A/N: Just a quick update on this story. It was originally supposed to be ten chapters long, and I wrote them and then I wanted to write more, so I mulled over some more ideas, and then wrote six more chapters.
And then I wanted to write more. So I wrote two more chapters, and I have about two dozen more ideas in the works and while I doubt all of them will get written, I consider this a work in progress until I tire of the story line.
Oh and after this chapter, the word count takes a dramatic increase so the chapters will range from 5-10 pages instead of 3.
Also if you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see in a chapter, feel free to let me know. I'm always open to suggestions
Bring it all Back
Chapter 4
Cargo Ship
A few months later, the same thing happens again. Not the death warrant, thank God not the death warrant again, but if there are more issued he can start a little collection, get them all framed and hang them in the spare bedroom or something. For Christmas he might get one done of up him and give it to her. No, not as bad as the death warrant but just as bad as when she returned with the handcuffs. SG-7 left her on the planet and when he's making up itineraries for the teams he's going to have to add a bullet that says 'make sure your buddy is present' because the amount of times she gets left behind is about the same as the times she comes home.
He stands, clipboard in hand, ready to take attendance like some gym teacher dressed in just a plain black shirt and his BDU pants.
Her name is left unchecked again.
"Hey Rodriguez," he calls over the new transfer because that's the first name he thinks of, "where's Vala?"
"She got stuck behind in the market place. Told us we should leave without her." Rodriguez is young, almost too young to be on a SG team, so he doesn't say anything. He'll need to start writing 'do not let Vala make her own itinerary' at the bottom of the itineraries.
She's just shopping, at least that's what he tells himself, so he's fine with it. It's what she does besides steal, the two sort of go hand in hand because if she's stealing stuff nothing is off the plate. He gives her until the end of the day, and then he'll let himself worry.
At the end of the day he panics because she's not back yet and what the hell was he even thinking? He should have been worrying the whole time, but no he had to play it cool. He thinks about reporting it into Landry knowing that both he and she will be reprimanded if she turns up. He can't just go looking for her, there has to be at least two people to go on off-world missions, which is the rule they should've followed in the first place. He blames SG-7, he blames Rodriguez, he blames himself.
He never blames Vala.
About to go hammer a nail in his coffin and explain what he let happen to Landry, when one of the walkies on his desk lights up, through the empty waves he hears her voice. "Hello, SG-7? Rodriguez, Pfeiffer? Major Dumbass?"
Snatches the walkie from his desk. "It's Major Dumas, Princess."
"Cameron." She sounds delighted over the stilted sound and he can hear her grin. "What are you doing with the boys of SG-7?"
"The boys are back on base, Vala, where you should be."
There's static and then nothing and his fingers tap the top of his desk impatiently and he counts the stars on the flag hanging across the back wall of his office to distract him.
"Yes. Well, I've stumbled across a small problem of sorts."
"What kind of small problem, Vala?"
"What I told the boys to do was to meet me."
"No, you didn.t"
"No, you're absolutely right, I didn't."
He jams the walkie against his forehead, moving his lips to mumble the words that he doesn't say. "So, what is it?"
"They shut the gate down for—"
"Vala, they did not—"
"Just shut up and let me talk." His lips shadow more words as he paces around the room, his back towards the door waiting for her to continue. "Have you finished miming mean words at me."
"Yep."
"I've found an alternative mode of transportation back to Earth."
"Vala no—"
"I'll see you soon, darling."
She crashes her cargos ship, stolen of course, into the drill field outside of the mountain at four in the morning. He's already waiting for her, knowing she'll be tumbling from the sky sooner or later because how the hell else is she going to make it back home.
He's sitting on the hood of his jeep, swigging a bottle of beer and he hears the decent of the sputtering ship, kept under cloaking of course, then witnesses the first strike down of the ship, the first bounce, the second strike, the second bounce and until it skids a dark scar into the finely kept field. There's visible smoke billowing from seemingly nothing, and the sound of metal stretching, of engines giving up, then just sizzling.
He chugs back his beer, wipes the back of his hand across his mouth, and sets the bottle on the ground beside the front tire. As he crosses the few yards between vehicles, he hears the side hatch hiss open, black smoke billowing from inside, and she stumbles out, a long gait of foot barely in front of foot, with her arm flung around her mouth coughing up a storm.
"Hi honey," he greets but his voice is terse. There's a visible fire in the back of the ship and as she stumbles towards him, he grabs her by the bicep half guiding her through the smoke, half dragging her away.
"I can explain," she rasps between her coughing.
Directs her away from the smoking heap that the boys in public relations are going to have a field day trying to spin, and opens the passenger door for her, to drive her back to the base for debriefing, and probably a pretty severe reprimand. "Kinda not in the mood to hear it right now, Princess."
"The Lucien Alliance—" she keeps coughing, covering her mouth and attempting to suck in breaths, until he lifts her arms in the air. She inhales shuddering, but deep, and exhales. "Thank you."
"The Lucien Alliance what?"
"They had plans to trail the Stargate back to Earth and send in a bomber." Coughs and clears her throat, her eyes watering just a bit against the glow of the engine fire she started. "Just needed the destination set.
"So, you had to find an alternative way home."
"Exactly."
"It doesn't explain why you left SG-7."
"Cameron, are you really going to tell me that you wouldn't trail two members of the Lucien Alliance on a weapons commerce planet."
She's right, he would, and he feels bad for judging, for letting the who she was when she moonwalked out of the iris and into the mountain almost four years ago still affect what he thinks of her now. Hell, she's proven herself through self-sacrifice almost half a dozen times at this point, but it doesn't mean she didn't break protocol. "You know Landry is going to lose his shit."
"Let him, no one blew up, that's all that matters."
He grins at her and the wreckage crackles just as four army jeeps screech to a halt tearing up more of the pristine grass. Before they notice, she pecks her fingertip and bops him on the nose. Over a dozen men leap out of the vehicle, P-90s drawn at the wreckage and ready to fire.
"Oh, at ease," Vala rolls her eyes and swivels around him, hand on her hips marching towards them.
They train their weapons on her, and when she still treads towards them, he hooks her by the elbow swinging her to stand behind him. "Better do what the lady says, boys