Chapter Four

"Hey you wanted to see—woah."

Vala had certainly been in more compromising situations before, but she kept forgetting that her CO hadn't exactly caught her on the lap of the Arbonian leader in her underwear on their independence day before.

Her room at the base had been trashed for the lack of a better word. Clothes and artefacts of various worth were scattered haphazardly around the room. Right now, Vala was holding a pile of bras and underwear.

"Here, hold this."

Cameron looked horrified as Vala dumped the pile into his arms. "I think you've taken the idea of spring cleaning a little bit too far." He eyed the lacy bra on top of the pile. "And I'm not sure these are standard issue. No wonder Jackson..."

Wisely, he stopped talking and Vala chose to ignore his slip of the tongue. "In there," she pointed to a bag on the bed. "A girl can never have too much underwear. Besides, it's going to have to clothe two very voluptuous Mal Doran women shortly."

Cameron dumped the offending articles in the bag and watched as Vala shoved more civilian clothes into the bag. Her quarters was full of things she had accumulated over the years living on Earth. Understandably, she had refused to stay in Daniel's apartment and he and Teal'c had spent a few afternoons helping her move her things back to her quarters on the base.

"Seems that way. It's a shame that none of her Orici outfits magically appeared in the gate room with her."

Vala looked down at the bag as she rearranged her possessions inside. She was trying to split things evenly—many of her clothes wouldn't fit her soon enough and Adria would be welcomed to them then. "Yes, a shame really. Although I'm happy enough to hear they took more than her ridiculously Qetesh-shaming outfits. And by they, I mean-"

"Daniel."

She took a deep breath and locked eyes with her friend. "Yes, I think so. Why would they not just destroy her? If it was possible to send her back here, it would've been easy enough to kill her in the process. Someone wanted her alive and human. I read the reports on Daniel's descension—he ended up on another planet somewhere. Adria appearing in the gate room, right in front of her mother is far too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

It wasn't a perfect time to bring it up, but lying to Vala wasn't going to help. "The IOA seems to agree."

There was a brief pause. "I'm sure they do. And do the IOA also agree with Dr Lam, Dr McKenzie and General O'Neill? That my daughter is completely human and therefore not a risk to the planet—or the entire galaxy for that matter?"

Cameron didn't have an answer. Both Generals, plus Woolsey had been in meetings all week and as far as he knew, nothing had been decided. Numerous tests had been performed, all of which Adria had performed willingly, and it had been abundantly clear that she wasn't the Orici any more. She was as human as Vala and, much to everyone's complete shock, polite and well-spoken.

"Is everything alright in here?" Teal'c's voice carried from the doorway. "Vala Mal Doran, did you wish to see me? Do you require my assistance?"

"Ahh, Muscles! No, no assistance required. I would just like to have a little chat with the both of you if I could. It would be much easier if Samantha was here too—I miss her terribly and unless the Hammond is going to be back in the next week, which I highly doubt..."

She stopped and smiled at her two colleagues. Vala had never had many friends or allies in her time before working for the SGC. Over the few short years she'd been here, these people had taken her in and trusted her, and given her a place to call home. And when Daniel had left, they had stepped in without a word of complaint and sat with her on dark days. She owed them a debt that she couldn't repay, for helping her to change her life around.

She was going to miss them.

"You are leaving," Teal'c said simply. Cameron stared at him and then back to her.

"No, she's packing. To move back to her apartment. Right? That's what's going on here?"

Well, it was now or never. "Well, that was my plan originally but Daniel sure has a way of making my life difficult when I need it the least. Cosmic payback for my incessant nagging perhaps. But no, Teal'c right. Even if the IOA decide that Adria's no longer a threat, they're either going to lock her up at Area 52-"

"51," Cameron corrected. "And that meeting isn't even over yet..."

"We're not going to be allowed to stay," Vala finished bluntly.

"You'll be allowed to stay. Nobody is getting rid of you."

