Chapter Forty Two

Daniel was practically bouncing in the chair he had been forced to root himself in for this god forsaken briefing. Vala was in the infirmary, under the care of Dr. Lam, who was quite concerned about her injuries now that she wasn't dead. Meanwhile, SG1 was stuck with the task of trying to find out as much as possible about how Amotis had managed to fake her death.

"So what convinced you?" Cam asked, unable to resist his curiosity. "I mean, even when we talked to you, you were still sort of on the fence."

"The Lucian Alliance convinced me of the error of our ways. Vala was right," he explained with remorse. "We allowed them to manipulate us using one of the most tragic times of our people's history. It was after you escaped that I saw them for who they are. They threatened to kill the council if we did not get you back. They reminded us that they had helped us to trap one of our most hated enemies. Vala."

"That convinced you?" Sam asked with confusion.

He turned his head to meet her gaze. "They called her Vala, not Qetesh. When I corrected them, they said it didn't matter who she was. I knew then that they believed her to be Vala, an innocent victim they were using to lure SG1 to their deaths. I was still torn, but upon speaking to Vala again, I knew the demon was no longer within her."

"How?" Daniel couldn't help but ask.

He forced a smile. "She asked that her body be taken home, back to the Tau'ri. And that I relay her apologies for any pain she might have caused her friends here. That was the Vala I knew. Home was always so important to her, as her father's career choice had not afforded her the luxury of having one for so long."

"Yea, that Jacek's a real doll," Cam added grimly. "So how'd you do it? I mean, you guys aren't that technologically advanced, but you managed to even fool our medical gadgets."

"There is an herb that is rumored to bring about the deepest possible slumber one can endure. We call it quietus nex," Amotis explained.

"Sleeping death," Daniel interpreted automatically. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

The man let out a deep breath. "I was uncertain as to whether or not it would work. The only way to be sure was to give her the antidote."

"So you weren't sure this was going to work, but you decided to give it to her anyway?" Cam asked incredulously.

He nodded somberly. "I believed that if it did not work, it would grant her a merciful death. I knew that I would not be able to convince my people that they were wrong. The Lucian Alliance had twisted their minds with vengeance. Especially Gregar," he added to himself. "And I feared I would not be able to mount a rescue on my own. But I knew I must act."

"Well, we're glad you did," Daniel said with deep appreciation. "You saved her life. We owe you."

Amotis dropped his head in shame. "I was the one that ordered Vala's execution when she was first returned to us. I was too blinded by my own rage to see the truth. You owe me nothing."

"Still," General Landry interjected, "the Lucian Alliance isn't going to go away so quietly. Which means your people are going to need our help." He lifted a salt and pepper brow as Chief Master Sergeant Harriman came into view.

"Sir," Walter began hesitantly. "Dr. Lam is paging SG1 to the infirmary. She says it is an emergency."

Landry gave a jerk of his head to the team members, barely getting out the word "Dismissed," before Daniel was already out the door.

He could hear the echo of his teammates' boots thudding against the floor behind him and had to force himself to hold the elevator for them to join him. The ride to the infirmary felt like an eternity before the doors finally slid open and he began to run again. He pushed past the few SF's right inside the doorway, confused by their aggressive stance as they held their zats out.

"What's going on?" he asked as he took in the scene before him.

Vala was crouched down in the far corner of the room, her bed thrown onto its side near her. One arm was clutching her chest while the other was swinging the firearm she held around wildly, warning everyone in between her sobs to stay away from her.

"Would you guys put your guns down!" Sam ordered to the SF's nearby. "Now!"

The men slowly obeyed, lowering their weapons to their side as Sam rushed to the unconscious Dr. Lam's side. "What happened here?"

"We're not sure, ma'am," one of the airmen answered. "We heard a disturbance. When we came to investigate, we found that the SF on duty had been knocked unconscious as well as Dr. Lam. Miss Mal Doran had retrieved the firearm and was threatening us with it."

"Vala," Daniel approached her slowly, his hands in the air. "I need you to give me the gun, okay?"

"No!" she shouted back, tears staining her cheeks. "Stay away from me!"

He crouched down a few feet away from her. "What's wrong?"

She let out a wild laugh. "What's wrong? You people are killing me, that's what! Don't act like I don't know who you are!"

"We aren't killing you, we're trying to help you," he eased.

"It's no use," Dr. Lam spoke up weakly as she tried to sit up, grabbing her head. "She's delusional. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe after all she's been through, something here triggered some kind of psychotic break."

Vala's wild laugh filled the room once more. "She's right, you know. I am delusional. Which is why I know you aren't real. I won't believe it, not this time."

"What do you mean, this time?" he asked, trying to inch his way forward.

She aimed the gun straight at him. "You made me think they had come for me before. But I won't give you that satisfaction again. Now if you don't free me, I will kill you. And believe me, Gregar, I will not hesitate this time."

Daniel frowned. "She thinks she's still back there," he explained to whoever was listening. "Vala, I'm not Gregar. I'm Daniel."

"Stop it!" she begged with a sob, squeezing her eyes shut as she grasped her head. "This isn't real." Her eyes popped open. "It's Adria. She's making me see this again. Adria! Make it stop! Adria!"

Sam's heart broke as Vala cried out for her deceased daughter. "My god, what did they do to you?" she asked as she knelt next to Daniel.

