Chapter Ten

There was a light knock upon the doorframe to Daniel's office that caused him to look up from the tablet he was squinting at. He lifted his brows at the goofy grin painted on General Jack O'Neill's face, then turned back to his work.

"Daniel," Jack greeted as if it were a question.

"Jack," Daniel repeated in the same tone.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Jack came into the room, clutching one hand dramatically over his heart. "I'm wounded, I mean really. I come in days early just to spend some quality time with my buddies, and I don't even get a smile?"

He forced a smile, looking up at his friend and former colleague once more. "So where's Sam?"

Jack feigned innocence at this. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

His cover was blown as Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter poked her head around the door from where she had been waiting. She was biting her lip, her nose wrinkled in an apologetic manner, much in the way he was used to. "Hi Daniel."

Daniel smiled genuinely at them both. "A little early for the summit, don't you think?"

They shared a look before Jack answered. "We felt we should probably prepare. With dinner. You game?"

"Sure, let me just wrap up a few things here."

"Great!" Sam looked around his office expectantly. "Where's Vala?"

Daniel sucked in a breath audibly. "She's not available."

Sam's shoulders slumped. "What happened?"

He closed the books he had been using for his research with the tablet as he tried to think of how to answer. "I'll explain at dinner."

"Jackson!"

The sound of Mitchell's angered voice had all three turning around to stare at him as he rounded the doorway. He looked between Sam and Jack for a moment before fixing his glare on Daniel. "Sam, General. Good to see you."

Jack looked between Cam and Daniel, Cam still glaring and Daniel looking resigned, almost as if he knew what he had done wrong already. "This should be interesting."

"Would you two excuse us for a moment?" Cam asked, his words a bit clipped. "Jackson and I have some team business to discuss."

"We don't mind," Jack offered, ignoring Sam's admonishing look. "I miss team business."

Mitchell tilted his head for a moment, then seemed to decide he didn't care if the former members of SG1 heard their conversation. "Alright. You're probably gonna want to hear this anyway, Sam, since you'll no doubt be doing damage control."

"There's no damage control--" Daniel started before Cam took a quick step forward.

"What the hell were you thinking, Jackson? Is that your idea of being helpful? Because I'm pretty sure that's what General Landry asked us to do was help her, not yell at her."

Daniel tried to stifle a sigh as he met Sam's confused look. "Vala and I had a minor disagreement."

"Minor?" Cam asked incredulously. "Two SF's escorted you out of her room, Jackson! I'd say that's a bit more than minor!"

"Woh, what the hell is going on here Cam?" Sam turned back to Daniel. "And why did you have to be escorted out of Vala's room?"

Daniel balked at the accusation in her tone. "Because she was being ridiculous and didn't want to listen! And it's not that big of a deal. Vala and I fight all the time, in case you haven't noticed, Mitchell."

"Yea, but what doesn't happen every day is Vala being confronted with the people who tried to kill her," Cam bit back. "Or did that little tidbit slip your mind when you were yelling at her?"

"What? You expect me to coddle her because of this? Because I'm not exactly sure that's best right now and Vala sure as hell isn't appreciative when we do!"

"I expect you to cut her some slack while she's stuck in there!"

Samantha stepped in between the two men as their voices elevated and the tension grew higher. "Alright, that's enough!"

Daniel whipped off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose as he turned away. He already felt guilty enough for what he had said to Vala without Cam butting in. And since when did Cam become Vala's rescuer?

Carter relaxed her arms as both men turned away. "What is going on here guys? I mean, besides Daniel and Vala arguing."

"Yea," Jack agreed with a shrug, "which I gotta side with Daniel here and say what's the big deal with that? They've been doing that since she kicked his ass on the Prometheus."

Daniel turned back around. "She did not--"

"It doesn't matter!" Sam cried out. "The point is that you two fighting is not out of the ordinary." She looked back to Mitchell. "But you siding with Vala is. Now someone please tell me the whole story."

Cam clenched his jaw as he cut his eyes to the archeologist. "SG1 is currently grounded and Vala is confined to the infirmary until Dr. Hutchison releases her."

"Dr. Hutchison? But he's a psychiatrist," Sam questioned.

Mitchell gave a knowing look. "Exactly."

Sam's demeanor changed to that of concern for her friend. "What happened? Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Daniel answered in a calming voice.

"No, she's not," Cam pressed through gritted teeth. "The last mission we went on landed us on Vala's home planet."

