(The Shroud)
"In our time together, I've really come to see in you what draws Mother's affection."
And with one phrase all of Merlin's meticulously crafted walls came down, and Daniel Jackson's soul was laid bare.
"Affecto-what?"
Merlin threw Dr. Jackson's mind back into the corner where he could be protected, but it was too late. She felt that rush of truth breath life back into his being at that thought, and it could not be undone.
"It's very important to me that we save her together."
Merlin threw up what walls he could to deceive her, make Adria believe the longing Dr. Jackson felt at Vala's name was for her child.
"Oh, of course."
He was weak for her. These young were still commandeered by emotion, a reckless trait his people long ago attempted to abandon.
He had kept Jackson away from the surface, and his tumult of feelings at bay (a task made easier by Jackson's life of self-restraint.) But still, his fire tumbled beneath the surface, threatening to loose itself and destroy them both.
Passion still plagued this child, stirred by the mention of a name, the breath of a possibility.
She accepted the lie, but Jackson wasn't there.