She had been playing him from the beginning of this. From the moment she had walked into the commissary she had been trying to manipulate him into coming to P8X-412. The hell of it was that he had known it all along and still let her do it. He had used her manipulation of him to manipulate Landry into giving them a mission because it was what he wanted to do.
It was selfish and he knew it. He was impatient and he was also incredibly selfish. His mama liked to say he was just good at getting what he wanted and never taking no for an answer. He didn't want to take 'no' as an answer from Teal'c or from Jackson. He thought getting them out there to see the new threat to the galaxy would stir the 'hero' in both of them.
Eight years of a war on two fronts and the 'hero' in both of them seemed quite content to rest on its laurels.
And their loyalty to each other was staggering. Mitchell had thought he understood it and was prepared for it. He thought he would even get to bask in it a little bit, even if he couldn't be part of it β not yet. He knew that if he could talk Landry into letting Vala go to P8X-412 Jackson would have to go; and if Jackson went, Teal'c would go if for no other reason than to make sure Vala stayed alive.
In his delight at having two-thirds of the and back together, he had really underestimated just how pissed off being wrangled like that would make the Doctor and the Jaffa.
It was beginning to look to Mitchell as if his 'kryptonite' was the complete inability to see anything from anyone else's point of view.
When Vala had walked out of the anteroom speaking as a Goa'uld, Mitchel had been certain that if not for Daniel's life, Teal'c would have happily snapped her neck. The Jaffa's silence was eloquent. The anger coming from him was palpable. The Goa'uld were bad enough, a blight on the galaxy that had gone on too long. To impersonate one to subjugate a poor and ignorant people was the definition of immoral. The only leash holding Teal'c in check had been the threat to Daniel.
Mitchell still wanted SG1 back together but now he had a better idea of just what that would mean, just what he would be expected to control. He stayed out of Teal'c's way, not daring to be the one who snapped the leash on that temper. He figured Teal'c wouldn't ever take it out on Daniel and he couldn't take it out on Vala. But one puny and annoying Air Force Colonel might make a suitable target. One deep thousand-yard-stare from the Jaffa ought to be enough to shatter Mitchell into little bits.
These humans must be told the truth. The low, deadly croon of an utterly pissed off Teal'c. It had made Cam shiver a little. He hoped he never heard Teal'c's voice sound like that again; and if he did, hopefully it wouldn't be directed at Cam.
And truthfully Cam had been more than a little disappointed in Vala. For the space of a single heartbeat he had almost been convinced she really was still Qetesh. Finding out she was stringing them along to get at an abandoned treasure had tipped Cameron's temper.
He had dragged her into the anteroom the first chance he got and pinned her up against a wall.
"What the hell are you doing?"
If he'd thought she was going to be intimidated he was wrong. Okay, there was a brief instant when the color seemed to spill out of her face; but then it flowed back in again angrily.
"I do what I have to do," she snapped back, "Just as you do."
For a moment he couldn't speak at all. There was a cloud in her eyes β a cold, gray thundercloud. Mitchell tried to take a breath before speaking again. He spent some time just looking at her. Firstly because she was really good to look at no matter how dire the situation. Tall, slender, sinewy, narrow-waist but broad shoulders. Tougher than she looked, resilient in and out of bed, nothing fragile about her though she was distinctly female and everything was most certainly in all the right places. The dress she was wearing had a certain earthy, sensual quality. Her hair looked darker against the pale color, blue-black and spilling like ink around her back and shoulders. She had a knack for this Goa'uld thing too β pulling it off with just the right amount of arrogance and benevolence. If Cameron hadn't had a very clear memory of two nights spent in her bed he might not even think it was the same woman.
Besides, I think I've seen just about everything there is to see. Jackson's casual statement had caused a ripple of totally unreasonable jealousy. Daniel had been in a combat situation at the time, stripping an enemy of a valuable resource; and he had made it clear that he wanted nothing at all to do with Vala now. Cameron hadn't known that the Doctor could be quite that cold. He knew that Daniel would never cheat on his wife. He had been the moral voice of the SGC since the first mission to Abydos.
Cam stared at Vala secondly because he was trying to judge how best to handle the situation. She had gone from angry toβ¦. He didn't know what. He had a feeling if he kept trying to push her they would end up in a no-holds-barred brawl. This was Vala Mal Doran in her world. The look in her eyes said she was ready to stun the asshole who tried to get between her and the treasure she had come for.
Of course the asshole happened to be him.
She was trying to make him crazy, he'd decided.
Daniel had done his best to convince her to tell these people the truth. Daniel seemed to have some odd hold over her that Cameron didn't understand. It was something that even Vala appeared to be fighting.
Her instincts were to protect herself and her own interests.
He put his hands on her arms and rubbed slightly, up and down. Her skin was warm and dry under his palms.
"Look, Vala," he said, "We're obviously very different people who have lived very different lives. But I can't believe our versions of what's right and wrong could be so opposite."
"So now it's wrong for me to watch out for myself? Would you please tell me who is going to do that for me if I don't?"
Damn, Mitchell thought, how long had she been on her own?
"Maybe in this case, yes," he answered, "You're getting a huge finder's fee for the treasure under Glastonbury Tor. Why take from these people? They have nothing."
"Because they can't eat the things in those boxes. It doesn't do them any good."
"We can open up the Stargate for them, show them how it works and set them up in trade with other planets.
Vala blinked. That had certainly never occurred to her.
"And you can tell them that after you tell them you aren't a god," Mitchell said.
"Why not tell them and leave out the part where I'm not a god?"
"You're still thinking you might need this place," Mitchell guessed. "You still don't want to give up the advantage you think you have here."
She kept looking at him steadily for a moment and then turned away, looking at nothing. Old memories could hurt, Mitchell knew. Her fingers wrapped around his wrist. They were cool in spite of the desert heat.
"It will show them that people can help them," Cameron explained. "They don't need gods to be successful."
"Am I wrong to do what I do?" She asked softly.
A glimpse then, of the real Vala. The woman buried under layers. He had seen much in the short time they had been together. She wasn't incapable of normal emotions. He had seen her frightened out of her wits, exhilarated, exasperated, angry, teasing, passionate. But mostly Cameron knew she lived behind a shield tighter and thicker than the one Jackson used to hold the world at bay.
Unfortunately he didn't trust her even when she let the shield slip a little. For all he knew it was another part of the game.
"I think," Cam said, slowly, "That what you do should be examined on a case by case basis; and in this case it would be better for you to come clean with these people and see what we can salvage of it."
Vala's mouth tightened, twisted a little and then loosened. It wasn't a smile but Cameron had a feeling he had won.
"You have to start trusting people at some point in your life. If you were good to these people then they'll probably give you a second chance; especially if you have something to offer them. You have to trust their basic goodness and you have to trust us to take care of you."
She laughed, a silvery, velvet coated sound with no humor in it.
"In case you hadn't noticed, darling, at least two of you already want to strangle me with their bare hands."
All right, that was probably true. Cam knew Teal'c was angry; and nothing in Jackson's carefully worded reports had ever indicated how deep his passion ran.
Vala's body suddenly shifted in minute but obvious ways, offering the one thing she was sure would distract him, the one thing she was sure he would take.
"Can't we talk about this reasonably?" She asked, with a sweet, welcoming smile.
"We are talking," he said. He caught her wrist when herhands started to wander.
"That's not what I meant," she pouted.
Cameron shook her a little. "You're better than this," he said with finality.
Vala shook her head ruefully. "Tauri," she muttered, as if that explained everything.
Sometimes, Cameron thought, maybe it did.
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