I still wish on the stars as they fall from above

Chapter 9: Explaining Time

"And now Vala's gone again." Elizabeth interjected pulling the dots together. "But the question is, did she go back to the past again, and will she be successful?"

"Yes and no." Vala mumbled as she walked into Elizabeth's office startling everyone. "Yes I went back in time and no, I wasn't successful. Daniel's still dead."

"Vala!" Sam exclaimed, giving her friend a hug. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it..." Vala mumbled taking a seat in Sam's old chair.

"Hold up a second!" Jack ordered softly as he stood over Vala. "Can you please explain to me what's going on?"

"What do you need to know?" Rodney asked inquisitively.

"What I would LIKE to know is what is going on!" Jack exclaimed. "First Daniel dies, then Vala goes back in time once and re-appears to us but says that she lived through everything for a second time and then Sam and Rodney have a dream that Daniel came back instead of Vala and now Vala's just come back again..." Jack shook his head, trying to rid his mind of the pending headache that he could feel forming. "...I just don't understand. How can things seem to change but be the same? How can we have very distinct memories of what is going on but-"

"Is there a point to all this?" Rodney asked, raising his hand tentatively. "Because you're giving me a headache..."

"Jack," Sam began taking her husbands hand. "-what do you want to know? Temporal Mechanics can be one of the hardest things to grasp and-"

"Al I want to know is what timeline are we on?" He asked grimacing at the thought of time going by unannounced like it did for them years ago when he and Teal'c had been the only ones to know what was going on. "And how long are we going to keep doing this?"

"It doesn't matter." Vala muttered forlornly tears springing to her eyes. "The bracelet shattered in the past- I can't go back again to try and save Daniel."

All eyes fell on Vala as they registered what she was saying.

"No..." Rodney muttered after a moment of silence. "...no, it can't be shattered we didn't find any debris next to you- did we?"

"Rodney-" Sam explained gently. "-things haven't changed for us. Only for Vala, we wouldn't know if the bracelet had been destroyed or not."

"Oh for crying out loud..." Jack muttered with a groan as punched a support column that separated two window pains. "...what are we going to do now?"


A/N- I hate timetravel. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. ANd I really hope that this story is making sense and the timelines are all working out cause I don't even have a bloody clue what's REALLY going on here. sigh This is the last time that I start a story without having an outline... grumbles

But ((HUGS)) to all you who reviewed! Thank you to acer-sigma, HAZMOT, SHinki, Enajintram, spacegypsy1 and dear Bri. This was mostly a filler chapter and an explaination one (though the explanations don't even make sense to me) and I can only hope that the six of you (and the rest of you out there who are reading this) enjoyed this chapter enough to review it... it would make my day.