"Not them," Daniel corrected as his eyes took in Vala's bloodied hand from where she had ripped her IV out. "Dr. Lam, did you give her anything?"

"A sedative, yes," the doctor responded as she approached, taking a step back as Vala aimed the gun at her. "And some pain killers in case she woke up. The naquadah in her blood makes her more resistant to sedatives, as we learned with Sam."

He turned back to Amotis, who was hanging back. "When I passed you in the hallway, you had just given her the antidote, hadn't you?" He paused as the man nodded, then turned back to the doctor preparing to launch into a series of questions. "Amotis gave her something to fake her death, something that slowed her systems down enough to fool our monitors. He gave her the antidote earlier. The drugs that were already in her system must be reacting poorly to being mixed with the ones we gave her."

Dr. Lam mulled this over for a moment before agreeing. "If that's the case, we have no idea what it's doing to her system. Dr. Jackson, we have to get her back on the table, even if it means zatting her. Not only could she be bleeding internally from her injuries, but her organs could be shutting down if the combination of these drugs is too volatile."

He nodded, but held his hand up to ask them to give him a moment. He could see the SF's poised and ready to fire if ordered. "Vala? Vala!" he blanched as her crazed and confused eyes snapped to his. "I need you to listen to me. The drugs in your system are confusing you and possibly even hurting you. I know you don't believe this, but we are real. Do you remember waking up? Can you remember that for me?"

Her eyes danced around the air in front of her, her brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to find the answer. "In the morgue. I was in the morgue."

"Yes," Daniel urged. "I was there, do you remember that?"

A slight smile danced on her lips. "I scared you. You thought I was a hallucination."

"Just like you think I am now," he affirmed. "But you weren't a hallucination. You were real." He dared to scoot forward slightly. "And so am I."

She shook her head. "No…no. Amotis, he poisoned me. I'm dying."

"Not on my watch," he whispered as he held his hand out for her.

Her eyes cut up to him as she lipped the words back to him, the same words she had spoken when she had sacrificed her life for his. "Daniel? This is real?"

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but noticed that her head had snapped to the empty space next to her.

"Yes, Mother," Adria whispered as she gently stroked her mother's face. "This is real. You're home now. Let them take care of you."

Vala nodded to the empty space beside her, lowering the gun to her side before releasing her grip on it. She turned her fearful eyes back to Daniel, taking the hand he was still offering. "Please be real," she begged as she allowed him to wrap his arms around her and lift her from the ground.

Daniel held her hand in his as Dr. Lam began barking out orders and hooking an IV up to her other hand. She gently released his grip from her injured hand with promises of cleaning up the wound. Daniel moved out of the way, standing on the far side of the room with his teammates and Jack, who had appeared sometime in the middle of Vala's breakdown. Her gaze never left her friends as the medical team bustled about, her grey eyes silently begging for them to stay and holding all of the fear that they would soon disappear.

After what felt like ages, Dr. Lam approached SG1. "We're flushing the chemicals out of her system, which unfortunately means the pain killers too. Pretty soon, she's going to start feeling everything they did to her." Her brown eyes narrowed as the turned to Amotis, still standing in the background with a worried expression upon his face, before turning sympathetically back Vala's teammates. "Point is, it's about to get real ugly for her. I can't risk giving her anything for the pain or to sedate her until her blood work is completely clean. You might not want to hang around for this." The look on each of their faces, even Jack's, told her that they had no intention of leaving their teammate's side. "Alright, but she's going to be in a lot of pain, so don't overwhelm her."

"Can't you just zat me until this is all over with?" a husky voice called from across the room.

Sam's face lit up as she went to her friend's bedside. "Vala! Welcome back."

"Thank you," she replied weakly before flinching. "Now I ask again, can someone please zat me before all of these unpleasant sensations return?"

Daniel couldn't help but grin, seeing that Vala was now back to her usual self. "You're hooked up to a lot of equipment right now, Vala. I'm thinking causing the machines to overload and electrocute you is not the best plan."

"Yea," Cam agreed. "Especially seeing as how last time that happened you stole my pants."

The team laughed at this, though Jack sent Mitchell a puzzled look. "Carter, why have I not heard this before?" he waved off the explanation that was about to come. "Never mind, I'll wait until Vala can tell it. Welcome back, by the way. Knew you'd be okay, didn't doubt it at all," he lied. "You're like a cat. Nine lives and all that."

"Yes, yes," Vala cut him off, "and I must have at least a dozen or so left. I know." She closed her eyes, breathing in deep and not noticing the questioning looks that Sam and Jack were exchanging. "Hmmm…Carolyn, did you give me drugs? I'm feeling quite tired."

"Not yet," Dr. Lam answered as she checked Vala's vitals. "But you have been through quite an ordeal. Maybe your body is trying to tell you something." She turned back to the rest of the team. "Why don't you guys let her get some rest?" She rolled her eyes at Daniel's questioning brows. "Fine, only one of you can stay at a time. And I get the feeling you won't need to decide who goes first."

Daniel gave a nod of appreciation to his teammates as they each bid Vala goodnight and filed out, then grabbed a chair and took his place by her bedside.

"Daniel?"

"Yes?" he responded, leaning forward as he took her bandaged hand in his.

"Thank you. For staying with me."

His eyes sparkled as she looked into them. "Always," he promised, giving her hand a gentle squeeze as he watched sleep take her over.