Stargate
Infinity Series: Reunited Revamped

By GM Grantham

After the events of 'Flesh and Blood', Daniel and Vala share some alone time and discover some very interesting things about one another. Meanwhile, the battle against the Ori continues.

Spoilers for 'Flesh and Blood' through The Quest, Part II

Nothing of Stargate SG-1 is mine…no matter how I wish it was.

This chapter is rated PG-13.


ONE

Vala lay on the bed reading a Tau'ri romance novel that Colonel Carter had leant her. Her gaze was intense as she skimmed over the slow sections, a weary smirk crossing her lips whenever she came across a particularly risqué scene. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Come in," she replied, her eyes not leaving the page.

Upon hearing the door open slowly and then close, she looked up to see Daniel standing at the end of her bed. "Vala?" He paused. "I came by to see if you were all right."

She nodded and hesitated a moment, a thoughtful expression crossed her features. "Daniel…why did you take me instead of Adria?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "For the same reason you protected me from that weapons blast, I suppose."

There was a tense silence.

"I thought you hated me," she muttered.

Daniel sighed and sat down on the bed next to her, cupping her cheek. "Hate is a pretty strong word."

She shook her head. "You've made yourself quite clear."

"Vala, I…I don't hate you. I might find you at times to be nearly unbearably annoying, but I've never hated you."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, you have a funny way of showing it."

He grinned wryly, not quite meeting her gaze. "I'm sorry."

Vala smirked. "I hadn't expected that you would lust after me, Daniel. Of course I'm attractive…not that you've ever really noticed."

He glared at her. "Not all men are just interested in sex, Vala."

Laughing softly, she moved to the edge of the bed and leaned forward so that her face was millimeters from his. "Oh, so you've remained celibate your whole life? I find that hard to believe. That kiss you gave me aboard the Prometheus was way too skilled to have been your first or your second for that matter."

"It wasn't," he said sharply. "No, I haven't remained celibate, but it's not all I think about."

Vala narrowed her eyes at him. "Was that meant to be an insult, Daniel? If it was, it was a very tasteless one." She smirked again. "Just how do you feel about me, Doctor Jackson?"

He didn't answer and they avoided one another's eyes and remained silent until Vala spoke up. "Believe it or not, I was in love with a man once. I watched him tortured by the Goa'uld just before I became a host. Within matter of days, he didn't even recognize me."

"He was tortured into insanity because he was not a strong enough host. He'd been ill for a very long time and had never truly recovered. After Qetesh had forced her way into my body, I could do nothing but watch as the device in my hands forced the life from the first man I'd ever loved."

She noted the stunned expression on Daniel's face and ducked her head, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.

"I had no idea," he said.

She nodded. "A part of me still claims responsibility for his death, but in all honesty, there wasn't anything I could have done to save him and though it was my body that committed the act, all of the things inside of me that make me truly who I am were fighting to help him."

They simply stared at one another for several moments, the tension hanging in the air between them like a heavy fog. To her surprise, he closed the distance between them, his lips brushing against hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck to stop him from pulling away and pressed her lips to his.

"Just say it, Daniel," she whispered huskily, nuzzling his cheek.

She let him lay her back on the bed, her hands sliding into the hair at the base of his neck, her nails scratching gently. Goosebumps prickled his skin and she felt him shudder beneath her hands.

"Say what?" he asked.

Vala grinned. "You know what."

He brushed his lips against hers. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He sucked in a breath as Vala's fingers ghosted lightly over the spot where his neck and shoulder met.

"Ticklish, darling?"

Before he could reply, he felt her fingers ghosting over the inside of his elbow. This time, he shuddered. He groaned internally when he saw a smirk cross her features, knowing she'd found his weakness and that she'd exploit it until she got what she wanted from him.

Even being prepared for the onslaught of her tickling hadn't prepared him for the sensually erotic effect it had on his body.

"Vala…stop…can't…breathe," he managed between laughs.

"Not until you say it."

"Vala...stop...please..." he laughed.

Reluctantly, she released him and he stood, clearing his throat. "I should go."

Vala reached out to grasp his wrist, but was reluctant to do so as she was afraid that she would drive him away further. "No. We need to talk."

He moved toward the door, opening it. "We can talk in the morning," he said. Without giving her a chance to reply, he exited the room and closed the door behind him.

Her throat was tight and moisture was gathering in the corners of her eyes. Blinking the tears back, she returned to the novel only to throw it aside moments later in frustration.

"Damn him," she muttered, her face buried in her hands. "Damn him."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It had been unbelievably stupid of him to just run away from her like that. He hadn't ever run away from anything in his life, but he realized that that was just what he'd been doing since Vala had made her appearance and several reappearances in his life. He'd denied for so long how much his life had changed since he'd met her and now that denial was hitting him full force.

