Chapter Four

Cam fought the urge to roll his eyes. He'd only been in conversation with Adria for a few minutes, but she'd already managed to verbally eviscerate nearly all the cook staff. No wonder none of them were hanging out with her.

He kept his tone carefully neutral as he spoke. "I'm sure you'll get used to them in time. And a little patience and understanding will go a long way in helping them get used to you."

Adria eyed him sharply, but she answered with wry amusement. "Patience and understanding are not necessarily strengths of mine, Colonel Mitchell."

"Well, we all gotta start somewhere. Look at the bright side-they'll give you plenty of opportunity to practice."

That made her laugh outright. "I like you, Colonel."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Tell me-just what is your relationship with my daughter?"

Oh, Vala was "daughter" now, was she? Not stepdaughter, not "Nalini's child," as he'd heard her say once? "I'm her team leader, which means I'm either mentor, cheerleader, or disciplinarian, depending on what she needs at the moment-or sometimes I'm just trying to keep up with her. I'm her best friend and confidant when Sam's not available, which is most of the time these days. I'm her overprotective big brother, even though I know she's technically older than me."

"Why is she married to Dr. Jackson and not with you? The two of you seem to have a far less…contentious relationship."

Cam snorted. "Ma'am, I've known nations at war to have less contentious relationships than Jackson and Vala. But it works for them. By the time I met Vala, she and Jackson were already halfway in love with each other, although he'd never have admitted it then. But that ship had already sailed, and I couldn't have stopped it. And honestly? That's never been what she needed from me. She's had men falling at her feet by the dozen, wanting things from her. The fact that I'm here and I'm her friend and she doesn't have to play all those games with me is good for her."

"I suppose."

"Trust me, Jackson and Vala are perfect for each other. Most of their bickering isn't serious; it's how they flirt. But they get each other, they're good for each other, and they've got each other's backs."

"You all went to great lengths to inform me what would happen were I to hurt Vala. Tell me, do these things apply to Dr. Jackson? Or would you take his part, since you've all known him longer?"

Cam sent her an exasperated look. "First, Jackson would kick his own ass if he were to actually hurt her. Second, yes, we'd all be right behind him, defending our girl. And she'd expect us to do the same thing if she were to hurt him. And we would—we'd be on her."

"What if it were a…mutual hurting?" Adria spoke hesitantly. "Whose part do you take then?"

"May I ask where this is coming from? Jackson and Vala have been married for a couple of years now and were together long before that. They aren't gonna hurt each other. Not in any dramatic, ass-kicking-required kind of way."

"I could not say the same about some of Vala's previous romantic partners. I wanted to be sure."

"Well, be sure. They're good. And plenty of people hafta kiss a few frogs before they find their prince."

Adria frowned. "I…do not quite understand some of your Tau'ri expressions."

"That one just means that a lot of people have some romantic disasters before they find their true love."

"I see. And your Dr. Jackson is Vala's true love?"

"Not a doubt in my mind."

"And is she his?"

Here Cam hesitated. But Sha're was not his story to tell, and whatever was or wasn't true there was nobody's business but Daniel and Vala's. "I'd say so, yeah."

"You are less sure of that."

"I am one thousand percent sure that Jackson loves Vala and that he'd do anything for her and that he makes her happy. What more do you want?"

"All right then. I will take your word for it."

"Why are you taking my word for it? Why aren't you having this conversation with Vala?"

'I feared she might…gloss over unpleasant truths. I have known her to do so."

"She doesn't dwell on the past," Cam said. "But rest assured she doesn't take anybody's bullshit either. If Jackson weren't treating her right, she'd be gone."

"You believe this?

"You don't ?"

"Don't what?" Vala herself suddenly appeared.

"She doesn't believe you already wiped everybody out in the card game," Cam improvised.

"Well, of course I did. Otherwise I'd still be over there," Vala said.

"Exactly."

"Then the other players must've been terribly easy marks, for you to do it so quickly," Adria said. "Perhaps I should learn this card game."

"I can teach you. It's not too different from Simmult back home." Vala grinned conspiratorially. "But don't let them know that. Pretend like it's completely confusing and unlike anything you've ever seen before."

"Princess, if you teach her, they'll know she's scamming," Cam said. "C'mon, ma'am. I'll teach you."

"Why, Colonel, I didn't know you had it in you," Adria cooed.

Cam just grinned. "We split the winnings fifty-fifty."

"Seventy-thirty," Adria shot back.

"Sixty-forty," Cam returned.

Adria sighed heavily. "All right, fine. Sixty-forty." She glanced at Vala. "He's more fun than your husband."

"Sometimes," Vala agreed. She sent her stepmother a saucy wink. "In other areas, I can assure you Daniel is more fun."

Cam covered his ears. "Dammit, Vala, we've talked about this!"

Vala just laughed at him.

A few weeks later…

Vala sat curled up in her grassy spot outside the complex, pondering.

Adria had now been on Earth about three and a half months. It was actually going fairly well. They weren't sniping at each other nearly as often as they'd done when Vala was a teen. They were both trying .

But as the Tau'ri would say, there was a rather large elephant in the room, and both of them were quite deliberately ignoring it.

Probably they'd both be content to go on ignoring it indefinitely. Daniel might say that was unhealthy, but it was certainly a hell of a lot easier.

But maybe if they did deal with the elephant, they could move past it, and their relationship could actually progress. Maybe that would be easier in the long run, and they wouldn't have to work quite so hard at everything.

She didn't know. But dancing around that damn elephant was getting more and more difficult, which might be an answer in itself.

Vala groaned. She didn't like confronting tough emotional issues, and this one was a doozy.

Well, it had only been three and a half months. Maybe she could put it off a little bit longer.

Yeah, that sounded good. Just wait it out. She didn't have to decide anything just yet.

It wasn't like the elephant was going anywhere.