Chapter Sixteen

Vala called him Cameron. Since when did she start calling him that? It had always been Mitchell or Colonel Mitchell when she addressed him, so when exactly did it become Cameron? Why was he volunteering to watch Alora, and more importantly, why the hell was he buying her stuff? What the actual hell was going on? And why did he care so much?

You know why, Daniel's inner voice whispered to him, but he ignored it – he had to. He wasn't ready…not yet.

He acknowledged that he was being ridiculous, she had every right to call Mitchell by his first name, and while he should let it go, he couldn't seem to make himself, and it made him annoyed with himself. What made it worse was that Vala allowed Mitchell to watch Alora and not him. He was being a possessive asshole when he had no right to be – Alora wasn't his and he had no claim on her or Vala and no right to be irritated at the situation, but that didn't stop him from feeling like that, causing even more frustration with everything. It got to the point where he couldn't concentrate, couldn't focus on the information they had gained from Merlin's lab or the reports of what happened in that lab. He could only remember so much and was relying on the teams' reports to fill in the gaps, but with his current agitation, he was getting nowhere.

Damnit, he was useless at the moment. He growled in frustration and abandoned his desk and the work on it. He wouldn't get anywhere in his current state, so he decided to seek out Sam and see where she was at with the whole dialing the Ori galaxy. They had most of what they needed to defeat the Ori, but this was the last piece aside from using the weapon.

Sure, they could take the long way to the Ori galaxy, but that would take weeks, and Daniel, or rather Merlin, had given them the means to get there faster, so what was a few extra days in comparison with weeks? While they still had to figure out what to do with the Priors here and their followers, but surely once word spread that the Ori were destroyed, it would get back to those here, right? Guess they would figure that out once they got to that point.

Right now, time to go find Sam.

o0o

"Knock, knock," Daniel said and tapped on the doorframe in sync with his words.

Sam glanced up from her computer and smiled brightly at him. "Daniel!" she greeted cheerfully, "It's good to see you up and around. When did Dr. Lam release you?"

He shuffled further into the room. "Earlier today," he replied and paused in his strides, "Why's Alora with you? I thought Cam had her," he asked, pointing to the baby that was now visible once he was in the lab.

Sam turned back to her computer. "He had to train a group of new recruits," she replied, "Reynolds was scheduled to do it, but they got delayed off world. Vala was still in the middle of her project and I haven't seen her that excited about something, neither has Cam, so he asked me to watch her."

He moved closer to the baby. "And no one thought to ask me?" he asked, offended that he hadn't been considered.

She shot him a scolding look at his tone. "Up until now, I didn't know you had been released and I suspect Cam hadn't either," she told him firmly, "Besides, you've been awake for barely twenty-four hours and you're still recovering."

"I'm fine and it's not like she's a hard baby!" he protested and gestured to her, "She's just sleeping – how hard could that have been?"

She made a shushing noise so he wouldn't wake the infant. "She may not have been a hard baby, but since losing their knowledge, she's not the same," she replied coolly, "Vala says her routine has been all over the place since we got back and Alora is a little unpredictable."

Daniel looked away in favor of staring at the baby, gently stroking her cheek. "She's not that different," he said quietly, "She's still the same in some ways, she's still Alora, and the Ori can't take that away."

Sam stayed quiet, choosing to observe her friend with the infant instead. She knew he cared for the baby, they all did, but she had been suspecting for some time that it went beyond caring and fondness, beyond a typical love for a friend's child. No, Daniel loved Alora more than that, he loved her like his own. "I've never seen you like this," she mused aloud.

He eyed her briefly. "Like what?"

She waved a hand up and down the length of his body. "That," she responded, "You really love her, don't you," she stated softly.

He didn't look away from the baby, but she saw the corners of his mouth turn up. "Yeah," he admitted gently, "How could I not?"

"You got me there – she is addicting and impossible to resist," she conceded, "but it's more than that, you're so different with her than you've ever been with anyone," aside from her mother, but Sam kept that bit to herself.

Daniel continued to smile at Alora. "Well, what can I say? She has me wrapped around her finger."

"Just like her mother," she muttered without thinking and silently berated herself for it. That was not how she wanted to bring it up nor what she meant, but it was too late and she couldn't take it back.

His head snapped to her. "What the hell does that mean?" he asked forcefully.