Samantha's eyes widened as Jack shrugged. "So? She steal something from them?"

"More like she was stolen from them, sir," Sam answered. "That's the place where Vala was taken from by Qetesh."

"Ohh," Jack dragged out the word. "Not happy to see her I'm guessing?"

"The last time Vala was there was after she was released from Qetesh by the Tok'ra," Daniel explained. "They didn't believe her when she told them and tried to stone her to death for Qetesh's crimes." He turned a questioning gaze to Samantha. "How did you know?"

The corners of her mouth turned down. "I didn't know all of that. Vala just mentioned it in passing once." She shifted her feet as she elaborated. "We talked about how we both moved around a lot, her because of Jacek and me because I was a military brat. She told me that she and her mother had settled back down in the village where she was born not long before Qetesh took her as host."

Daniel nodded slowly, not at all surprised that Sam didn't have the whole story. "Well, there's a lot more to it than that."

"Oh boy," Sam responded with a wince.

"Yea, yea. Well, needless to say Vala freaked out when confronted with her people again."

There was a moment of silence, both men unsure as to how to describe her actions, before O'Neill gestured with his hand and said, "Well? Go on. What happened?"

"She decided to give them a taste of their own medicine and tried stoning them to death," Cam responded.

"She did not try to stone them to death." Daniel couldn't help but roll his eyes. "She was throwing rocks at them."

"Even as Teal'c was carrying her back to the gate, Jackson. She was out of her head. And you aren't really doing much to help that right now!"

"Me? What am I supposed to do?"

"Talk to her! And note, I didn't say yell, I said talk to her!"

Daniel threw up his hands in frustration. "You act like she listens to me! Here's how it works with Vala, Mitchell: I tell her to do something, and she does the complete opposite!" He was practically shouting at this point. It was not his fault that Vala hadn't been released by Dr. Hutchison yet. Hell, it wasn't even Dr. Hutchison's fault--it was Vala's! She was the one being so damn stubborn! "You're just upset because SG1 is grounded until Dr. Hutchison releases Vala, which means you should be yelling at Vala and not me! If she would stop--just for one moment stop--playing games and actually take this seriously, then she wouldn't have even been in there to begin with!"

Jack raised his hand in question. "Um, why is it that she's in the infirmary again? You kinda skipped over that part and went back to yelling at each other."

Daniel ran his hand over his face, trying to calm down. "She was still throwing rocks at the people we were sent to help when we came through the gate. Needless to say, Landry didn't exactly like that. She refused to tell him anything beyond Qetesh having a history with the people she was attacking, so he sent her to the infirmary."

"It's not like he had much of a choice," Cam defended at the look of disapproval and shock on Sam's face. "The president and the Tok'ra will be here in a few days, which means there are IOA people all over just waiting for the slightest screw up. Half the damn base saw her little hissy fit, so he had to take action."

"Ah," Jack nodded sagely before turning to Daniel. "So what did you do to screw this up so bad?"

"I didn't---" Daniel stopped himself at Jack's knowing gaze and the 'yea right' look on Sam's face. He could feel that his own was probably red by now, his frustration and anger building, though mainly at himself. "Vala was pulling her usual antics, and I lost my temper with her."

"And by usual antics you mean?" O'Neill pressed.

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "I mean usual antics." He gave Jack a look that told him not to press it. He was not about to launch into the embarrassing details of their encounter. "I said some things that I shouldn't have, and didn't realize that I had hurt her feelings until she was kicking me out." He turned his eyes back to Cam. "Happy?"

"No," Cam answered matter of factly. "I'll be happy when you fix this so our girl can get out." He dropped his head, placing his hands on his hips. He approached Daniel and lowered his voice. "Look, Jackson. It's not just about going back out there. She was shaking when we got back. And in the infirmary...." He looked to the ceiling as he let out a deep breath, remembering the haunted look in her eyes. "She's hurting enough as it is right now. You can only bury stuff so deep for so long. Just...fix this. She's got enough to deal with."

Daniel didn't say anything, just nodded an okay to Mitchell, who then clapped his hand on Daniel's arm, giving it a light squeeze. He watched the Colonel excuse himself from Sam and Jack, the weight of Vala's issues weighing heavily on his shoulders. All he had wanted to do since being held captive with her and finding out the truth in the words she had spoken all those years ago to him was help her, and here he had just caused her more pain. He sighed in defeat, forcing a smile to his old teammates before heading to the infirmary.