AN: So there seems to be a Daniel and Vala trend for this section of prompts. They have a more antagonistic rather than angsty relationship so they are fun most of the time except when Daniel is being maudlin. I'm getting to do more and more art projects at work for the demos and such so I'm much more tolerant of the other nonsense. I still think writing two evaluations a day for a staff of 30 is pretty pointless and takes away from actual coaching but what do I know. I've always had a real job where I had to live with the results of my methods.

"Eventually… you just move on." – Episode 20

They sat together in a seedy bar drinking questionable fluid that was described as alcoholic but Daniel had his doubts. He was a lightweight and he was still very, very sober. Maudlin. But sober.

"Well, this is boring."

"Tell me about it." He told her.

"What's a nice boy like you doing in a dump like this?" She asked and cheekily nudged his shoulder.

Daniel held up his wrist to remind her exactly who's fault it was that he was on an unnamed planet in a random star system alone with a lunatic.

"Riiighhhttt…" She grinned. "Cheer up darling. We've made progress today."

"Is that what you call it."

"Well it's better than feeling sorry for myself." She said matter-of-factly. "What's eating you anyway?"

He shrugged and looked off into the middle distance. "Nothing you would understand." He threw back the watered-down overpriced drink and ordered another on her tab.

"Try me."

Daniel sighed heavily. She wasn't going to let up and it would pass the time at least until their contact arrived. "I miss Sha're." He said thoughtfully.

"You're wife."

"Yah. She's been gone a while."

She nodded slowly. Love, she knew, didn't just go away simply because someone died. "Tell me about her. What was she like?" She said gently.

He expected many things from her but gentleness was rarely one of them. He looked at her askance. She was dressed as she often did, a tightly fitted corset. Leather pants. Every inch a woman familiar with her own sexuality.

"Well if you don't want to tell me that's just fine but could you at least quit sighing despondently." She told him flippantly.

Daniel shook his head in frustration. He should have known she was only making fun of him. Then she did something that surprised him. She gently rubbed his hand with the back of hers the way he'd observed Jack doing so to Sam over the years even before he'd started to suspect there was something going on with them and it made him look at her thoughtfully.

"Sha're was beautiful. Her eyes just danced with humor. She laughed at me for not being able to do simple things she took for granted. Jack and I met her on our first trip to Abydos. Her father, ah, gave her to me, as a gift."

"Well that's one way to get rid of excess children you aren't fond of." She said drolly.

"Ah, well, it wasn't like that really. She ah, she told me later that it was her idea. She thought I was cute."

She chuckled. "You are cute darling."

"Yah, well," He pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Sha're didn't care that I was basically helpless. Everyone else kept bowing at me or kneeling when I walked by and she just treated me the same way she did her little brother Skaara. She teased me, laughed at me when I screwed up. She didn't care that Jack and I saved everyone." He swallowed a bit of his drink and thought for a moment. "She made me feel loved. Wanted. No one had ever made me feel that way before. Not in a long time. Even Jack only tolerated me at that point and he'd gone back to Earth."

She smiled. "You seem to get on well now."

"We do. Most of the time. We still disagree on a lot of things."

"Darling I believe that would be the case with most anyone with you." She grinned and punched his shoulder lightly.

"You aren't exactly easy to get along with either." He told her.

"Yes Darling but I know I'm difficult to get along with." She admitted with unusual candor.

Daniel nodded. "Anyway, she made me feel loved, safe, wanted. Because she did love me. Even when Apophis had Amaunet take Shar're as a host she still loved me. It's my fault she died."

"Darling, it's far more likely she'd have been taken as a host in either case given the situation."

"Yah." He said sadly and downed his drink. She called the waiter over and got him another.

"How did you get past it?"

"Eventually… you just move on." He said with a shrug.

She nodded and scooted his new drink to him. "I believe our contact arrived."

"Let's do this then."