"Vala Mal Doran is going to accompany Adria off-world," Teal'c surmised.

"Vala?" Cameron demanded.

"She can't remember anything right now, Cameron, but sooner or later those memories could come back. I can't let her out into the world by herself. She isn't even from this galaxy to begin with. I've been out there, I know how to live in it."

"Sounds like running away to me! We all know that whatever screwed up reasoning the Ancients had, there's no way in hell Jackson would have wanted you to to high-tail it out of here!"

Vala raised her arms in anger. "Well, if that's what Daniel wants, then maybe Daniel can show himself and explain this whole mess! And quite frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of waiting around for him to show himself. After what he's done, he'd be lucky if I waited around for him and his sorry face!"

She took a deep breath. She could lie about it but it would probably come up in her medical files when she left—she assumed that Dr Lam would try and intervene regardless. " I need to take my daughter out into the world and make sure she can live in it. And trust me when I say that leaving is the last thing I wanted to do. Daniel sure picked a hell of a time to up and leave. I'm pregnant."

Teal'c only raised an eyebrow in response but the look on Colonel Cameron Mitchell's face could only be described as complete and utter shock and disgust.

"Allow me to offer my congratulations," Teal'c said evenly.

"Fifteen weeks," Vala offered in response. "Excellent timing. It's a boy."

"This is un-fucking-believable," Cameron fumed. "You can't go out there pregnant and expect to take care of Adria by yourself. If Jackson ever comes back, I am going to kick the absolute shit out of him!"

"Was Daniel Jackson aware of your condition while he was assigned to Atlantis?"

Vala shook her head. "No, he wasn't. In fact, I'm not sure he's even aware now. I've not heard from him and if he's watching, he's keeping quiet about it."

"I'm going to deal with this right now. Have you told General Landry? O'Neill? Maybe we'd be able to broker a deal—if Adria stays in Area 51, she'd be at least be safe and-"

"She'd be in a cage," Vala said quietly. "And I'm sorry—I know more than anyone the havoc and destruction and pain she caused before. What you're asking me to do is choose and that's something I just can't do. Daniel might not care what happens to me or Adria, but he'll come back once he realises his son is here. I don't intend to run, boys. I'm not trying to disappear."

"You-," he pointed to Vala, "stay here. I'm going to find out what the hell is going on. Teal'c-, make sure our girl doesn't decide steal a Sodan cloaking device and take off through the gate with her grown amnesiac of an Orici."

Vala huffed. "I'm not stupid you know. And former Orici."

And then, he was gone.

Vala sighed. "Well, that went well. Teal'c—what do you think of the name Anakin for a boy?"

Teal'c bowed his head. "I think I prefer the name Luke."

Cameron was angry. He was angry when Adria, former scourge of two galaxies had descended in all of her blanket-clothed glory and he hadn't really stopped. He was angry that Jackson had disappeared into thin air- could the man not spare a minute of his ascended life to let someone know what the hell was going on?

He didn't really blame Vala for her decision and he knew that she was between a rock and a hard place. If Jackson had maybe left things as they were and not insisted on playing God, she'd be packing up to move back into the apartment to wait until Daddy Jackson woke up to himself and decided a mortal life was more interesting than sitting on one's ascended ass all day long.

Normally he didn't interrupt meetings unless it was absolutely necessary and he was a little disgusted in himself that he was about to breach his colleague's privacy but the IOA needed all of the facts.

He banged on the door a few times to no avail. "Sir? It's Colonel Mitchell-"

He didn't need to shout anything else because a very tired looking General O'Neill answered the door. "Mitchell, we heard you the first time."

"Sorry, Sir. But this is important and-"

"Colonel Mitchell."

Cameron's eyes tore away from General O'Neill and planted on the figure sitting at his usual spot on at the table.

"As you can see, we've been discussing something important too. Mitchell- you remember Daniel, don't you?"