Well, got it done finally! Wasn't sure exactly how to put some stuff, lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! I really can't wait to hear what you think of this one. ;)

Chapter 11

Vala's body went limp, her wide eyes open and staring through them at nothing. Jacek bent away from them, shaking his head vigorously and sobbing already. Sam checked her pulse, found nothing, tried to do something about it, but there was nothing to do--not with none of their medical equipment, and no access to it because of Wkfar standing there shoving a gun in their faces.

It was over.

Daniel felt something hot on his face and realized it was streams of tears. If they were in the middle of a firefight or anything else he wouldn't be like this, he could hold it together; Jack had trained him well enough over the years--maybe too well.

But they hadn't been expecting any trouble. It had just happened.

In his mind he was screaming, and it was all he could do to hold it inside.

Sam's eyes were damp, but nothing had escaped yet. Gently she closed Vala's eyes. "Are you happy now?" she spat, giving Wkfar a glare that would certainly kill if looks could.

"I had no choice."

"You could have had the weapon set on stun; you didn't have to kill anyone!" Sam choked. He didn't have anything to say to that, which confirmed what they'd figured out anyway; Wkfar only cared for himself, and he no problem with any of this. Maybe he'd even wanted to kill one of them, for retaliation for their interference.

Slowly Daniel turned to look at him, his glower, he was sure, even more deadly. "You never answered the question," he said dangerously. "Are you happy now?"

"If you are attempting to frighten me, you are failing miserably."

Something in his mind snapped. Without thinking, he jumped to his feet and flung himself at the old man. "You sick--!" He never got out the expletive he'd been going for. Wkfar snapped around and fired at him with the weapon that was still in his hand and still on the highest setting. He saw the flash, heard Sam scream, felt the searing pain scrape past his side, and was just conscious enough to get the impact with the floor, which jarred him painfully awake again and knocked the wind out of him.

Groaning, Daniel rolled over and halfway up, enough to see that the blast had just winged him. But it had still burnt through his jacket and left a thin, bloody, sizzling strip of flesh on his left side. It was no bigger than the wound in Vala's torso, but much less deep, and not in a place that immediately put him in danger of his life. The mere distance of a few inches, that nevertheless made such a difference, suddenly infuriated him, but he couldn't yet get enough air through the pain to scream at Wkfar.

He heard Sam calling to him, picked up that Wkfar wouldn't let her move to him though he was only a few feet away now.

"I'm fine," he gasped finally. It probably wasn't very convincing. After a few more moment he was able to focus on glaring up at Wkfar again. He was smirking again.

"There is a way to save your friend," he offered almost cordially. "But I will not tell you of it unless you do what I have asked."

"Oh yeah, I really look like I could get up and run and unlock a bunch of people," Daniel hissed through his teeth.

"Perhaps not, but the woman could. Do you wish the girl to remain dead? The device can act as a healing and reviving unit, if it has only been a few minutes. But that was not its original function, and one must be skilled, very practiced, to know the right sequence to input for it to perform that action. You would never figure it out on your own."

Both Sam and Daniel stared at him, wondering if he was telling the truth.

"If you do as I asked, I wi--" He stopped suddenly and dropped to the ground as a zat blast enveloped him. A moment later Cameron and Teal'c appeared in the doorway, the colonel already shaking his head.

"That little--What are we going to do with him? I thought he was locked up already, and--crap! What'd he do?" The reaction wasn't severe enough at first; must have only seen Vala on the ground with her eyes closed. It took a second for his eyes to track down to the nasty would and take it the fact that she wasn't breathing. It looked like he stopped doing it himself, and Teal'c was staring, wide-eyed.

"Vala MalDoran…."

Cameron swallowed. "Oh no…she's not…she can't be…"

Sam nodded, and Daniel just let himself collapse again. After he clenched his eyes shut he heard Mitchell groan, and wished that he could shut his ears, too. He tried to focus on something else--anything else--but his mind wandered of its own accord. He wondered what was happening, until Ancient symbols began to take shape in his mind. They were small ones, like those on the console.