"Jackson!" Cam shouted.

His head snapped in Cam's direction. "What?"

Cam shook his head. "Have you heard a word I've been saying for the last half-hour?"

He grimaced, his gaze drifting to the far wall. "Sorry, Cam. I've been preoccupied."

Cam's eyebrows shot up. "You're telling me. You've turned your spaghetti into mush."

He looked down and saw a pile of mush where his spaghetti had been. "I'm not that hungry," he muttered.

Cam smirked. "What's going on with you and Vala?"

"What makes you think it has anything to do with Vala?" he asked, exasperated.

Cam smirked and pointed in the direction Daniel had been staring and sure enough, Vala sat at the table picking at her own meal.

He sighed. "All right. So it is about Vala."

Cam looked at him expectantly. "So...what happened?" Cam asked.

He glared at him for a moment before setting his fork down and picking up his spoon, making a start on the blue jello. "Nothing happened."

"So that's why you've been following her with your eyes for the last half hour?"

His face flushed. "That long?" Cam nodded. Daniel paused. "It's complicated."

Cam snorted. "You two already fight like a married couple." He sighed. "If you want my advice, you should talk to her…figure things out. Life's too short."

He smiled. "Carolyn Lam?"

Cam grinned and nodded. "Between us, right? Personally, I'm more afraid of what she'd do if I broke things off than what her father'd do if he found out one of the flyboys on base was shacking up with his daughter."

He sighed. "You know, Cam, you're right. I can't run from this. I've been trying to for far too long."

With this, he stood and drew in a deep breath before moving toward Vala.

"Good luck, Jackson," Cam muttered.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

What had once been spaghetti now sat in front of her as a stringy, sauce-covered mess from the dozens upon dozens of times she'd scrapped it across the plate, not once bringing the utensil to her mouth. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she'd been locked away in her quarters for so long that even staring at the plate of food sounded more appealing than staring at the blank, white ceiling.

"Hi."

She looked up from her meal to find Daniel standing over her. Her throat tightened and her lips became a thin line. Her gaze returned to the mess of food on her plate. "Daniel," she replied tightly.

He sighed. "Look, Vala…I'm sorry."

Still avoiding his gaze, she asked, "What for this time?"

"For running out like that last night. You were right. We do need to talk," he replied.

She returned her gaze to her meal, busying herself with cutting the chicken into bite-sized pieces. "You don't need to apologize. I understand perfectly." She understood that she was going in circles trying to please him. The last thing she would do is allow him to keep tearing at the wounds of her past and making them bleed again.

"Vala...don't try to hide. You always do. Most people would think that you weren't really bothered, but I know better."

She slammed the silverware down, her gaze flying up to meet his and she stood so that her face was millimeters from his. "What makes you think you even remotely know me?"

All eyes in the room had now shifted in their direction, even those of a couple of the base cooks who were restocking the food cabinets.

"Yes, Vala. Getting angry at me will help our situation," he retorted sarcastically.

She glared at him. "Well, passivity certainly won't help either!"

Daniel's face flushed. "Let's talk about this somewhere more private," he muttered.

"Why? You've never had a problem with making a nuisance of yourself in public before!"

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before opening them. "Vala…"

She could see in his eyes that he wanted to hit her. "You wouldn't dare," she challenged, glaring at him.

Daniel returned her glare, but before he could open his mouth to reply, she drew her arm back and her fist made contact with his eye. She then pushed her way through the crowd that had gathered, making her way toward the exit.

Cam helped Daniel to his feet, then noting the bruise forming around Daniel's eye. "Whoa, Jackson. That's going to leave a helluva shiner."

"Damned lucky I wasn't wearing my glasses or I'd have more than a black eye," he muttered.

Cam turned toward the crowd that had gathered around. He noted two women were whispering amongst themselves.

"Wonder what he did to make her do that," one woman said.

The other woman shook her head. "I don't know, but he MUST have deserved it."

Cam's jaw tightened and he glared at the two women, then glancing around at the others before shooing them away. "All right. Nothing to see here, folks. Back to your business." Cam returned his gaze to Daniel and whistled. "We need to get you to the infirmary, Jackson, and have the Doc check you out."

Daniel nodded reluctantly and the two pushed through the crowd as Vala had, headed to the infirmary.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Carolyn looked up from the chart, a slight smile crossing her lips. "You're very lucky, Doctor Jackson. Only superficial damage was done. The best thing to do for that is to keep ice on it regularly for the next 24 hours."

Cam patted him on the back. "Now you know…never talk to Vala unprotected when she's angry."

