Chapter 4

Ever since that day in the gym when Vala had a headache, things had been weird with her. Well, weirder. It almost felt like she was avoiding him, but she didn't seem angry with him. In fact, he caught her smiling at him more than once. And not her normal flirty smile, but a sincere happy-to-see-you smile. But whenever she caught him looking at her, the smile would disappear, and she'd look away. He tried approaching her a few times, but she always found some excuse to leave.

He finally decided to let the issue drop. After all, if she really was uncomfortable with people fussing over her, maybe she was just embarrassed that he was so concerned for her. She was an adult. She could take care of herself.

So, he was completely thrown off guard when she practically tackled him into her room the evening they returned from their mission to P38-326. "Hi?" he said, uncertain of her current mood.

"Daniel," she said, looking as if she was about to recite a speech she had memorized. "I've been thinking a lot lately."

"Oh? About anything in particular?"

"Yes, actually. I've been thinking about us."

"Us? As in-"

"As in you and me together."

He could feel his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. It wasn't the first time Vala had suggested them as a couple, but it was one of the more direct approaches she'd tried. He tried to read her face, but her expression wasn't one that he had gotten to know. She wasn't flirting with him like she usually did. She wore a small smile, but she also looked very anxious.

He finally decided to ask her straight out. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Daniel. Very. I've always liked you; you know that. We've been through a lot together, the two of us, and I've started to feel like maybe you and I make sense together."

"You and me? Make sense?"

"You can't deny we make a good team."

"There's a big difference between making a good team in the field and making a good couple."

"You've always fought this! Why? Am I so repulsive to you?"

"Maybe I just use my brain to do my thinking, instead of my reproductive organs."

"Daniel, this is not about sex!" Daniel raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay," Vala admitted. "It's not entirely about sex."
"There it is."

"Daniel, I don't know what else I can do to convince you! I really do have feelings for you!"

"Vala, you can say it as many different ways as you want; it doesn't mean I'm going to believe you."

"Look, I know I have been less than trustworthy in the past, but you've always been able to tell when I'm lying and when I'm telling the truth."

"Sometimes I feel like I can, and then you manage to surprise me. I don't like surprises."

"I swear to you, this is not something I'm taking lightly. I've thought a lot about this, and I really think-"

"What? You think we'd make a good couple? You think we'd be happy together? Vala, come on! Even if I believed you, even if I actually thought that you had any kind of real feelings for me, you can't honestly say you believe that we'd be right for each other!" He had more to say, but he was distracted by Vala. She was bent over, her hands on her head, groaning. Genuinely concerned, Daniel approached to help, when his own head was suddenly bombarded by what felt like half a dozen mallets hitting him over and over again. When he looked up, he realized they were no longer in Vala's room in the SGC. It looked like they were on a ship, the Prometheus or the Odyssey, maybe the Daedalus. He wasn't sure which. They were still arguing. He saw himself yelling, and Vala, Vala looked like she was crying. Disoriented, he couldn't quite make out the words. The whole situation felt oddly familiar, despite the fact that he was sure he'd never experienced it. He watched himself walk over to Vala, and sit beside her on his bed. Before he realized what was happening, they were kissing.

In an instant, it was all over – the vision, the pain – all of it. "What the hell was that?" he asked, dazed.

Vala stared at him. "You saw it, too?"

"I saw . . . something. Us, fighting."

"On board the Odyssey?"

"I think so, yeah. What the hell was that?"

Vala sat down on the bed and gestured for him to sit in the chair across from her. Still confused, he plopped himself down in the chair. "I'm not certain, but I have a guess."

Daniel looked at her. She wasn't confused by this as he was, at least not as much. "This happened to you before?" She nodded. "That headache, in corridor the other day. Is this what happened?"

"I think so. I saw something different, but yes, it felt the same."

"What the hell is going on?"

"Okay, don't freak out, but I think they're memories."

"Memories? From when? I don't remember that. It seemed more like some kind of alternate universe."

"Close. Alternate time-line."

"Come again?"

"I think what we were seeing was another time-line. Another version of us."

"So, what? You think we changed the future? Again?"

"I know we did; so do you. I think these are memories from the timeline on the Odyssey, when we were stuck in the time dilation field."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"It's just a theory, but it makes sense."

"In what universe does this make sense?"

"Think about it! We know we changed our future. And we know that we were stuck on Odyssey for decades."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, I think we both know that I would have ended up with someone." She looked at him pointedly.

"That's your reasoning? You think because of one vision of us kissing-"

"Two, actually. The other one I saw was also of us . . . kissing. No arguing, though."

Daniel stared at her. Vala was known for her wild theories, but this one was insane. The strangest part was that she didn't have her normal cheekiness. She spoke about it as though they were in a briefing with the rest of the team. Was this really just an elaborate ploy to get in his pants? It wouldn't surprise him; she'd certainly done this sort of thing before. Then again, she wasn't making up what happened to them. He'd felt that headache, and he'd seen . . . something.