He tried to focus on them, and they were gone immediately. He relaxed, and the fuzzy picture came back. Something told him it was important. But Merlin was gone without a trace…that much Morgan La Faye had confirmed the last time he'd seen her. It had all been her? So was this as well? Or knowledge from his time ascended? So much of it was still in there somewhere. As it became harder and harder to figure out just what he was looking at--or not--it was more obvious that was what it was. Morgan wouldn't make it this difficult.

"Sam…"

She was beside him in an instant, and Daniel opened his eyes and looked up at her intently. "Get her in there," he said immediately.

Sam blinked and swallowed. "What? But Wkfar is unconscious, and he won't help unless we let them all go…"

"I think I can do it," he grunted. "I'm not sure how…maybe from when I was ascended…but I think I know how to do it…" he paused to catch his breath. "Please, Sam….just get her in there."

She nodded quickly. "Okay, okay. Do you need help?"

"Probably…." Sam looked up at Mitchell and Teal'c, who must have heard it. They moved to Vala immediately, their movements radiating their wish that there was some kind of hope. Sam helped him get to his feet and hobble over to the control panel. Jacek sat up, eyes wide, looking hopeful, too.

He hoped he wouldn't let them all down.

Ignoring the pain in his side, Daniel leaned on the console so Sam wouldn't have to hold onto him. She let go, but she didn't move away. "I'm right here, okay?" she said quietly. He squeezed her hand for a moment.

"Thank you."

Daniel turned back to the console, ignoring Mitchell and Teal'c putting Vala into the pod and trying to focus on the picture in his mind. But the more he tried, the more it fled from him--as if someone was purposefully trying to hide it from him.

As of course, someone was, he realized.

The Others didn't want him to remember anything more of his time ascended. They never had. It was the only answer. His jaw clenched, and his fingers gripped the edges of the control panel until he was sure his knuckles were white. He didn't focus on the image, the instructions. Instead, he focused on finding and breaking whatever was holding it away from him.

It hurt.

They didn't want him to have it.

It probably wasn't really them, here, now, only safeguards placed in his mind when he descended, one or other of the two times. He couldn't be sure. If it was really them now, the force would be much stronger. Which meant that he could break through it now if he tried hard enough. He could save Vala…

But it hurt! Daniel felt the pain in the fresh wound increase rapidly, knew that it was probably bleeding more now, and resisted the urge to shout when his head exploded with pain like his head was in an iron vice. Someone touched him, maybe grabbed, as if trying to make him stop, but if he focused on that he would lose his concentration. He would never be able to do this.

He gripped the console even harder, if that was really possible. The defenses around the information were going down. Not enough for him to ever retrieve much, but he could get what he needed, if he could only chip away just a little more…

But the force repelled him, and sent a wave of pain shuddering through his entire body--just as something else reached in and threw it back.

"What is he doing?" Jacek questioned again. But none of them could tell him that. Al they knew was that it looked like it was hurting Daniel, but he kept doing it, holding onto the control panel console as if it were a lifeline.

And it was. For Vala.

They were willing to let him do what he could for their friend, but when he started trembling, and his wound began to bleed again, there was panic.

"Daniel!" Sam called worriedly, pulling at him.

"Make him stop!" Cam shouted, lunging forward from where he stood with Teal'c by the pod. She came around and stopped him.

"Don't! We have no idea what's going on! If you do that, you could hurt him."

"He's hurting himself right! Or something else is!"

Teal'c came forward. "We must do something; we must not allow Daniel Jackson to harm himself further even for this reason."

"Then talk to him, bring him out of it--"

"Jackson!"

She continued, though she didn't look happy even with her own conclusions. "Only do anything else as a last resort. We don't want to cause more damage; this has something to do with the Ancients. When it comes to these ascended things, we have no idea what we're doing--"

They were all startled out of their conversation when Daniel screamed, and his knees buckled--but still he clung to the console.