"Nothing," she denied instantly, "forget it, that came out wrong anyways."

"Sam," he said warningly, "what did you mean?"

Guess they were doing this now. Sam straightened and mentally prepared herself. Daniel wouldn't accept the reality of the situation when it came to Vala and how he felt about her, and while it was really none of her business, she was tired of seeing him unhappy, clinging to the past, and refusing to acknowledge what was right in front of him – all in favor of protecting himself from something that was, in her opinion, unlikely to happen. Despite what he thought, Vala wasn't a risk, and posed a very small chance of hurting Daniel like he had been when Sha're died.

"I meant…the way you care about Alora, you care about Vala in the same way," she answered carefully, avoiding the word 'love' in hopes he didn't freak out.

But it was Daniel, so…

"No, I don't!" he denied vehemently, his abrupt tone making Alora flinch in her sleep, so he lowered it, "No, I don't, you've got it wrong. She's my friend, my co-worker! I only see her like that."

Sam studied him for a moment. "You know, sometimes I think you really believe that," she remarked thoughtfully, "but I know there are times when you know it's not true and it causes you to shove those feelings down and I get it, I do, Daniel, but can't keep letting your own fears get in the way. You deserve better, Vala deserves better, and it's not just you you're hurting but her as well."

Daniel scowled at her. "Sam, you don't know what you're talking about," he told her forcefully, "and besides, Vala doesn't see me like that, she doesn't…she doesn't care for me like that. You've got it wrong."

The way he said it made her heart ache for him. "Oh, Daniel," she murmured sympathetically, "you really do believe that."

He refocused back on Alora. "Of course I do," he responded, a bit despondently, "because it's true."

She knew she shouldn't be, but she was amused and couldn't help the smile. Here was one of the smartest men she knew and yet, he was completely oblivious to this known fact. "Except that it's not," she corrected again, "Daniel, I've seen it. I've seen the way you two look at each other, act around each other, and more importantly, how you feel about each other. Jack's even seen it so there's no denying it."

"Sam," he started in a warning tone, but she didn't let him continue.

"After she destroyed the first beachhead, you were…in a funk," she told him, "You spent weeks looking at surrounding planets or anywhere that would've had a set of rings in hopes that she somehow ringed somewhere else in our galaxy and not theirs. You never gave up hope that she had survived not just the explosion but in their galaxy as well. You asked every alternate SG-1 team about her during that whole ripple fiasco with the Black SG-1 team – yes, I knew about that. When you found her aboard that Ori mothership and brought her back, the funk lifted, and you were back to being Daniel…almost, just slightly different, and that's grown since she and Alora have been here.

"Admit it, Daniel, you like her more than just a co-worker and friend. Stop holding yourself back from your own happiness."

Daniel was quiet for a while and Sam left him alone to think. She had known him going on ten years now and knew he had to analyze everything to death…at least when it came to personal things. She suspected that he had already begun to realize that his feelings for Vala went beyond friendship, but she also suspected that he didn't know just how deep they ran and was now discovering it.

He eventually shook his head out of his own thoughts. "Even if I did care about her like that," he began quietly, still in denial himself, "Vala doesn't care about me like, so what's the point?"

Ugh, men, Sam thought to herself and rolled her eyes internally. "God, why are men so blind?" she muttered to herself, but he heard her.

"What does that mean?" he demanded.

"It means you're an idiot and she does care for you like that," she shot back.

"How?" he hissed, "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because I'm a woman," she retorted, "I know what that looks like. I know what it looks like to repress your feelings for someone, what it feels like, and the toll it takes. I know what it looks like to want something you think is never going to happen!"

Daniel scowled at her. "This isn't like you and Jack," he told her with an edge to his voice, "this is completely different!"

"I know that," she relented to that, "but it doesn't mean I don't recognize the same struggles in Vala!"

"How would you know?" he challenged, "How could you possibly see that?"

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "While you were playing hero and downloading another consciousness into your brain, the rest of us saw just how much she cares for you," she replied, "and she was worried sick about you, Daniel. She had to watch you slowly slip away from us and couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. You know how that feels, imagine watching the person you love do the same. I've been there, in an eerily similar situation no less, and it fucking sucks. Given my experience, I saw myself in her from a few years ago during Jack's last run in with the repository and how helpless I felt. I saw her struggle in the same way as I did."

"Wait," he held up a hand, "suddenly Vala loves me? Not cares but loves?"

