Tag to Dominion. Team goodness.

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The coffee table and end tables in the Jackson's downstairs retreat were strewn with what was left of Mexican takeout. There was a pitcher of strawberry margaritas still about half full, a cooler full of ice with the tops dark brown beer bottles sticking up and a pitcher of strawberry lemonade that Jillian and Teal'c were sharing. The sun had set hours before, leaving nothing but the night beyond the glass and the sheer white curtains. There was a fire crackling in the fireplace, adding its glow to the candles and the up-lights and the sconces on the walls.

SG1 had taken over the room. Vala was sitting on the floor on a fluffy throw rug, finishing the last of her first taco – which she had eaten very slowly – with her third margarita sitting on the stone floor beside her. Daniel and Jillian were in the matching chairs by the fire with the end table between them. Cameron and Sam were in the chairs opposite them. Cam had a bottle of beer held loosely on the arm of the chair. Teal'c was cross legged on the floor with a glass of strawberry lemonade.

The evening had started out in a congenial way – decompressing at the Jackson's after the incredible debacle of Adria's capture and consequent Ascension. The conversation had been necessarily generic for most of the evening. That was partly due to the presence of JD - who made his way from lap to lap sampling the Mexican food, being chatty and charming and messy as only a 23 month old child could be. He giggled and shrieked and threw himself with abandon into a wrestling match with Teal'c – which Teal'c pretended to lose quite a few times. He tangled Vala's hair into a knot and called her Bala and stole nacho chips from her plate.

When Daniel told him to leave Vala's hair alone JD answered, "But Bala soooo pretty!" Vala actually laughed for the first time that night, rolled JD onto her lap and pretended to tickle him.

"What about Sam?" Vala asked him, "Is Sam pretty?"

"Yes!" JD said, "Aunt Sam is pretty!"

"JD," Daniel asked, over the laughter that followed, "What about Mommy? Is Mommy pretty?"

"No," JD said, somberly shaking his head, "Mommy is beautiful."

"That's right," Daniel said as everyone else said, 'Awww" and JD scrambled up to sit next to Jillian, grinning.

While Vala attempted to brush her hair back into some kind of order, Cam entertained the little guy with a game of hide and seek that made JD put his hands on his hips and tell him, "Cam needs to learn to hide!"

Then he sat with Sam for a while until he got cranky and started to yawn and Daniel took him upstairs to get a bath, get into pajamas, hear a couple of stories and then fall asleep.

The lighter mood was also partly due to the delayed shock SG1 was collectively feeling. It didn't wear off until well after Daniel had returned. He came back carrying a fresh pitcher of margaritas. He grabbed a beer out of the cooler and sank down into his chair as Jillian asked, "Did he go to sleep?"

"Yeah," Daniel said, sounding tired. JD's bedtime ritual was often more exhausting for his parents than it was for JD. "He was more than halfway asleep when I put him in the crib and I didn't come downstairs until I knew he was out; and yes, I cleaned up the bathroom."

Jillian smiled at him tenderly.

There was a minor silence that was broken when Cameron asked Sam, "How upset was the General?"

Sam hesitated, looked at the floor for a moment and then said, "Pretty upset. More about how Baal knew where we were and what was going on than anything else, I think."

"He's not blaming me for that is he?" Vala asked, looking alarmed.

"Vala, if he suspected you had anything to do with it, you'd know it," Cameron answered.

"That's the truth," Sam agreed and Vala looked equally apprehensive and relieved.

"Well, he did make me suffer through that CAT scan," Vala said. "So I wasn't sure."

"Vala he made us all get a CAT scan, even me,"

Vala's eyes narrowed and she sat up a bit. "Why would it be significant that he made you get one? Didn't he get one?"

"He submitted himself willingly for one yes," Sam said, "He has the same problem you and I do. We can't be eliminated as Goa'uld hosts by a simple blood test."

