfar had been behind them arguing quietly until Theras shrieked "You cannot do that!", there was a dim flash, and he hit the floor. Daniel's eyes went wide, and the other three members of SG-1 whipped around in surprise.

Wkfar turned on them with what looked like something similar to a zat that he must have pulled out of his robes.

"Do not move! Do not approach me or I will kill you!" he threatened, sweeping the weapon back and forth between them. Daniel instinctively turned his body away, protecting Vala as much as he could. Sam, Teal'c, and Mitchell formed a wall in front of him to help.

"What are you doing?" Cameron demanded. "Why did you shoot him?"

"Where did you get that?" Sam scowled.

Wkfar shrugged. "We carry these for protection. Usually we do not need them, but there is the occasional incident. They are always set for stun, as it was a moment ago, but they are capable of killing. We are a primitive people, but we barter with other worlds for technology we need. Theras will be fine. But he did not agree that this incident should be covered up."

Daniel didn't like the sound of that. "Covered up?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"Yes! The device has never malfunctioned before. It does not matter if it was not our fault, or if it was anyone's. We will be disgraced for it before our entire people! I must prevent it. Theras does not know it, but he will thank me later. We will be safe, once you are gone."

"Whoa whoa whoa, gone?" Mitchell protested.

Wkfar glared. "Yes. You will go back through the ring willingly, or you will die," he told them, no-nonsense, as he waved the weapon again.

"But what about Vala?" Daniel glowered angrily. "You have to help her. You can't leave her like this!"

"She is not hurt; she is a child. Children grow up. Now move!" He swung around them, keeping the weapon aimed carefully, and began to herd them out the door and back down the corridors.

Daniel held onto Vala tightly, trying to think of a way to get out of this. They could always try to come back later, but if Wkfar was serious about this, he would doubtlessly make sure somehow that they couldn't get back through the 'gate. They could always come by ship, but...what would the people of this world be able to do for her? Would they be able to change her back at all? They didn't even know yet if she still had her memory.

This was too much to worry about at once. He barely even heard the protests of his friends around him as they were forced back to the stargate.

"Dial your planet," Wkfar instructed firmly.

"Please," Daniel pleaded. "You can't do this. We have to examine that device, find out how to change her. Back. I can read that language well. I could probably figure out how to make it do someth--"

"Silence! Dial your home planet, or I will shoot the lot of you!"

He exchanged glances with Sam, and she nodded and moved to the DHD. Maybe Vala was Vala…but right now she was a child. There was no reason to put her in any unnecessary danger. They could figure this out later, once they weren't being pushed around at the business end of a weapon that could kill.

The event horizon spewed out into the room, then settled back into the ring. Sam punched in the GDO code, shaking her head to herself.

Daniel turned to Wkfar and tried one more time. "Please. Don't do this. Help us. That's what you're meant to do, isn't it?"

The old man's expression slipped, but only for a moment. "Our future here is more important! She will be fine. Go!"

Mitchell glared at him. "Well I hope you're happy with yourself," he snorted. Then he glanced around at the others, and stepped through. Teal'c gave the man one of those Teal'c looks that would debilitate anyone without a gun--and some even with one--and followed.

Sam looked at Daniel, and he gently handed Vala over. "I'm coming. Go on."

"But--" He gave her a look, and she sighed. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she stepped through the event horizon.

Daniel faced the angry little man with the gun.. "We'll be back. We have other ways of getting here. It doesn't matter if you can block us through the stargate. We will be back to find a way to help her. She's our friend."

Wkfar growled at him. "Go! NOW!" There was quick movement, and another flash. Daniel felt a sharp, sizzling pain in his chest, felt himself stumbling backwards as his vision faded, and then a shove from the front. He lost consciousness as he felt himself dissolving into the wormhole.

General Landry hadn't expected SG-1 back for several hours, yet barely half an hour after they'd left, the 'Unscheduled Offworld Activation' alarm sounded, and it was SG-1 GDO code.

Of course.

But this time, instead of the team running through hot, as was the typical procedure when they dialed in before their time to return, Colonel Mitchell walked calmly through. He didn't look happy though. Teal'c came next, looking just as angry. Landry headed for the stairs. When he rounded the corner at the bottom and turned into the 'gate room, Samantha Carter was walking slowly down the ramp.