He sighed. "I've learned my lesson, I assure you." He looked up to see the affectionate exchange between Cam and Carolyn, the latter of whom turned away when she noticed Daniel's gaze and pretended to write something on the clipboard.

A moment later, one of the nurses brought Carolyn an icepack, which she in turn handed to Daniel. "Remember to keep that on your eye for a couple hours at a time," Carolyn advised.

Daniel nodded and pressed the icepack to his injured eye, his eyes closing as he sighed. It had been throbbing since they'd arrived in the infirmary and the coolness of the ice was a welcome relief. He jumped in surprise when he felt something cold on his behind.

"It's a salve for that nice-sized bruise you have forming. Relax," a female voice said.

His body relaxed, but he couldn't stop the flush of embarrassment at having a woman he wasn't involved with touch him there.

"There. That should do it." She gave his behind a light slap and He jumped. He then turned toward her, unable to meet her eyes.

"Really, Daniel. There's no need to be embarrassed. It's not like it's anything I haven't seen before."

His head snapped up and he saw Vala standing over him, smirking. "W-where's Doctor Lam?"

Vala waved a hand flippantly. "She's in her office taking some phone call or another and she asked me to give this to you."

He glared at her and pulled the ice pack from his eye only to find out that the injured eye was swollen shut.

Vala tried not to laugh because the situation wasn't really that funny. But she found it hard to take his stern glare seriously, especially given his swollen eye.

Almost as though reading her thoughts, he retorted, "It isn't funny, Vala! You could have permanently damaged my eyesight!"

She grinned. "I know, Danny, but that look on your face…the look you get when you're really upset at me is rather amusing. You should see yourself." She looked around for a mirror and held it up for him to see.

Daniel smiled. "I guess I do look a little ridiculous."

She lowered the mirror and lightly cupped his cheek. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you quite that hard."

Daniel sighed. "I guess I deserved it. I'm sorry."

She gazed at him, simply staring at him for the longest time. There was so much to him. She'd seen it in his eyes from the first that there was much more to this man than there appeared to be. There was a depth and a complication to his every thought and every word that could have someone who didn't know him puzzling over a single sentence for the rest of their natural life.

She nodded. "It's all right." He paused and she saw that he wanted to say something more. "What?"

Daniel hesitated a moment longer before continuing. "You haven't reacted to…like that before," he added, his expression thoughtful.

She smiled. "Well, I haven't been kissed by a man quite that way before either. Nor have I had said man leave before I've had my say."

Daniel sighed. "Well, we have time now. We really should talk."

"Now that it comes down to it, I don't know exactly what to say." She paused. "I suppose an apology would be as good of a place as any to start. I'm sorry I wouldn't hear you out, but Daniel, you have to understand how it must have felt."

"I know," he said. "I just…I was confused."

She frowned. "So that's why you left so quickly last night?"

Daniel nodded. "I know now that I should have stayed. I'm sorry."

She leaned forward, brushing his lips with hers. "I understand."

They heard someone clear their throat and turned to find Cam looking at them with raised eyebrows, Carolyn right behind him.

She smirked. "If you wanted to watch, Colonel Mitchell, you should have said something! We could have given you a better show than that!"

"Vala," Daniel warned.

Before he could react, she pressed herself against him and claimed his mouth in a heated kiss. When they pulled back for air, she noted that Daniel's entire face was flushed with embarrassment though his eyes twinkled with pleasure.

"Yeah," Cam said slowly, turning away slightly. "Landry wants us SG-1 in the briefing room. He said something about the Ori stirring up more trouble with some kind of new weapon."

"Adria," Daniel and Vala said simultaneously.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

His gaze was so focused on the photos in the center of the table that he scarcely heard Landry's opening statement.

"Apparently, the Ori have a new secret weapon," Landry began. There was a moment of silence. "The Tok'ra have sent reports of a girl with an Ori Prior on P4X-399, designated Tiryns by the locals."

"And they found a couple of texts," Sam said, pushing the snapshots toward Daniel, who removed his glasses and studied the enlarged photos.

"This is Ancient," he said. "These tablets must be 3,000 years old." He frowned. "It's a narrative." He looked up. "Do they still have the tablets?"

Sam paused. "They only found two. There's more, but they don't know where. As far as the two they found, I think they still have them."

"It sounds like the Ori are there for more than just converting the locals," Vala observed.

Daniel sat up a little straighter. "General, one of the tablets talks about the Ori." He pointed to the word in one of the photos. "These texts could hold the key to defeating them."

Vala nodded. "Then they wouldn't want us to find them, would they?"

Landry paused. "Get suited up. I'll have Walter get started on calling up the gate address."

SG-1 nodded and left the room, headed for the lockers.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"The Tok'ra reported that the Tiryians are slightly aggressive so we should keep an eye out," Daniel warned.

