Author's Note: Short little story here, but I hope you all enjoy.

Constructive criticism is welcome, but please only that. Our world has so much hatred in it and I'd rather not add to it. If you have genuine thoughts about how I can improve my writing, I would love to hear it!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own Stargate SG-1, it's characters, or anything associated with it. I'm just letting my imagination run wild with their creation.

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Chapter One

He didn't know how it happened. He had been in his office, making notes and cataloging several artifacts, when he suddenly felt like he was falling. The next thing he knew, he was waking up with a start somewhere outside, somewhere he wasn't familiar with. Daniel Jackson felt the grass beneath him and the warmth of the sun as well as a slight ache in his head, normal if he had indeed fallen, but the main questions were where was he and how the hell did he get here?

Daniel was positive he was still on Earth; everything around him felt like Earth, and after a decade of traveling through the Stargate, he could recognize when he was on his own planet. He slowly sat up, taking stock of the rest of his body to ensure he didn't have any injuries, and relaxed a little when he didn't feel or see any.

His brief state of relief didn't last and he was instantly on alert when he heard a small voice shout out, "Daddy!" from behind him.

Daniel was immediately up on his knees, twisting so he could face whoever was coming. He once again was taken off guard when two small humans threw themselves at him. He sat there stiffly and stared down at the small heads that hugged him. "Uhh, hi?" he said, uncertain, and awkwardly patted them on the back.

The oldest of the two pulled away and Daniel could see that it was a boy, roughly three years old. His hair was a dark color and his eyes were a striking blue/gray, reminding Daniel of someone. The boy's face scrunched at Daniel. "Daddy hurted?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"What?" Daniel asked, confused even more. Did this kid think he was his dad?

"I get mama!" the boy declared and took off.

"Wait!" he called after him, not knowing if it was safe for the kid to just take off, but Daniel spotted a house not far away and hoped his parents were inside.

Sighing, he gently disentangled himself from the remaining child and noticed it was a girl. Brown hair, blue eyes, no more than two, and even Daniel had to admit she was absolutely adorable. Giving her a smile, he stood up, wanting to head to the house and see if he could figure out what the hell was happening. But before he could move, the girl yanked on his pants. He looked down and she stared at him expectantly.

She held up her arms up to him. "Hold you," she demanded.

His face scrunched. "Hold you?" he repeated.

"Hold you, dada!" she said more forcefully and stretched her arms further.

Oh, hold her! He finally understood. He was hesitant to pick her up in fear that her parents would freak out when they saw a strange man holding their daughter, but she was a persistent little girl and he caved. He carefully picked her up, not having much experience with children this age, and set her on his hip. "Why don't we see if we can find who you belong to," he told her.

"Daniel!" a familiar voice called out from the direction of the house.

His attention immediately snapped to it and he became even more confused. "Vala?" he asked.

Vala jogged the last few feet to him and gave him a worried look. "You okay?" she asked as she surveyed him, "Theon said you fell," she said and stepped closer.

"Vala, what the hell is going on?" he begged for an answer, "What're we doing here?"

Vala chuckled. "Funny. Did you hit your head?" she asked, "Please tell me you didn't allow Theon to play with the baseball. You know he's lost his privileges after the window incident."

"What?"

Vala began prodding his head for any signs of trauma. "You did, didn't you?" she muttered, "Serves you right if he did."

Daniel backed away from her examination. "Vala, what the fuck is going on?" he snapped.

"Language!" she scolded, "And what you're doing right now isn't funny."

"Of course it's not funny!" he agreed with her.

"Daniel, you're starting to scare me," she told him.

"Daddy hurted, mama?" the little boy, Theon, asked.

"I don't know, darling," she replied absently as she continued to inspect him warily.

"Okay, why does he keep calling me daddy and why did he just refer to you as his mother?" Daniel demanded to know.

"Because I am his mother," she told him softly and patiently, "and you're his father."

"Vala, you don't have children!" he told her, "I don't have children!"

"That's it!" she snapped and gently, but firmly, ripped the little girl from his arms.

