Title: Past, Present, and Future

Summary: Daniel gets the chance to change a horrific event in his past, but to what cost?

Rating: T

Disclaimer: As always I do not own Stargate or any of the characters in it.

Chapter 7: In Memory

Daniel met with Rogy to tell him about his decision. Rogy took him to the room where he had originally given him The Choice and asked him to sit.

"Daniel, have you come to a decision?"

"Yes, I have. As much as I miss my wife, I cannot risk all that I have now just to save her." Daniel saw Rogy's grim face brightened at his words.

He smiled at Daniel. "That is good to hear, changing the past rarely works out as well as people hope it to. Now, if you give me your right hand, I can tell you how your life would have been different if you had changed the past."

Daniel obliged, sticking his right hand on the table, palm facing upwards. Rogy examined Daniel's hand thoroughly.

After a few moments, Rogy looked at him solemnly. "You have made the correct choice. You would have been able to save your wife, but then you would have stayed with her trying to find a way to extract the Goa'uld from her. Eventually you succeeded only for her to die when the replicators, having not been defeated, took over Abydos. You were heartbroken yet again, and you returned to Earth, but you were too late to stop the impending replicator attack. Your planet was taken over and the few survivors were forced to live on one of your spaceships. You spent the rest of your years alone because you never met your one true love. It would have been a terrible fate."

Daniel was awestruck. Vala had saved him from making the worst choice of his life. "Oh, wow. I'm glad Vala stopped me."

Rogy quirked up one shaggy eyebrow at him. "You had chosen to go back?"

Daniel nodded at the man. "Yes, but Vala stopped me and I chose to stay with her instead."

"Well good for her for helping you come to the correct decision. She is the dark-haired woman who came with you through the stargate before right?"

"Yes, that's her."

Rogy smiled. "That's her indeed, your one true love."

Daniel wrinkled his brow in confusion. "How do you know that? And I did love my wife too."

Rogy shook his head slowly. "I can see your future as it will be now as well, and I know you loved your wife, but it wasn't meant to be. Vala is your true love, it just took you awhile to figure that out."

"If you can see my future now then tell me about it."

"You know that I can't. I can only say that Vala is a big part of it."

Daniel was happy to hear that he had made the right decision and also that Vala was a big part of his future.

A few days later, Vala and Daniel were in his quarters sitting on his bed, just talking.

"Darling? I know that you will still miss your wife and I just wanted to let you know that it is okay with me if you ever want to talk about her. Memories are important."

Daniel wrapped his arm around Vala, holding her close. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

She suddenly jumped up and twirled to face him. "Hey! I know something that we could do in honor of Sha're."

For a second, Daniel thought that Vala was talking about some sexual act and he wondered how that would 'honor' Sha're. "Umm...I don't think..."

She looked down at him and caught his meaning. "Oh no, nothing like that, not that I'm opposed to it, but that wasn't what I was thinking of doing."

Daniel relaxed a bit. "What then?"

"Wait here, I have to get a few things," Vala said and she walked out of the room.

Daniel had no idea what she was planning, but he didn't have to wonder long. She came back only a few moments later, carrying a tote bag with her.

She placed the tote bag on the floor. "Sit on the floor and take your shirt off."

Daniel gave her a wary look. "I thought you said that we weren't doing anything like that."

She shook her head and laughed. "We aren't just trust me."

He did as he was told, slipping his black tee shirt over his head and sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Vala got on the floor as well and brought two tubes of paint out of her bag.

Daniel looked at her incredulously. "Paint?"

She smiled back at him as she began to take the top off of the tube of blue paint. "Yes darling, on my home planet, we had a ritual to honor our dead loved ones. Now relax and let me help you."

He nodded slightly and watched as she squeezed some of the blue paint out onto her hand and then she smeared a glob of it onto Daniel's right hand.

He went to protest, but before he could get a word out she locked eyes with him, silencing him. "On my planet, blue represents healing."

Vala then took the other tube of paint, a bright red, and squeezed out some onto her other hand. She leaned over and painted a good-sized portion on Daniel's chest, right where his heart was.

"Red represents love, now take the paint in your hand and mix it with the paint over your heart."

Daniel lightly rubbed the paint together until it turned purple. "Now what?"

Vala smiled at him as she took out a piece of parchment paper out of the bag and unrolled it. "Now take the new purple color and paint a heart onto the parchment. Purple represents memories."

Daniel took the purple paint and drew a heart on the middle of the parchment. "Can I put her name underneath?"

"Sure you can darling."

He did just that and smiled at the finished product. "That was a nice ritual, thank you for sharing it with me."

"Of course Daniel. I love you and I wanted you to have a nice way to remember and honor your wife."

Daniel felt overjoyed to have such a beautiful and wonderful woman by his side, and to think that he almost let her go.

He found a towel in his bathroom and washed him and Vala off before taking her into his arms. "I'm so glad that I have you."

She gazed up at him with pure love in her eyes. "Me too, I can't believe that I almost lost you forever."

He put his finger to her lips. "Shh, it doesn't matter now. I'm here with you and I'm happy."

She held him closer. "I've never been happier myself. So did Rogy say anything about us being together?'

Daniel smiled at her. "Yep, looks like you're stuck with me."

She grinned back at him. "Oh, I think I'll live."

They both laughed before sharing a loving kiss. Daniel would always remember Sha're, but the past was in the past and he was more than ready to embrace the future with Vala by his side.

The End! Review and let me know what you thought please. :)

-J