Cam had had quite enough. "That's it." Even as Daniel straightened again, he marched over, grabbed one of his arms, and tried to pry him away. "Come on, buddy, that's enough…" he swallowed hard. "If you can't do anything, it's not your fault. Stop it, now; let's get you to the infirmary."

Finally he actually seemed to hear them. "No! No, I have it!

Cameron let go of him out of surprise. "What?"

With his arm free, Daniel bolstered himself up on the console again, opened his eyes and began punching in a sequence. When it was done, the pod closed and lit from within, and Daniel collapsed.

Cameron was closer, but Sam reacted faster. Immediately she was behind him, catching him and lowering him to the ground in her arms. He was unconscious.

"This is bad."

Sam swallowed. "If we get him straight home he should be fine…and…" She glanced up at the glowing, closed pod, and they all wondered what was happening in there.

"Do you think it's working?"

"I don't know…it's possible. After all, the sarcophagus is based off of an Ancient device," she grimaced.

"It had better not turn anything into a zombie."

Jacek had made his way over, finally, and was now standing motionlessly beside the pod, staring into its blue luminescence. Cameron took the few steps to his side.

"How are you doing?"

Two or more weeks ago, he wouldn't have cared, but after seeing…well, now he wasn't sure what he thought about this man.

Jacek wouldn't look at him. "She's been in trouble so often, and most of the time without me. Just the way she is, I never thought…" He didn't seem able to go on.

"Neither did we," he answered heavily. "We deal with this type of stuff every day, but neither did we."

The pod opened almost as suddenly as it had shut, and they could see Vala again. The first thing he noticed was that the wound was healed. So was she there?

"Oww…"

Cam's heart stuttered, sputtered to life again, and leapt. "Vala?" Sam looked up sharply, Teal'c took a step forward to see better, and Jacek practically leapt. Cameron had to hold him back. "Whoa, easy. Give her some air…" he seemed reluctantly, but he stood still. One of her hands came up to rub at her forehead, and her eyes fluttered open. She was still a teenager, but she was alive.

"Guys? What happened. My head feels like someone dropped a bag of bricks on it," she complained.

More than a little bewildered, Cameron and Teal'c reached it, caught Vala's hands and pulled her out, ad supported her when she swayed a little once her feet were on the ground. Then, of course, the first thing she saw was Daniel, who was still unconscious in Sam's arms on the floor.

"Daniel!" She dropped to her knees beside them, eyes going wide quickly. "Is he all right? What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Sam asked gently.

"Well, I…I…" She frowned in concentration, and Sam shared glances with the men as they all looked both at the pod and the console. Eventually realization dawned, when Vala saw Wkfar unconscious across the room.

"He killed me…" Vala murmured. Her gaze snapped back to Daniel, sudden dread welling up in her chest. "What did he do?"

"We don't know," Sam admitted. "He used the device to bring you back, but we're not sure how he knew how. However he found it, it did this. He collapsed once he'd started the device up."

She scowled, took his shoulders in her hands and shook a little. "Daniel? Daniel, wake up. Come on, let me know you're all right. Daniel!" He seemed to be breathing all right, but he had saved her life…and she knew him. He would have given anything to make sure he succeeded. Tears prickled at her eyes; she'd kill him herself if he had caused any real harm to himself.

"Daniel!!"

He started and coughed himself awake. "Ah…ouch. What…?"

"Welcome back, Jackson," Mitchell smirked. Vala tossed him a look, and he amended. "You too."

Sam sighed. "You're all right."

Vala just shook her head. "Thank goodness. Don't ever scare me like that again."

Daniel frowned, though she still wasn't sure he was fully awake. "Scare you? You were the one that died on us--Vala!" He was definitely awake now. Sam let go of him in surprise and he quickly sat up, popping out of her arms to wrap his around Vala. "Oh thank God; it worked--"

Vala answered the embrace with her own, even through her surprise. "Of course it did. It's all right, Daniel, I'm fine…"

He cut off and gasped, and it sounded like he was in pain. Gently she pulled him away, and lowered him back against Sam, who hadn't moved. He was grimacing, and reaching toward his side.