"Mama no!" the girl protested, squirming in Vala's hold, "Dada!"

"Isla!" Vala scolded and the girl stopped. Vala set her next to Theon, "Take your sister into the house and stay there until I say otherwise, okay?" she told the boy.

"iPad?" he asked hopefully.

Vala sighed. "Yes, you can play on the iPad," she consented, "Go inside."

Theon grabbed Isla's hand and led her to the house. Once they were out of earshot, Vala whipped back to Daniel. "You're not Daniel," she declared.

"What? Of course I'm Daniel," he instantly denied.

"No, I mean…you are Daniel Jackson," she amended, "but you're not my Daniel Jackson."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, despite the fact that you look just like him and were him a few minutes ago, you are not my husband!" she exclaimed, "You are not my Daniel!"

"Of course I'm not," he agreed with her, "We've never been in any sort of romantic relationship!"

Without meaning to, his words hurt her, he could tell, and he wanted to know why. He had said some pretty horrible things to her in the past, hell, he had not long ago, but he had never seen her display her emotions so openly; she had always hid them from him and the rest of the world.

When she pulled a phone from her back pocket, he straightened. "What're you doing?" he asked, eyeing the phone, "Who are you calling?"

Vala didn't answer but continued to stare him down as she waited for the person on the other line to pick up. "Cameron?" she spoke into the phone, "I need Carolyn over here now, can you bring her…no, they're fine, it's Daniel…I don't know, I–something's wrong with him and I need her here now. Please," she whispered the last word and her shoulders lost the tension that had built up. "Thank you," she said sincerely and hung up the phone.

"Cam's on his way?" Daniel asked as he watched her end the phone call.

"Yes, he's bringing Carolyn with him so she can take a look at you and find out what's wrong," she informed him.

"Why not call Carolyn directly?"

"I did," she replied, "but Cameron has a bad habit of answering her phone."

"Why would he be answering her phone?"

"Oh my gods," she whispered, dejected, rubbing her forehead, "It's like you're back to being the Daniel from four years ago, like you forgot everything important!"

"Four y – " he cut himself off, "Vala, what year is it?" he demanded.

He tried to think of what artifacts he had been messing with before he woke up here. They had been your run of the mill artifacts, made from stone or some type of metal with no technology whatsoever associated with any of them – they had already been checked. So what the hell was going on? What did she mean by that, that he was back to the Daniel he was four years ago? Had he somehow time jumped? Or had he gone off world and his mind was being fucked with?

"2011," she replied, "it's summer of 2011."

"2011!" he exclaimed, shocked, "Up until five minutes ago, it was 2007! Vala, we just defeated the Ori, Tomin literally left Earth four days ago, so how could four years go by in a blink of an eye?"

"Four days," she repeated in a whisper, "In your mind, it's been four days since Tomin left?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, "I don't remember having any missions on the roster, but we've must've gone off world and run into some mind-altering technology…again!"

"So, for you, we've just had a big fight, right?" she asked, ignoring his theory, "That's essentially your last memory before you were here?"

Daniel flinched at the memory of their fight. It was bad, even by their standards, and he had been unnecessarily cruel. "Yes," he gingerly admitted, still ashamed of his words.

She gave a watery chuckle. "Figures you wouldn't remember what happened after that."

"Why, what happened?" he quickly asked.

"Everything," she whispered brokenly, "Literally everything! Our marriage, our children, our life, Daniel! We created the most beautiful life together, so how could you not remember it?" she demanded tearfully, "How could you forget us, our children?"

"I don't know!" he snapped, "I'm not even sure if this is all real! How do I know I'm not being held captive right now on some other planet?"

"What could any aliens possibly hope to gain from a scenario like this one?" she disputed, "You were kicking a ball around with your children, what sort of intel would these supposed aliens be looking for?"

"I don't know!" he threw his hands up in frustration, "But it's a legitimate concern."

"Fine," she relented, playing along, "Ask me anything, anything that the Vala you remember would know."

"If you're in my mind, that really doesn't work," he argued.

