It's been a long, frustrating day for Cam. He has one team stuck off-world in a touchy diplomatic situation that could go wrong in a heartbeat, and SG-12 had a casualty. The job is dangerous and every person that signs on knows it, but it still hasn't stopped being a shock when the worst does happen. Tomorrow he'll have to visit the family of the deceased and that weighs heavy on him, too.
"Hey, honey," Cam says, walking over to Vala and pulling her into his arms. She's talked to Daniel and Sam on and off throughout the day, and she knows what happened.
"Are you sure you want to do this tonight?" She runs her fingers through his short cropped hair, smiling when he smiles.
"Yeah. I want to get it over with. Can't be that bad, right?" He looks at her and she can sense the apprehension in his gaze. Despite his words, he still hesitates and lingers there with his arms around her. Finally he sighs and pulls away. "She upstairs? I'll go get her."
xxxx
She doesn't reply on the first knock, so he calls her name. "Adria. Time to talk."
"Don't wanna."
He can tell it's mumbled from a face pressed into her pillow. "You've had time to get it together on your own. Now we get to help. Come on. Downstairs, We'll be waiting." He starts to walk away, but decides that it wasn't enough. "If you aren't down in five minutes, I'm coming back up for you. You do not want that option. Just so we're clear."
"Yes, sir." She mocks him through the door.
He'll let it slide. Something has upset her, more than the normal sort of teasing or bad day.
xxxx
When he gets back down Vala is on the couch. Her face looks... it looks uncomfortable. "You alright, baby?"
She's off in her own world, something feels misaligned somewhere, she can't quite place it. "What, Cameron?"
"You okay?" He settles next to her and puts his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure it's nothing big, just teenager drama. At this point I'm almost praying it's a boy."
"Me too." She snuggles her face into his neck. "I'm fine. I just feel weird. It must be all the stress." There's no sign of Addy.
"She'll be down in a minute. I gave her five." He can tell that's what she was wondering and she smiles, weakly but still a smile, at him just for knowing her that well.
They just cuddle on the couch waiting to be graced with the presence of their daughter when at four and a half minutes she finally appears.
"Hey." She opens with it. Her parents haven't ever really been harsh with her. But this is different. This is... "I'm fine." Like they'll believe it.
"Sweetheart," Cam pats the couch next to them, she shakes her head and just keeps shifting her weight from foot to foot in front of them. "We know something's not right. Please talk to us."
"I..." Adria feels the tears and she doesn't know how she can say it.
Vala holds her hand out and she takes that, curling up against her mother. "You can tell us anything, darling. We won't judge you. We just want you to be happy."
Be happy? Is that why they lied to her? So she would think that Cam loved her just as much as his real kids? "I can't tell you."
"Addy we love you." Cam's voice saying that seems to shake her up.
"Don't lie to me." Her words are venomous, sharp.
Both of them are startled by her. Vala looks on the edge of tears so Cam keeps talking. "We love you more than you can even understand, honey. Not until you have your own kids."
That makes her cry. Cam has no idea what he's doing wrong. He looks to Vala and she seems to be at a loss as well. She tries to lighten the mood. "Don't worry, hon, we don't want any 'til you're at least 30." She rubs her back and she's so stiff under her touch. "Is this about a boy?"
"No, mother, this isn't about a boy." Adria leaps up. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" She's so loud, it's like she's shouting to them across a football field.
Vala's getting upset, he sees the first tear escape and trickle down her cheek. "Hey, now. You're upsetting your mom."
"I'm fine, Cameron." She wipes the tear away. "Don't speak to your parents in that tone of voice again, young lady."
That makes her bark out a twisted sort of laughter. It turns into broken sobs though before she whispers back at them. "Parents?"
Cam stops, dead still. He doesn't want to believe it, but he looks at her and he can see it all over her face. "Adria."
"You're not my dad!" She's back to screaming at them - no, not at them, at Cam. "You all lied to me and I found the test and you're not my dad!"