"What?" Cameron and Vala said at the same time, wearing identical stunned expressions. Vala stopped talking immediately but Cameron pressed on, "The General was a host?"

"Jack was snaked for probably the briefest time in history," Daniel said, slowly, "You read that report, Mitchell.

"Well yes," Cameron said, "But I didn't think it was long enough to give him the protein marker."

"The snake died. That's all it takes," Daniel said.

Cam was watching him closely, sensing there was more. He finally looked at Sam. He and Sam went back farther than even Daniel and O'Neill – all the way back to the Academy. With Sam Cameron could be a cadet again, serious except when he was being a total smart ass, fresh-faced and unjaded, unaware of the dangers that awaited them. He did the same thing for her – let her relax a little and remember simpler times. Cameron didn't usually abuse that relationship. But the look he was giving her was intense.

"There was more," Sam admitted, looking only at Cameron.

"Sam?" Daniel turned her single syllable name into a question, into many questions. Teal'c stirred and cast a gaze up at Sam with the same questions. But that was the kind of shorthand they had.

Sam answered them by telling Cameron, "Jack was briefly the host of a Tok'ra."

"What?" Cam and Vala spoke in unison again.

"He doesn't talk about it and it was never part of an actual mission. It's part of his medical file, so it's confidential."

That shut them both up because neither of them would violate Jack O'Neill's privacy. Sam went on briskly, "So I think it's safe to say he doesn't suspect any of us and he's reasonably reassured there wasn't a breach of security at the SGC itself."

"But he won't stop trying to figure out how Ba'al knew where we were?" Cameron guessed.

"No, I suspect he already has a team out there looking into it," Sam answered.

"Davidson still on the hotseat for putting Adria in a room without an anti-Prior device?" Cameron asked.

Teal'c spoke up. "That we can only assume."

"We all dropped that ball," Daniel said, in a voice rich with guilt. "Davidson shouldn't have to bear the brunt of that."

"He's the commanding officer of the Odyssey," Mitchell said, "That's how it works. The bottom line is that his security department fucked up – and yeah we all did – but ultimately it was Davidson's ship and his responsibility."

Sam sat forward a little bit and said, "What I want to know is- what happens to Adria now? There are no Ori to protect her. She Ascended in this galaxy, so is she subject to the rules of the Ancients?"

Everyone – except Jillian – looked expectantly at Daniel. He looked back, startled and then annoyed. "I don't know," he said, defensively. When they continued to gaze at him he snapped, "I mean it! I don't know."

"Daniel," Jillian said, quietly.

It reined in some of his temper but not all of it. "Look, by now you should all know I barely remember being Ascended," he went on. "Apparently some of their rules didn't sit well with me and I got kicked out because of it. If Adria is part of our galaxy now in her Ascension … Well I don't know what they might do about it. Their rules seem …. Arbitrary at best. Stupid at worst. I'm not sure she's any kind of threat to them anymore so my gut feeling is that they just won't give a damn what she does to us."

"Fan-damn-tastic," Cameron muttered.

"None of us knew she would try to Ascend," Vala said.

No," Cameron said, "none of us saw that coming."

"We all thought she was too weak, too far gone already," Vala's voice was distant and she was staring at a spot in the space in front of her that only she could see.

The others glanced at each other, except for Cameron who was looking only at Vala.

"You can talk about it," Daniel said. He was still in the pissy mood he'd descended into. That much was obvious.

Vala gave him a sharp look, "What?"

"How all that made you feel," Daniel answered. His voice had taken on the knife edge that meant he was about to drag out the truth no matter how painful it might be.

"I already told you, I was glad to see the Ori's plan fail and then Ba'al's failed too. You read my report. I tried to kill her myself."

"And that can't have been easy," low, ruthless. It was the sound of Daniel on a single-minded hunt.

"I didn't sign up for 'easy', Daniel. Neither did you," Vala snapped. Her eyes were filled with a kind of heartbreak none of them knew how to fix and barely understood.