"Chevron six encoded….Chevron seven….locked."

The gate burst to life, a surge of water issuing forth from it with a kawoosh before it fell back into the gate, the event horizon giving off the effect of a vertical, shimmering puddle of water. The event horizon shuddered with vitality and glimpses of the world beyond flittered in and out of view.

SG-1 strode up the walkway to the gate without hesitation, and walked through the puddle, the blup created by their solid form slicing through the liquidous substance of the event horizon echoing throughout the gate room. The gate then shut down, leaving the five travelers spiraling through wormholes in space toward their destination.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

They emerged through the gate what seemed like moments later on a planet very similar to Earth.

"Which way to the nearest village?" Cam asked to no one in particular.

Vala frowned slightly. "I've been here before." She took a moment to take in their surroundings and pointed due northeast. "There should be an inhabited village 31 kilometers in that direction."

Cam nodded and followed Vala, the others following as well.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After two hours of walking, they arrived on the outer fringes of a small township which they assumed was the village Vala had been talking about.

A portly woman carrying a babe in one hand and holding a boy's hand with the other rushed forward, smiling gleefully. Releasing the boy's hand, she gave Vala a one-armed hug, which Vala returned enthusiastically.

Both women chattered excitedly in what Daniel assumed was the native language. It seemed astoundingly similar to the language of the Ancients.

"Mother Hedley, these are my friends Colonel Samantha Carter, Teal'c, Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and Doctor Daniel Jackson. Everyone, this is Mother Hedley. She nursed me back to health when I'd been injured in a little scuffle and was stranded here for a short time."

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am," Cam offered with an inclination of his head.

Mother Hedley smiled and nodded to each one of them in turn, before returning her attention to Vala. "It has been so long, darling."

"I'm sorry I haven't had time to visit. Life's been hectic." She paused. "We heard rumors from our allies, the Tok'ra, that an Ori Prior and a little girl had been here, possibly looking for something."

Mother Hedley frowned. "Yes, but the child was not so little. I believe she is nearing 17 in your years."

Daniel and Vala exchanged a worried look. "If the growth doesn't stop soon, she'll die within a matter of days," Vala said softly.

Mother Hedley gave them a confused look. "What…?"

Vala sighed. "We'll explain later, Mother. It's a long story."

The woman nodded. "Yes, perhaps later is best then. For now, you look rather thirsty. Have something to hydrate yourselves and then I will lead you to where we found the tablets." Daniel was about to protest, but Mother Hedley cut him off. "There is no hurry. The Prior will not return until tomorrow."

Daniel sighed and nodded reluctantly before following the elderly woman into her hut, the others following behind him.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Vala sighed and leaned back as she sipped the Tyrian-blended tea.

"You've been greatly missed, dear," Mother Hedley gushed. "Namir was just beside himself when he learned of your return."

Vala sat up abruptly, nearly spilling her tea. "Namir?"

Mother Hedley nodded. "Yes, dear. He insists on seeing you before you leave."

Daniel's eyebrows were raised high, but he said nothing.

Reading the expression on his face, she offered, "We were..." She cleared her throat. "...involved for a short while before I left."

Mother Hedley laughed. "That's putting it mildly. They were never out of one another's company and were talking about matrimony when Vala had to leave."

She avoided everyone's eyes, staring at the cup of tea in her hands.

"Really? She never mentioned it." Daniel fought to keep the tension out of his voice.

"It wasn't important," Vala muttered.

Again, he said nothing, simply sipping the tea he was offered.

There was a tense silence in the air before Mother Hedley asked, "What does this young woman we were speaking of earlier mean to you?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "She's..."

"My daughter," Vala finished.

Mother looked at her, slightly surprised. "Your daughter? How...?"

"She was genetically manipulated from conception to age more quickly," Vala replied.

Mother looked at Daniel and then her eyes widened in sudden understanding. "I see. These Ori Priors are responsible for this?"

Vala nodded. "Yes, Mother. The Ori are dangerous. They will destroy anyone who does not accept Origin."

Mother paused, appearing in deep thought. "We accept only the ways of our ancestors. Ascension comes only through self-enlightenment."

Daniel stopped the cup halfway to his mouth and gazed at her with a slightly stunned expression on his face. "You know about the Ancients?"

Mother nodded. "Many of our people have ascended through the ways of the Ancients. The Ori present themselves falsely. They do not offer the ascension they promise their followers."

He frowned. "Have you had contact with the Ancients?"

"No, of course not, it is against the governing rules. The truth of the Ori has been passed down through the generations," Mother replied matter-of-factly. There was a moment of silence before Mother stood. "I'll show you where we found those tablets, then. Follow me, please."


TBC…