She was cradling a small, sleeping child in her arms.

A girl that bore a remarkable resemblance to Vala MalDoran.

Landry's eyebrows went up. "Colonel? What--"

"It's Vala, sir," she winced.

Mitchell scratched the back of his head. "Uhm…yeah…we had a little problem."

A crashing sound came from the top of them ramp, and they all snapped around to see Daniel Jackson tumble through the event horizon backwards, crash onto the metal grating, and stop moving.

"Daniel!" Carter cried. He'd landed on his side with half of his legs still in the wormhole, and Mitchell and teal'c had to run up the ramp and pull him out so it could close without cutting them off. He was indeed unconscious. The two of them carried him between them down to the floor and laid him there. Landry called up to the control room for Walter to get a medical team to the 'gate room, stat.

"A little problem?" he asked incredulously.

"Pun not intended, of course," Mitchell corrected.

When Theras awoke, he was still on the floor--and Wkfar was standing over him with the stunner aimed at his chest.

He scowled and sat up. "What have you done, Wkfar?"

"I have salvaged our reputations. I sent them back to their own planet. They were not harmed."

"They will return."

"I know their address now. If it begins to come up on the dialing device, I can pull crystals from it to prevent the ring from opening."

Theras shook his head. "Eventually, they will try to come when you are not watching. You will be found out eventually. We cannot hide it forever. It would be better to go to the council now and tell them what has happened."

"Theras! We are two of the most skilled and respected Helpers in the colony! We cannot let that be ruined by one malfunction that was not our fault! Besides…once the girl wakes up, she may want to remain young. Who would not want another chance at childhood? At a much-extended life? They may not return at all."

"Well…perhaps you are right about that…" Theras trailed.

Wkfar nodded quickly. "Yes. Yes, of course. It is a good thing. She will be happy. If the council discovered what had happened, they would require us to bring them back and fix it for them. She would be older again. We must not ruin this chance for her, Theras! Please, help me in this. We can keep our reputation, our stations, and the girl can keep the gift she was inadvertently given."

Theras frowned at him for a long moment, thinking that over. "I still do not like this, Wkfar, but if they do not attempt to return, I will not say anything. If they do wish to come here, however, if they wish us to help them try to reverse what was done, I will do everything in my power to help them. That is the only promise you will have of me now."

Wkfar paused, and then nodded. "Then that is what I will accept. For now. He tucked the stunner back into his robes, and held out a hand to help him to his feet. Theras ignored the hand and stood on his own.

"Go back to the ring room. We are still on duty. I…" He held a hand to his head. "I must retrieve medicine." He glared briefly at the man he had thought was his friend. "My head still aches."

Wkfar looked away and scuttled back toward the ring room.

When Daniel finally stirred, Sam waved Mitchell and Teal'c over from where they'd been leaning on the wall between Daniel and Vala's infirmary beds, talking quietly. Vala was still out.

Daniel groaned and brought up a hand to rub at his eyes and forehead before his eyes opened groggily. "Sam?"

She smiled and patted his shoulder. "Yeah. We're all here."

He glanced around, took in Teal'c and Cam, then suddenly shot up into a sitting position. "Vala!"

"Whoa! Easy, buddy. She's fine," Cameron told him, trying to push him back with an arm.

Daniel resisted, and they let him stay sitting up. "I'm fine," he told them, shrugging their hands away. "Are you sure she's fine?"

"She is here," Teal'c nodded, toward the next bed.

"Oh…" he trailed when he saw her. Maybe he'd been hoping that she wasn't still a child. "So…uh, what happened?"

Sam crossed her arms. "We got back, you fell through the 'gate, General Landry called a medical team for you and Vala, and Cam, Teal'c, and I debriefed the general on what happened on the planet, and what little we know about Vala's condition. Doctor Lam ran a few tests on her, but she hasn't woken up yet?"

"How long has it been since we got back?" he asked, eyes never leaving Vala.

"Just a couple of hours," Cam told him.

That was when Doctor Lam walked by, noticed that he was awake, and came over. "That stun you took was a little more potent than a zat blast. Thus the slightly longer than usual time you were out. You might still have a pretty good headache, but otherwise, you'll be fine. As for Vala…" She made a face like it was still strange to refer to the admittedly adorable little girl in the other bed by the name of the flirtatious, mischievous adult. "All of her vitals are fine. She's a perfectly healthy three year old girl. Maybe three-and a-half or so. The DNA test hasn't come back yet, but it's the brain scans that are a little concerning."