"Then ask something you've always wanted to know!" she spat at him.

"How do I know it's a legitimate answer?"

She growled. "Forget it," she conceded, "Once Cameron is here, you'll be taken to the SGC, so Carolyn can run some tests and figure what the hell is wrong with you! Now, I'm going inside to be with my children, kindly wait out here so you don't confuse them!" she turned and began walking away.

"Did you really happen upon that tablet?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. But it made her halt.

"The Ancient tablet?" she specified, "The one that brought Ori to our doorstep?"

"Yes," he confirmed, "Did you really just run across it?"

Vala studied him for a few moments. "You know, I don't know if you've ever asked me that," she confessed quietly, "but the answer is no, I didn't just run across it. I intentionally sought out something that would allow me to see you again."

"Why?" he inquired softly.

"I had to know," she whispered.

"What?"

"That if what I felt on Prometheus was just a fluke or if it was something more," she admitted, shrugging slightly, "Turns out, it was something more."

"You wanted to see me again?" he asked, surprised.

She chuckled humorlessly. "The Ancients aren't known for their secret stashes of gold," she repeated similar words to his own from years ago, "I knew that and I still came; I never expected for it to be real or for it to lead to the adventure it took us on, but it did and I can never regret that."

He hesitated. "Did you mean what you said about Tomin?"

Vala closed her eyes, trying to remember that conversation from four years ago.

"So," Daniel begun nonchalantly, "Mitchell mentioned that Tomin asked you to leave with him?"

Vala smiled at him. "Are you asking a question or trying to say something?"

Daniel sighed. "Why didn't you go with him?" he asked hesitantly.

Vala waited until he looked at her before answering. "Because my place isn't with him," she responded, "Our marriage is over, has been for a while now, and though I don't know where I belong, I want it to be here…with you," she said the part last quietly.

"With me?" he asked skeptically.

She nodded meekly. "Daniel, there's a reason why I couldn't love Tomin in that way," she told him, her heart pounding in her chest, "my heart belonged to someone else before I even met him."

"Are you trying to tell me that you have feelings for me?" he asked incredulously. "That's a joke, right?" he asked unkindly.

She flinched and straightened. "Is that so preposterous?" she asked, hurt and offended, "Is the thought of being with me that horrendous?"

"You want an honest answer to that?" he sniped.

Thus began the worst fight they had ever had and would ever had, but in the end, they still ended up together.

Vala opened her eyes. "Yes," she answered him, "I did. Tomin never had a chance; when I met him, I was already in love with you, even before I knew it myself."

Daniel looked at her, taking in everything, and he believed her. He didn't know how it was possible, but somehow four years went by and he couldn't remember them. He didn't know if it was trauma or something else entirely, but he just knew she was telling the truth, which meant he married Vala – he had a son and a daughter with her, and he couldn't remember any of that.

He felt tears form in his eyes at the thought of missing out on four years with his wife and children. "Why can't I remember?" he asked desperately, "How could I just forget four years of my life, our life?"

Vala's face softened and she cautiously approached him. When she looked at him, she could see slivers of her Daniel in him, and she knew something terrible had happened. Something made him forget their life and she would do whatever it took to get them back for him. She stopped a foot away from him and gave him a soft smile. "We'll figure this out…together," she vowed.

"You really believe that?" he asked, "Four years' worth of memories just don't go missing randomly."

She chuckled. "But they can't just disappear entirely either," she responded, "and I don't accept it; I will make you remember, but you will need to fight to get them back too. I need you to come back to me, Daniel."

Daniel saw the love she had for him clear as day and the mere sight of it caused his heart to skip a beat; the thought of her ever loving him in that way stirred up a deeply buried truth, one he wasn't about to disentomb. He thought he has messed up his last shot with her earlier that day when they fought. He had said some cruel and horrible things to her, and although they weren't all entirely true, they were things she should never forgive him for – but she had and they had created what looked like the life he had always wanted.

Maybe he could still have that; all he had to do was remember.

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Author's Note: So...thoughts? Theories?