Chapter 8: Priorities

Set mid Season 6.

It was a sudden sweep across her shins that finally brought Dany down. The breath blew out of her in one giant bubble as her stomach hit the floor. Her jaw cracked against the tile, making her eyes water. Someone was kneeling on top of her, a knee in her spine, pinning her arms securely across her back. Through the fog of pain and the dimming tint of red she'd been staring through only moments before, Dany made a decision: she was never, ever going anywhere without her gun again.

Someone was shouting. A familiar voice, and the more alert parts of her focused on it as vaguely comforting. The pressure eased off her back, and she was being lifted, gently but firmly, to her feet.

"Did I damage our interests?" she asked later, when the crowd had settled and she was sitting in a quiet courtyard.

Major Davis was approaching, a moistened cloth in one hand. He knelt down in front of her and held up the cloth questioningly. Dany nodded.

"By refusing the unwanted advances of a self-entitled senator's son? No." Davis very carefully brushed at the blood on her chin. When he got to the split in her lower lip, Dany winced, and Davis smiled as he handed her the cloth. "Although it might be easier on the men in this country if you stuck to your uniform from now on."

Dany pressed the cloth to her lip and looked down at her dress. A simple black, borrowed from Carter, but it hugged her body like a tailored gloved. "Fat lip might help too," she said through the cloth.

"Not a chance."

The next moment slugged by, and Dany decided she'd had enough of nursing her bruised face. She let her hand fall into her lap. "Sir." It was hard to meet his eyes now. "I'm not sure I'm the right person for this job."

With a sigh, Davis rose to take a seat on the bench beside her. "Most soldiers aren't exactly fond of politics."

"When we're in the middle of it, when Hammond's barking orders at me, or Carter's rattling off specs I have to remember so I can relay them to you, that's fine. I get that. It's easy to remember why I do this job. But this-" She waved at the building in front of them, chandeliers, self-entitled senators' sons and all. "I hate this."

Davis laughed lightly, startling her. She had served under him nearly a year, but never heard him laugh before.

"I know," he said. "I hate it too."

With a deep breath and a stiffening of her already abused spine, Dany went on, quietly, "If I resigned my commission, do you think General Hammond would let me go offworld?"

The silence that followed was horrible. From Davis's stare, she knew whatever else he'd deduced about her, he hadn't seen that coming. She looked down at the cloth in her hands.

"The information you gave me…I talked to Jacob when he was back last week. The Tok'ra think they have a pretty good idea where Dan is." She bit her lip, then bit it again to keep from crying out. Holding up the cloth again, she continued, "Most of the time I can convince myself that whatever we're doing is helping Dan because we're helping everybody, because we're working towards the larger goal of eradicating the Goa'uld once and for all. But sir, I can't be attending parties while my brother is still out there. I need to do something."

Davis was quiet for a long time, during which Dany managed to stop the bleeding again. "I'm not letting you resign," he said finally. "I'm sorry. We need you here. But things are quiet right now. Put together a mission plan. If Hammond approves, I think we can spare you for a few days, provided SG-1 is willing to go with you."

SG-1

The mission was, of course, a bust, but that was nothing compared to what followed. When Davis arrived at the SGC to collect his assistant, he found that SG-1 had just returned, and without the Lieutenant. She had entered the gate with them, but not come out the other side.