"What about them?" Daniel asked quickly. The others looked at the doctor like they hadn't heard this either.

She sighed. "Those results just came in. There's nothing wrong with her brain, no damage. But there are things that are different, as you might expect. There's the normal heightened activity of a child's brain, less activity in other areas…and it even looks like all of her memories are intact."

They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"But…" They groaned.

"What?" Cameron asked.

The doctor winced apologetically. "I said intact, not accessible."

Daniel frowned. "Why wouldn't they be accessible?"

"I'm not sure. I can't even say for sure that they're not. But there was an anomaly in the scans in that area of her brain. I can't even tell what it is. It was just a hair-thin line in the middle of it. It looked like it was separating a good part of it from the rest, though I can't say why, or what that will mean when she wakes up. I can't even be sure I was really seeing anything that was actually there. It may have been an anomaly in the imaging. But…I wanted the four of you to know, in case there is something there affecting her memory. But we won't know until she wakes up."

"Great…"

Cam sighed. "Well, thanks for telling us anyway."

"You're welcome," she shrugged. "Sorry I can't do more right now." She looked at Daniel. "You are free to go, but let me know if you need anything for your head, okay?"

He nodded up and down once, but he didn't really seem to be paying attention. Doctor Lam walked off, and Cameron tried to improve the mood.

"Well, since you're aloud to get out of here, how about some food? We won't take long; then we can get back here and wait for her to wake up. But we've been waiting around, and we haven't eaten yet. I'm starving."

Daniel shook his head. "I'm not hungry. You guys go on. I'll stay here."

"Come on, you need to eat too. You just got stunned."

"Which is exactly why I'm not hungry yet. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stay here with her. You guys go."

Cam shrugged. "If you insist. Who else is coming?" Sam and Teal'c raised their hands. "Great. We'll bring you something back in case you change your mind. You let us know if Little Bit here wakes up, okay?"

Sam raised an eyebrow and smiled in amusement. "'Little Bit?'" Daniel and Teal'c were looking at him too.

"Hey, my parents and grandparents used it for all the little kids. We were Southern, remember?"

Sam chuckled and shoved him toward the door. "Get out of here." Cam left, and Teal'c followed, but she turned back to Daniel. "You gonna be okay?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I just hope she is…" he trailed off, looking at Vala again.

"She will be," Sam tried to assure him. He had turned to sit on the edge of the bed with his legs hanging off, and she sat beside him and gave his back a short rub. He glanced at her in shy thanks, and she smiled encouragingly. "So…what did you do to get yourself stunned? Wouldn't move fast enough?"

Daniel gave a short laugh. "Yeah, something like that. I told him we'd be back. I didn't tell him we had ships, but I told him we'd get there somehow. He didn't like that so much. Did you try dialing back?"

"Yeah, a couple of times. It didn't work."

"Figures."

"Daniel…"

"What?"

She drew in a breath and looked at him. "Uhm, we may not be using one of the ships as soon as you were probably hoping…"

He frowned again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that General Landry and Doctor Lam sort of came to the conclusion that we should wait and see if this reverses itself."

"Why would it do that?"

"It's always a possibility. We don't know exactly what that thing did to make her like that, or how it did it. It might very well fix itself with some time. So they've pretty much decided that we're going to wait ad see. If nothing happens, then we'll try dialing again, and if that doesn't work, then we'll take the Odyssey. With the ZPM you put in it when you were a prior, it would only take a couple of days to get there, instead of a week," she told him carefully.

Daniel sat up straighter. "How long are we talking about waiting?"

"A few weeks…"

"We're going to leave her like that for a few weeks?"

Sam huffed. "It won't kill her, Daniel. And I tend to agree with them. It might reverse itself, or something else might happen. We need to keep her close to good medical facilities for a while. Then if she stays stable, we can try to get there to see if that thing can fix what it did."

He slumped a little again. "Yeah…I guess you're right." He shook her head. "I'm just worried about her. We don't even know if she'll remember us when she wakes up."