She's bawling now, tears falling down her fast, and any other moment moment Cam would go to her and take his little girl in his arms and do anything to make her tears go away but right now that's not what she wants. She's looking at him and past the sadness is deep anger and betrayal.
"Adria." Vala's is the voice of calm in the moment. "There are a lot of things we haven't told you, and it's not because we wanted to hurt you. You were too young to understand."
"Too young to understand that he's not my father? That's not a hard concept to grasp, Mother." She turns her glare on Vala.
"Yes," she says, responding with a level voice to counter Adria's emotion. "You were too young, probably still are. There are circumstances around your birth-"
"So? What could be so important that you couldn't even tell me who my real father is?"
"Adria!" Vala raises her voice for the first time. Adria stops talking. "Cameron has been in your life since the very day you were born. He was with me when you took your first step, when you said your first word. You are his daughter. He is your father."
"No," Adria says, still teary. She glares at Cam. "He's not. And you never would have told me. Did you make my teacher lie to me? Why would you do that? Why did you even need to, I mean you have two kids that are really yours, why bother with me?"
She looks directly at Cam when she says it. The words make Cam feel sick. "You are every bit as much my child as Tyler and Lyra are," he says.
She sneers at him. "You can't love me as much as you love them. I'm not yours and they are. Nothing in my life is what I thought it was. My grandparents aren't really my grandparents. I have family I haven't met. Who is my dad? Do I have other brothers or sisters? I don't know anything! You kept everything from me."
"We were going to tell you." Cam puts his head in his hands, hunching over, elbows on knees. Vala is rubbing his back, trying to ease the ache. He looks up at her, his daughter - in every way that matters, and can see that she doesn't buy it. "We were."
"Why should I believe you? You've lied to me my whole life. About my whole life!" Angrily she wipes the tears away. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Because this is how you'd respond." Cam squeezes Vala's shoulder and gets up, walks over to Adria and crouches down to her level. "There are things that we don't even know."
Adria switches her glare on her mother. "You don't know?" How could her mom have slept with that many men she didn't even know who her father was?
Her chin is pulled back to look at him. "We don't know. You're right. But it's not what your thinking. It has nothing to do with that."
"So mom's not a whore?"
Cam doesn't even think before he slaps her. "Do not ever imply that again."
"You're not my father." Adria lets the sting sink in. It would almost make her gleeful after the pain on her face. But it just hurts. It hurts so much. "I don't have a father."
Vala can't take this. It's too much. Her stomach is churning and everything feels tight, wrong, inside her. "Cameron Mitchell is your father." She can see her daughter start to protest but holds up a finger and it shuts Adria up. "In every singe way that matters. Cameron Mitchell is a father to you. Biologically, we don't know."
"How many choices are there?" She spits back, the venom still soaking through her words.
"Just one." Vala looks at Cam and he nods. If she wants to explain to her, there's really no reason now. "It doesn't leave this room."
"But-"
"It's a matter of high security clearance. It does not leave this room. Is that clear?" Vala is through messing around. She wants to know, fine.
"Okay." Her voice is smaller now, meeker.
Vala holds out a hand and at first Adria doesn't want it, but the pain that crosses her mother's face makes her reach back. She pulls her into her side and hugs her tightly.
"I was stuck in another universe." Adria's surprise is already evident. "Let me finish. I was stranded there, by actions of my own. It wasn't long before I discovered I was pregnant. I hadn't had sex in months, Adria, months. The only thing we can come up with is that the Ori gave you to me."
"The Ori?" Adria thinks over things she's overheard, stuff she knows she's not supposed to know.
"They did a lot of terrible things. Killed a lot of people, ruined the lives of millions. But they gave us you, Adria, and while it doesn't make up for all the wrong they did. I can never hate them for it. I love you, so much. Your father loves you too."
"I love you so much." Cam settles next to Vala who's paled even further since the beginning of the conversation. It worries him. "Honey, are you feeling alright?"