Damnit, she tried so hard to avoid that word, but it was too late to go back now. "Yeah," she confessed gently.

Daniel shook his head and stepped back from Alora and Sam's desk. "I'm sorry, has she actually ever told you this?" he questioned, "Has she actually told you that she's in love with me?"

She hesitated. "It's fairly obvious to us, Daniel."

"That's not what I asked," he bit out, "Has Vala ever told you that she loves me?"

She sighed. "No, she hasn't," she admitted, "but I know she does – we all do."

He huffed. "Glad to know my love life has been a subject of interest with all of you," he quipped bitterly, "but you're all wrong. I don't love Vala, not like that, and she certainly doesn't love me, and I'd appreciate it if you all stopped speculating and suggesting we do. It's none of your Goddamn business and it's going to end up hurting someone."

Sam realized she had pushed too hard and wouldn't make any progress with him in this state, so she let it go…for now. She would never stop, not when his future happiness was on the line. He had been alone for so long, unhappy, and lonely and it was hard to see him that way, especially when she saw the change in him since Vala came into his life. She loved him too much to let him destroy his future happiness out of fear – and she knew Vala would bring him back to life, the way he had been before they had met, according to Jack. She had seen glimpses of it when they first met on Abydos, before Sha're had been taken, and she wanted that part of him back, for his sake.

"Okay," she relented softly but knew this wasn't over.

o0o

"I am here to relieve you!" Mitchell chirped as he entered Sam's lab and rubbed his hands together, "Where's the munchkin?" he asked curiously as he looked around the room.

Sam greeted him with a smile before she continued to focus on the computer screen. "Alora got hungry and wouldn't accept a bottle from me. She was inconsolable, so I was forced to take her back to Vala."

"That's too bad," he commented, "Princess seemed to be having fun with that project."

"I know," Sam agreed, "I haven't seen her this involved in…well, ever."

"Yeah, the only time I've ever seen her this engaged was when we were hunting for the damn treasure," he remarked.

"Well, maybe Daniel will offer to take her for a bit after Vala feeds her. He seems to have the magic touch with her."

"The munchkin or Princess?"

Sam chuckled. "Both, I guess."

"Didn't realize Sunshine was released."

"Mhm-hmm," she hummed, "Was a little upset that Vala had asked you over him to watch Alora."

"Possessive much?" he quipped before smiling softly, "He's really taken a shine to her."

"Who, Vala or Alora?" Sam said it in jest, but the truth of her words found their way into her tone.

Mitchell met her eyes. "Both," he replied seriously, "Look, you know Jackson better than me. Is he always like this?"

Sam looked away from her screen and to him. "Like what?"

"Come on, Sam," he said like it was a given, "we both know he has a thing for Princess, so why is he like that, always keeping her close but ends up pushing her away when she gets too close? It's like he can't make up his mind."

Sam smiled sadly. "Losing Sha're, it more than just hurt him, it just about destroyed him, and he just can't bring himself to admit that he can move on from her, that he could love someone like he loved her or even more," she answered, "He's just scared, terrified even, that it would end badly with Vala so why even try?"

"He's afraid that things won't work out?" Mitchell questioned, "Everyone takes that risk when they enter a relationship."

She shook her head. "No, that's not what he's afraid of," she contradicted, "He's scared he'll lose her like he lost Sha're, and even if he could bring himself to try with her, he'll never make the first move…not when he believes his feelings are one sided."

"Vala won't either," Cam stated, having known the former space pirate slightly longer than Sam, "She's been hurt too and she won't risk putting herself out there for the same reasons."

"Yeah, I've seen that in her too," she confessed.

"So what we've got here are two people who got a thing for each other but neither will make the first move because they both believe it won't be reciprocated but the only way either of them would go for it is if the other confessed their feelings?"

Sam nodded once. "Yep, pretty much."

Mitchell groaned. "This can't go on," he grumbled, "something has to be done."

"I agree," she told him, "but we need to leave it alone…for now. Trust me on this, we have to give them a chance to figure it out themselves."

He sighed but gave in. "For now."

o0o

Author's Note: I felt like Daniel had to be confronted front on by someone other than Vala about what he felt for Vala, and who better than his surrogate sister? It'll force his mind to contemplate what she said and maybe he'll realize it... I was going to do Jack, but it just ended up being Sam.