Daniel opened his mouth and started to speak but Cameron cut him, "That's enough, Jackson."

Everyone in the room turned to look at Cameron in stunned amazement. He had never shown anything but the utmost respect to Daniel, deferring to him as often as he did to Sam. But the way he had just spoken was Cameron being deadly serious, done with being tolerant. He had every intention of cutting Daniel off at the knees before letting him hound Vala anymore.

In return Daniel's eyes narrowed to ice shards behind his glasses. The tension in the room went up as the temperature seemed to chill.

"Cam's right, Daniel," Jillian said, quietly but with authority. She was probably the only one brave enough to step in between Daniel and someone who was making him angry. She was probably the only one who could shut him down without getting frostbite. "Leave Vala alone. If she wanted to talk about it, she would and it might surprise you but she's got other people she can talk to about it if she wants. She doesn't owe you her private feelings and you of all people shouldn't be asking. No one gives away less of himself than you do; not even to me."

"I tell you everything," Daniel said through gritted teeth.

"No you don't; not about how you feel," Jillian answered. Then she let some of the iron fall out of her voice and gently reminded him, "You don't have to. I already know."

Before Daniel could say another thing, Vala spoke with stark courage and a rare sincerity. "It's all right, Jillian. I owe Daniel quite a bit, really. I wouldn't even be here in this room if not for the countless times he's … what is that phrase? Gone to bat for me? Is that a baseball reference or is it about those little flying creatures that come out at night?"

"Baseball," Cameron answered and Vala gave him a grateful smile.

"You didn't sell your soul to him, Vala," Jillian said, "That's not what you owe him."

"Hey, I'm right here," Daniel said, aggravated.

The other woman smiled a bit sadly. "Frankly, Jillian, I'm not used to anyone giving a …. A," she paused and looked at Cameron for the phrase that was eluding her. Cameron lifted his eyebrows and looked mystified. She suddenly remembered and smiled with forced brilliance, "Oh! I'm not used to anyone giving a flying fuck about me; though I have to admit that's something that sounds like it could be fun and shouldn't be dismissed so casually. So while I do find it more than a bit annoying that Daniel can't seem to stay out of my private and admittedly conflicted emotions about Adria – I also find it kind of endearing that he cares."

Without turning her head, Jillian said to Daniel, "Do not give me that smug look and do not do that thing you do with your eyebrows when you think you're right."

Daniel made an exaggerated effort to swallow that exact reaction, and then looked frustrated, exasperated and bemused all at the same time.

Cameron spoke up. "We all care, Vala. You're a member of the team and this last thing messed with your head. But since we all know that, I don't see any reason to hash it all out unless you bring it up."

Vala seemed to consider that for a moment, looking pensive and uncertain. "I appreciate that too, Mitchell. But I think Jillian is right. I have other people I can talk to."

"You mean me and Jillian," Sam said.

"I think I do," Vala seemed surprised by that and then just smiled. "Maybe we can do another one of those girls' nights in?"

"You never know," Sam said, "First Thursday is this week. We can always do tequila shots and sing a bunch of maudlin songs and see where that leads."

Vala lifted her margarita in a salute, rolled her eyes and then downed what was left in her glass in one gulp. Once she had swallowed she said, sardonically, "Oh that sounds like just the thing."

The last of the tension evaporated out of the room. Daniel reached across the space between them for his wife's hand and drew it towards him. "Sorry," he said.

"It's not me you owe an apology," Jillian answered.

Before he could say anything, Vala waved a dismissive hand and reached for the margarita pitcher. "Don't worry about it, Daniel. I'm not going to give it another thought. I've figured out that you can be the pain in the ass of the family. I'm not ready to talk about Adria. That doesn't mean I don't want you to keep pushing me about it from time to time."

"And you can keep reminding me that I can be a pain in the ass," Daniel replied. He tilted his bottle of beer in her direction in a kind of salute. "Do we have a deal?"

Vala lifted her glass towards him and said, "Deal."

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