Vala and Daniel walked towards the inn side by side with their hands barely brushing against each other.
Mya came out of the inn and greeted them. "I can tell that you have spoken to your friends. I am sorry that I told your secret, it felt to me as if you had been close for a long time, that it wasn't a recent development."
Daniel replied. "It's fine. Our friends have forgiven us. And you were right about us, what was recent was my admitting to myself what Vala means to me. And I couldn't wait to tell her how much I love her."
Vala smiled at Daniel's words then grabbed their packs saying. "I'll run these upstairs; I want to check out Sam's amazing bathroom. Mya, will I have any trouble finding our room?" Mya shook her head no and Vala took off inside the inn.
Once Vala was through the door Mya approached Daniel. "She loves you very much. I know that I do not have to tell you that. She works very hard to protect you."
Mya stopped smiling and put her hand on Daniel's shoulder. She turned him to face her and said. "Daniel, you must talk with her. Vala is hiding something from you." Seeing Daniel's expression of fear Mya reassured him. "Don't worry. She is safe for now. But I fear that the child has gotten involved in something that she may now regret. I have a question for you and I know it may sound odd. Would Vala have expected that you would continue to deny your love for her? Did she suspect that you were ready to face your true feelings? It is possible that she had decided her situation was hopeless?"
"I don't understand. What are you trying to ask?"
"Daniel, would it be like Vala to volunteer to sacrifice herself for the good of others?"
"She's already done that, more than once."
Mya leaned towards him and kissed his cheek. "Please speak with her, Vala needs to share her fears. She will need your strength to help her survive what lies ahead. Vala doesn't believe that she deserves to be happy. You need to convince her that she does." A look of sudden understanding crossed Mya's face. "You don't think that you deserve to be happy either, do you? I hope that Vala will be able to convince you. You have much in common, both your hearts are damaged but you will help each other find your way through life."
Daniel felt confused and frightened by what Maya was saying. He wanted to run up the stairs and force Vala to talk to him. But he didn't move quickly enough. Vala burst out of the door laughing and calling out to Mya.
"Sam is right! It is a beautiful bathroom. Daniel, you have to see it. The tub is more than big enough for the two of us. Tonight will be fantastic, darling. Our room is lovely, the walls are glass and there are flowers everywhere. It will be like sleeping in a garden." Vala noticed that Daniel wasn't listening to her. Daniel was looking at her with a very serious expression. Mya could feel how scared Vala felt when Daniel didn't respond to her and how Vala was trying to prepare herself to accept that Daniel's love for her was gone. Vala's easy acceptance of unhappiness tore at Mya's heart. Her people had learned ways to block such strong private emotions from each other. It was more difficult with other races. For some reason Mya was especially tuned in to the emotional trauma that haunted these two lovers. Mya would have to help them if only to retain her own sanity. After time, as she became accustomed to their inner voices, Mya would be able to protect herself. For now she could only attempt to help them heal their wounds.
She went to Vala and said. "Daniel still loves you my dear. Don't worry. All is well between you, do not be frightened."
Daniel and Vala didn't move. They had drawn together as they listened to Mya speak. Daniel had his arm around Vala's waist as she leaned against his shoulder. Making shooing motions with her hands Mya told them. "I can not foretell the future, I am not an oracle. But I can predict, with great certainty that you two will remain together and be happy. Smiling, Mya continued to shoo them out into the square.
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As they walked into the square Daniel caught sight of the rest of SG-1 standing on a bridge over the river. Vala saw them at the same time and they started walking in their direction.
Vala stopped suddenly and turned to Daniel. "Daniel, what did Mya say to you? Did she talk to you about me? What did she say? Did I do something wrong? What ever it was I'm sorry. Please Daniel, talk to me." Vala was almost in tears. She had been talking so quickly without taking a breath that Daniel hadn't been able to answer her. Daniel put his arms on her shoulders and pulled her close. Once he was holding her tightly against his chest he began to stroke her hair with his right hand.
"Mya thinks that we need to talk. That there is something that you aren't telling me. Something important that I can help you with." Daniel took his hand off of her hair and Vala looked in his eyes. Whatever she saw there made her smile and her eyes flash.
"Well, Daniel, she may be right. There is something that I wanted to discuss with you. I have wanted to for awhile now but the time never seemed right. And now that "we" happened I may want to rethink my situation."
