Teal'c usually remained quiet on most matters. If his opinion was required, he would give it. If requested, he would also offer it up. There were occasions, of course, when he would openly volunteer his opinion. But usually, he maintained his silence and patiently allowed others around him to carry on discussions while he observed. Today, however his opinion had been requested and he was now mulling the best response to the question.

Teal'c considered the question and the possible responses to it. It was no secret to him. Was no secret to most people, he assumed. And it certainly wasn't a secret even to the man who had asked the question. But O'Neill was asking his opinion, asking how he knew it was for real. Teal'c let his mind wander and analyze the reasons that proved he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was real. He had long ago discovered it wasn't anything big. Wasn't anything flamboyant. It was just the little things.

The way he stared at her whenever she walked away, whenever she left a room. He would look up from whatever he was doing, or away from whoever he was talking to and watch her leave the room, completely getting distracted in the process. That was perhaps the first sign that Teal'c had noticed. The first sign that Daniel Jackson had more than a passing interest in Vala Mal Doran.

It was the day that Teal'c had entered his office and found Daniel Jackson had cleared off a shelf in the back corner for Vala. She had a stack of magazines, candy bars, a pink fluffy stuffed bear and a CD player on the shelf.

It was when, while searching in one of the archaeologists office drawers for a pencil, Teal'c found that one of Vala Mal Doran's sparkly hair clips had found a new resting place. He had seen Daniel Jackson move it off the desk and put it in a pocket the week before. Teal'c had assumed he had returned it, but obviously he had been mistaken.

It was little things like finding Daniel Jackson using a pink pen when he couldn't find anything else to use. The time when they all went bowling and the archaeologist had made sure he carried Vala Mal Doran's glittery purple ball despite her insistence that she could carry her own ball. When he finally stopped complaining about her "borrowing" his credit cards and actually helped her shop for that new CD that she wanted to listen to.

It was when he had bought her a laptop so she could watch DVDs in the pink chair she stashed in the back of his office. How he now stocked chocolate chip cookies along with his Oreos because he knew she liked them best.

And it wasn't just one-sided, either.

It was just the little things like the way she always made sure she was near him. No, not every second of every day, but always for the majority of the time. The way she picked on him, the way she got flustered when he got flustered. When she smuggled him coffee while he was in the infirmary. Encouraging him when he was down about a mission gone wrong, whispering in his ear on team nights when they were all in the dark watching movies and she thought no one would notice.

The day she cried in his own arms after a mission when Daniel Jackson had taken a bullet protecting Mitchell and she had thought he was going to die. When Daniel Jackson had nearly drowned himself in a bottle of something very strong after she had been kidnapped and the long days passed without any indication they would ever find her again. The undisguised peace that settled over each of them whenever the other one was near.

Which wasn't to say they didn't have their rough patches.

It was common knowledge around the SGC. When Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran argued, they argued hard and fast (and loud) but the storm usually blew over fairly quickly. And then they would begin arguing again. They never went very long without a fight. However, Teal'c had been noticing that the real arguments, the ones that stung and hurt, were becoming fewer and farther between. The other arguments were nearly daily, sometimes hourly. But those were the ones that made him smile. The ones where they had a difficult time hiding the fact that they cared about each other. The ones where they used their arguing to actually get to know one another better and allow their budding relationship to blossom.

It was the night they spent off world and Daniel Jackson had called out in his sleep. For the first time since Teal'c had known him, the name he had called out wasn't Sha're.

"Teal'c?"

O'Neill's voice broke into his thoughts.

"T buddy, ya still there?"

"Indeed."

"Well? Kinda waiting on an answer here."

Teal'c nodded, looking away from the lake back to the man patiently fishing next to him. O'Neill's eyebrows were raised expectantly. The rest of the team had gone into town for more food, leaving himself and O'Neill fishing in companionable silence. They hadn't spoken for almost twenty minutes before O'Neill had asked his question.

All he had asked was, "Daniel and Vala?"

All he had meant was, Teal'c, tell me if they are as deeply in love as I think they are. Tell me Daniel's happy, truly, truly, incredibly happy. Let me know that things are going so well for them that I don't have to keep worrying about him. Tell me that she's good for him, as good as I think she is. Tell me she's not going to break his heart, but will continue to heal his heart and complete him. Tell me that I was right all along when I first told you that the mysterious pirate who had taken over the Prometheus was the one. The one perfect woman for my best friend. That even though it looked like she had disappeared off the face of the Earth, out of the entire galaxy in fact, that Daniel wasn't going to rest until he found her. Tell me Daniel is going to be ok.

Teal'c could see it all in O'Neill's eyes. All the hope, the compassion and the worry. Thinking back over all the little, but significant reasons that he knew for sure that the answer to all of O'Neill's questions was a resounding yes, they are truly, deeply in love and perfect for each other, he tried to come up with a simple answer.

Teal'c smiled.

Jack returned the smile, casting his line out into his empty lake again, peace overcoming him, "That's all I wanted to know."

Jack and Daniel aren't the only ones who can do a lot of talking without saying much, are they? :)