Chapter 11

Dr. Lam had insisted that he rest in the infirmary, despite his objections. He felt perfectly fine, but she wouldn't hear of it. Neither would the rest of the team. Vala was in the bed next to his, but she had been asleep since the procedure. Apparently, whatever this thing was had taken a lot out of her, even though everyone had insisted that he was worse off.

The rest of the team had been in and out of the infirmary. None of them seemed to know quite what to say. Teal'c was as stoic as ever, but Sam and Mitchell seemed like they wanted to talk about something, but didn't want to let him in on it.

Finally, after a few hours, Vala started waking up. Dr. Lam and her medical team did their thing – checking vitals and such. Sam took a few minutes to talk quietly with her. When everyone seemed satisfied that she was okay, Daniel got up from his own bed (after arguing with Dr. Lam, Sam, and Mitchell), to check on her himself.

From what he could tell, she looked fine. A little tired, maybe, but no worse for wear. "Hey," she said weakly when he came into view.

"Hey, yourself," he replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Confused, but I seem to be in one piece. You?"

"About the same. Any idea what the hell just happened to us?"

"Not a clue. Apparently you and I have been through the ringer."

"Apparently. Something about alternate timelines and multiple personalities."

Sounds like fun."

After an awkward minute or two, Daniel finally gave voice to the nagging thought he had had since Vala's procedure. "You know, you said something to me, after my procedure, but before yours."

"Did I?"

"Yeah, something about not forgetting."

"Well, that seems stupid. Wasn't that the whole point? We had to forget, or we would die."

"I know, but you seemed to think that there was something important to hang on to. Any idea what it was?"

Vala shook her head. "Sorry, no. I don't think they left much of anything up there." She tapped on the side of her head. "Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'empty-headed.'"

"Well, I guess if there was anything important, the others would tell us."

"Of course they would," Vala agreed. "SG1 looks out for each other, don't we?" Vala reached out and patted Daniel's hand. Daniel stared down at her hand on his, and for a minute he felt an odd sensation of déjá vu.

He smiled at her and twisted his arm so that his hand was holding hers. "You're right," he said. "We do."

Don't worry! This is just the first installment of a three-part story. This isn't the end for Daniel and Vala!