That was when she saw the wound. "What is that!"

"It's nothing," he said quickly. "It happened before Cameron knocked out Wkfar. I'll be fine. Don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it?! You've been shot and the side of your jacket is soaked in blood, and you don't want me to worry about it?"

Daniel didn't move his body, but he reached up and took her face in his hands. His own face was haggard and exhausted, and he seemed to be begging her not to argue, that he didn't need it right now. "Vala, the only thing that's important is that you're alive. We're both alive."

She swallowed. "Okay," she said quietly, relenting.

He nodded in thanks and went limp against Sam again, his eyes half closing. "Good…" He was losing his consciousness again.

"Cam, let's break out one of the emergency stretchers and get him to the 'gate and home to Carolyn. We've let him wait long enough," Sam said immediately.

Daniel made no argument. He didn't say anything at all. That worried Vala quite a bit, but she knew he was a fighter. He would be fine. Still, she remained entirely focused on keeping an eye on him, making sure he was alive, until Cameron and Teal'c had him through the 'gate.

Teal'c had told her how glad he was that she was alive, and Mitchell had allowed himself to give her a brief embrace while saying something of the same, before the two men had picked up the stretcher again and carried a now unconscious Daniel back to Earth. Sam wondered slowly back to the device chamber to continue working, leaving Vala and her father standing in the 'gate room of the Helpers' planet.

Jacek hesitantly came closer. "I uh…I didn't remember that you made such a cute teenager," he offered lamely.

"Probably because you never really saw me at this age. You had all but disappeared by then," she said bluntly, not looking at him. Part of her wanted to put as much bitterness and venom into that statement as possible, but the part that wouldn't do it won out for once.

"I know," he answered quietly. "And I realize I was wrong for that."

That was a first. "Do you really? Do you understand why?" Her back was still turned on him, waiting for an answer.

There was a long moment of silence. "Yes."

The tears were in her eyes again. She blinked them back and turned on him. "You said you loved me. Did you mean it?" She hated the way her voice quavered, just barely at a noticeable level. She hated the hormones of this body that were eating at her. She never would have even gotten this far into the conversation without them.

She wondered if that was a blessing or a curse.

"I always tell you I love you," he said, a bit of his usually nonchalance trying to slip back in.

Vala shook her head decisively. "No. That's not what I mean. I'm not talking about thrown-off comments that you used to keep Mother happy and me placated as a child. I want…" She took a deep breath. "I want the truth."

That shut him up for several long moments. He looked at the ground, at the ceiling, the wall, his feet…anywhere but at her. At long last he swallowed and spoke uncertainly. "Vala…you know me. I like to think you don't, but you've known what I'm really like for a long time. I play the women; I'm a real ladies man, and I always have been. To be honest, for a long time I didn't know if I knew what real love was. I'm still not sure I have a grasp on it.

"But…well…when that old man shot you…" He hesitated, thinking hard. "I was more scared then I've ever been in my life. I realized…I'd only felt anything like it one other time in my life--right after your mother died. It uh…it hurt so much I could barely breathe, and I've never been more relieved than when you got up out of that pod."

Another moment of silence, and then another quiet sentence. "If love does that, then I guess I do. I do love you."

Vala studied him for a minute or two, but found no indication that he was making any of it up. "You're telling the truth," she observed quietly.

Jacek smirked just a little and chucked a thumb over his shoulder. "Do you think I'd be lying after all that we just went through?"

She felt a small smile flicker across her face for a second or two. Slowly she walked up to him. He looked down at her--because unfortunately she'd ended up at an age just before her last growth spurt--and she contemplated him for a little while longer.

Then Vala hesitantly hugged her father.

Jacek jerked a little in surprise, but then wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry about all of this…" he said, stumbling over what to say.

Vala smiled against his shoulder. "Oh, don't worry. You're not off the hook yet."