"I know," Sam grimaced. She stood up. "You sure you don't want to go get something to eat with us?"

"I'm sure. But I guess you can bring me something back. I'll eat it eventually. But I'm staying here."

She nodded in understanding and let a hand fall on his shoulder for a moment. "Okay. We'll be back soon."

"Thanks."

He must have drifted off, because the next thing Daniel knew, he was sitting up again, frowning because he'd heard something. He looked toward the bed where Vala was, and he saw that she was tossing and turning. Something was bothering her in her sleep. Her hair, which had been taken out of the pigtails, was getting in the way of her tiny face, but he could still see that it was troubled.

Daniel slid off the bed he was sitting on and quietly stepped over to hers and put a hand on her shoulder. "Vala?" he shook gently. "Wake up, Vala, it's a dream."

Her eyes popped open, and looked up at him through the stray strands of hair in the way.

Then she screamed.

Daniel jerked back, and so did she, nearly falling backwards off the other side of the bed in process. He had to lurch forward again, catch her arms and pull up her to keep her from toppling off. She pulled her arms away immediately, surprisingly strong for a three year old.

"Who are you!" she demanded.

He had to give his head a good shake to get over the shock of hearing the higher-pitched voice. He'd known it would sound different, obviously, but he hadn't quite been ready. "I--I uh…"

"Where's mother?" she asked worriedly, looking around, frightened.

Daniel closed his eyes and groaned. "Oh no." She didn't know him.

Vala was looking at him in confusion along with the fear when he opened his eyes. "What?" she asked.

He cleared his throat. "Uhm…nothing." Gently he sat down on the edge of the bed. She scooted away from him. "Whoa, easy…it's okay. Listen, uhm…I'm a friend. Your mother had to…go away for a while. So we're taking care of you." Well, none of that was a lie, at least. Even if it was a serious misconstruction of the truth. But what else was he supposed to tell a three year old?

She looked around. "Who's us? There's only one of you," she whispered. The accent he was used to was still there, but softer.

"Friends of mine, and me, I meant," he corrected.

"You know my mother?" she asked, eyes boring into him. He noticed that instead of more gray, as they were as an adult, her eyes were a brilliant blue. "She never told me 'bout anyone like you…"

Daniel thought for a second. "Actually, we know your father," he said, trying to stick as close to the truth as he could.

"Oh…" Her eyes dropped to the mattress. "Guess that's why I never hear of you. Daddy's never home."

Okay then…so maybe all of her memories were still there, but apparently she couldn't access anything beyond when she had three the first time. Or maybe a little more was getting through, considering her speech, which was a little better than the average three year old. Or maybe kids just learned faster on her planet. But whatever it was, she obviously wasn't the Vala MalDoran they knew.

Daniel winced at her announcement, and in surprise, found himself gulping back a lump that tried to form in his throat.

"Uhm…yeah. I heard. I'm sorry…"

She shrugged in such a mature gesture that he almost wondered if she was Vala at all. "Issokay," she sighed, the two words running together. Then she looked up again and made a purposeful attempt to look happy. She gave him a big smile. "So how long I gonna be here?"

"Well, I'm not sure. But uh…we'll take good care of you, and we'll have a lot of fun, okay?" he smiled back, trying to make her as comfortable as possible.

She stood up on the bed, coming a little above his shoulders. She was wearing one of the large-sized scrub shirts, which acted like a short dress on her. "Good!" she nodded in approval, and threw herself into his arms. Daniel left out and 'oof!', and barely caught her without toppling over. Vala wrapped her small arms around his neck and squeezed.

Daniel didn't know what else to do but return the embrace.

Several seconds later, she was still holding onto him when Sam, Cameron, and Teal'c walked in, Cam carrying a tray for him. They all started at the sight of him and Vala, but she couldn't see them because they were behind her. Over her shoulders, he shook his head at them with whatever look was already on his face. They probably couldn't make much more sense out of it than he could make out of what he was feeling.

Happy that she was all right, but admittedly a little upset that most of her memory was gone at least temporarily…if it was temporary. What was he supposed to feel?

But either way, when Cam slowly set the tray down on the next bed, Teal'c frowned deeply, and Sam grimaced, he knew they'd understood what he was trying to tell them.

Vala had lost her memory--again. And she was now three.