"Vala, what do you mean by your 'situation'? Does this have something to do with Thomas Graham?"
Vala didn't answer him but stepped back out of his embrace and started walking again. "It will be fine Daniel. Nothing will happen until we return to SG-1. I promise we will talk tonight. At least for a little while, until we come up with more exciting ways to pass the time. Myself I am looking forward to the bathtub. Thank God Jack isn't with us or we'd have to fight Sam for it."
Daniel looked puzzled and almost asked her what Jack had to do with anything. Deep down Daniel hoped that Vala wasn't joking and that Sam and Jack had finally gotten the chance at happiness that they more than deserved. Perhaps he would add them to the list of things to discuss with Vala. Remembering what Mya had said Daniel realized that he was thinking that Sam and Jack deserved to be happy more than he did. He would have shift his priorities now that Vala's being happy meant that he would also.
"Daniel, isn't this a beautiful planet? And peaceful. I am glad that they kept the Priors away no matter how they did it."
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Mitchell, Teal'c and Sam were looking over a field at a small house tucked back under a large tree. Mitchell asked "Did you guys see that? I swear there was a young boy standing outside that house just a second ago. He's gone now and I didn't see him walk away, I swear he sort of faded away."
"Indeed, Colonel Mitchell, I too saw the child and then I saw him no more."
Sam agreed. "Actually I agree with both of you. I saw the boy and it looked as if he just disappeared. But I'm not sure what I saw. Maybe there was mist under the tree or…"
Mitchell broke in. "Sam, there is no damn mist. Look at the sun! There aren't even any shadows."
"Then maybe it was the sun. The sunshine hit our eyes and he moved around the corner so quickly that he appeared to fade out of our view."
Mitchell added. "You may be right. But no matter how nice these people are they give me the wiggins, big time!"
Teal'c looked at Sam and raised one eyebrow. She shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'beats me what the hell he's talking about'.
"Sam, Teal'c here come the Bobbsey Twins. They better not spend the rest of this mission playing kissy face or I'm going to have to shoot myself in the head!"
"Indeed."
"You two guys should cut them a little slack. What a bunch of babies!"
Mitchell had seen Daniel and Vala in a brief hug, break apart, and start walking towards them. He was happy to see them show up. Cam wanted to grill these little Hobbit people about the Priors as soon as possible. Cam was willing to forget about the Casper the Ghost act, at least for the time being. One mystery at a time, with the Prior repelling coming first.
Daniel and Vala joined there friends. Vala asked."What were you guys staring at? That little house over there? What's going on?"
Mitchell said. "Forget that. We'll tell you about it later. What do you have to say about what you found in that ruin?" Daniel and Vala looked at each other unsure where to start.
Taking the bull by the horns Daniel said. "I'm not sure what we can tell you. On one hand we found a lot and on the other hand we found nothing."
Mitchell pleaded with Vala. "Honey, please tell me you can explain what that man just didn't say?"
"I'm not sure that I can. Daniel did a lot of reading and translating but it didn't make a lot of sense. In the end we were able to read most of it but not understand it. There wasn't a problem with the translation. The content didn't make any sense. It was a hodge-podge of different languages, some Ancient, some a form of Goa'uld, some bastard Latin, maybe some Egyptian hieroglyphs, possible Viking runes, and so on and so forth."
Sam asked. "What did they write about?"
Daniel answered. "A lot of creation myths, attempts to reconcile folk tales and stories with the reality of this world. It was if over the years a scholar would come and work on the texts, books, runes, etc. make some progress and then stop. To be replaced by some else who stopped before they finished the work."
"Do you think that it was over such a long time that the scholars died before finishing their work? And then it was some time before another person became interested enough to spend their time there?" asked Sam.
"Maybe." Vala and Daniel answered together.
"So, you didn't find any clue as to how these 'Stepford munchkins' saved their planet?"
Again Vala and Daniel answered in tandem.
"No. Sorry Mitchell."
Mitchell said. "Let's go ahead and show these two a little bit of this idyllic world, see what they think they see."
Vala looked at the Sam and Teal'c. "What's he talking about?"
Sam shook her head. "I don't think we should give you any preconceived notions. We are simply hoping that the three of us aren't going crazy or hallucinating."
"Or being mind controlled by our kind and gentle Prior frightening friends"