He strokes Vala's cheek and tips her head up to look at him. She looks like she going to be sick. "I feel sick."
She's clammy to his touch and he gets up to bring her something when she cries out. "What's wrong, baby?" He's running his hands all over her body, trying to find where it hurts.
The way she's looking at him, it makes him want to die. Her eyes are big and afraid and her hands clutch at her belly. "Cameron." His name is like a plea. "I think... Oh, god, I think I'm losing it."
"Shit." He hoists her into his arms and there is blood, so much blood where she was sitting. "Goddamn, Adria call Carolyn. Tell her we're on our way. Vala's losing the baby."
Nothing makes sense to Adria. She stumbles back and then runs to get the phone. "Dad, I don't know the number."
"Get my cell phone, it's in my jacket pocket. Look under Lam." Cam is trying his best to keep Vala calm. "It's okay, honey, it's gonna be okay."
Adria's hands shake as she pushes the call button. She's crying again, watching her mom in pain, seeing the blood staining her clothes. "Dr. Lam? This is Adria Mitchell, something's wrong with my mom!"
Carolyn reacts quickly, scheduling for an ambulance to come pick Vala up. "She's going to meet you at the hospital," Adria says. "The ambulance should be here in a few minutes."
Vala looks at Cam. "I don't think it matters."
There are tears falling down her face and Adria's shocked to see them in Cam's eyes too. It feels like something she shouldn't be watching.
She's not sure what else to do so she calls her grandparents. "Something's wrong with Mom," Adria says. "I think we're going to the hospital."
"Oh... oh, sweetheart," Wendy says, sounding upset and sad. "Do you want to come stay with us, too?"
"No," Adria says, because despite the overload of feelings she still doesn't want to be faced with her grandparents knowing now that that's not really who they are.
xxxx
It feels like forever while they wait for the ambulance. She sits on the steps and just watches until she hears the sirens outside.
Cam isn't focused on anything but Vala. It's Vala that says. "Adria... Cameron, see if they'll let her ride with us."
Cam looks at Adria and she's terrified by the fact that she can't read his expression at all. "Yeah. Come on."
xxxx
She sits in the waiting room of the hospital.
Cam sits in the seat across from her, but he doesn't say anything. He's staring blankly, not trying to talk to her, not even looking at her.
Adria's not sure if she's relieved or upset by that. Her mind is too full of things, things her mother had said: another universe? Ori? None of it makes sense. Another universe? She knows that her dad works with space stuff, but she thought it was just military planning. She's snuck onto his laptop and seen boring things, like requisitions for equipment. Lots of classified things, but she's the kid of two people that work very closely with the military. Things being classified is just sort of something she's used to. For all her intelligence, she'd never been that curious.
Ori. The word rings in her head and sounds almost familiar, like the memory of something just out of reach.
It sounds like something she'd watch on TV or read in a science fiction novel. She looks down at her hands, clasped in her lap. If her mom really meant it, then she's not even really from this planet. She's from another universe. She can't even really comprehend that.
Dr. Lam comes out and Cam shoots to his feet. "Carolyn?"
"I'm sorry, Cam," Carolyn says, voice gentle and full of genuine sadness for them. "Vala's fine, but she miscarried. She lost a lot of blood so they want to keep her here overnight."
"Yeah?" Cam asks. Clearly, there's more.
Carolyn glances at Adria. "I need to talk to your father alone for a moment."
Cam glances at Adria. "Go ahead. She's old enough to hear it."
Carolyn looks surprised, but continues. "I don't want anyone testing her and seeing the naquadah levels so we're having her beamed out of here and to the base using the Asgard technology. I want to check everything out using my own equipment."
"Can you zap us, too?" Rank has its privileges, and personal use of military equipment in an emergency situation is one that Cam is willing to take advantage of.
"Of course, General." Carolyn looks at Adria again. "I'm... I'm really sorry. For your entire family."
Cam's eyes shut briefly. "Yeah. Thanks, Carolyn."