Bring it all Back
Chapter 5
Daniel
Jackson comes back with new information about the Clava Thessara Infinitas and a laundry list of planets that he wants to check. Wants to get started right away, demands they get started right away, trails him in the hallway stumbling through a very lengthy Jackson ramble that he tunes out halfway through and doesn't realize the doctor is still talking until he asks a question.
"Umm, I don't know?"
He ducks into his office to snag his 'to-do' list that he scratched together last night in bed while Vala watched a discovery channel documentary on humpback whales. Her feet thumped into the pillow beside him, the legs of the oversized flannel pajamas she wore tumbled down to her knees. Every few minutes she would crank her head back at him and ask if the whales were real or if it was just an animated movie. He's started arranging a weekend visit to Maine to whale watch in the spring and has no idea how he's going to smuggle her along.
"Mitchell," Daniel still trots behind, still talking. When he takes a hard left to duck out of the way he calls again. "Have you really not been listening to me this whole time?"
"Look, Jackson—" he begins, and this was exactly how he treated Vala for her first few months at the mountain. Avoidance with no direct answers and basically just tearing down the first hallway he saw when she approached from the opposite direction. "The teams are all busy."
"I understand there are important—"
It's not a drastic cause right now. The rock hopping space colony that they finally pulled from San Francisco Bay needs their attention, helping the whiny ass planet after their third cyclone is a priority, securing outposts along the boarder and establishing political relations with foreign planets is important. Treasure hunting after some halfwit former system lord's cache of rubies isn't. "Why don't you sign up to go help on Atlantis, you love it there, Sam's already there and by the time you get back someone will be ready to go with you."
"Why don't you come with me."
"Because, Sunshine, I haven't had a day off in over three months. I'm still working on what needed to be done ten days ago." He flashes his list, which isn't as long as Daniel's, but he can brag that it is way less organized and that his handwriting is worse.
"What about Teal'c"
"He's with SG-9 trying to save our asses against the whiney bastards." Sent Teal'c because he's calmer, less likely to snap when the emperor, or whatever he was, belittles him for his intelligence, or his lack of technological advancement, or his barbaric battle implements. Sent him because when he sends Vala half the time she doesn't come back.
"And Vala?"
"You want to take Vala?" His pen stills on his list because it's Vala's day off today and he knows exactly where she is, waiting in her room for him to finish his morning rounds and paperwork to have lunch, probably reading a book she took out from the library. Maybe she's trying knitting again.
"If it lets me explore a planet that we need in order to defund one of the last remaining system lords today instead of in two weeks, then yes, I'll put up with Vala's prattling."
"Nice words to your future exploring partner."
"So, you'll spare her?"
"You'll have to ask, it's her rest day."
Daniel scoffs, pushing the glasses back up his nose and crossing his arms, the whole thing feels very belittling and he wishes Teal'c were here right now. "We'll be in the gate room in an hour."
Sure enough, he meets them in the gate room, and Vala is lacing up her boots, foot balanced on the wall and knee pushing into her chest because Daniel's taken up the bench with all his science bullshit. He glares at the back of the archaeologist's head, but then grins at her. She grins back, dropping the laces from one of her hands and waving.
"Why are you waving at him?" Daniel glances up from trying to fit too much equipment into one pack and it's going to overflow into hers. Should leave a note on the itinerary for her to chuck her pack if she's being chased.
"Because I haven't seen him yet today." It's a lie, Landry's doing General things in Washington so he got to wake up next to her, a rare occurrence, her body tangled around his, almost laying on top of his, her arm and hair smothering his face. It was perfect.
Daniel squints his eyes at her, and then shoots him a look like he knows something is off, but not what. Not knowing is what's bugging Jackson, not the hands-on approach with the woman he refused one to many times, just the idea of not being able to crack the code.
"Itineraries." He holds out the single piece of paper to each of them, the same set of instructions printed for both, a happy face emoticon included at the end of hers.
"Since when do we have itineraries?" Daniel snatches his, speedreading it before he can answer.
"Since I've got nine teams of guys running around like chickens with their heads cut off." On cue Daniel starts packing the overflow into her bag, she obediently turns her back and her body jolts with the sharp shoves of his hands. He crosses his arms and she rolls her eyes at him. "Your approved for no more than twelve hours."
"Twelve—"
"I'm accompanying Teal'c to a monastery tomorrow to try to forge a partnership."
"You're sending her to a monastery?"
"The monks haven't seen a pretty lady in years, and she's the prettiest here." Daniel doesn't see the way she shies away when truly complimented, doesn't see the red creep into her pale cheeks or her head bow. "That is, unless you'd like to volunteer, Sunshine."
"Twelve hours, got it."
"And check-in every two."
"Two what?"
"Two hours."
"How am I supposed to get any work done if I'm comming you every two hours?"
"Well Daisy here has a penchant for going missing, so Landry wants a check-in from both of you every two hours." Landry doesn't even know he's sending them, told him not to reach out unless it was an Earth attack scale of an emergency. He wants her to check-in, so she actually makes the rendezvous point this time. Wants her to check-in because he knows how she gets around Daniel, thinking with a helpful heart instead of a practical mind. He knows how Daniel gets with her, knows he has value to her, not in the same relationship type value they share, but Daniel was her first friend, might be her best friend and the fact that he treats her like crap sometimes makes him furious if he dwells on it too long.
"After I brought you back that lovely cargo ship," she pouts, and he wants to nip at her lower lip, lift her into the air and rip off the boots she still hasn't finished tying.
"Yeah and the blindness parasite."
"The what?"
Amazingly, they manage to check in every two hours. Well, Vala does.
"Now he's obsessing over some crevice in the wall that he thinks will lead to a secret chamber." He can hear her balled fist against her face in her boredom. Pictures her sitting, maybe filing her nails, maybe grabbing something shiny from the sand and shoving it in her back pocket, while Daniel holds out a book like a dowering rod and tries to make heads or tails of scratches in the rocks.
"I'm not obsessing." Daniel is barely audible, but her sigh doesn't escape his ears. He forgot how these two get when they're together. He worried about playing second fiddle, a part of him still does. Daniel was her first pick, not even pick really, just her first interest, and he'll always have that in the back of his head. But they chose each other, just a natural thing that happened almost a year ago and now the rare nights when he has to sleep alone he's uneasy, misses the shape of her in his bed.
"Darling, you are far beyond obsessing." She scoffs. There's a brief feed of static before her voice picks up again. "Also, I know when there's hidden recesses with treasure abound and I can tell you professionally, that is just a crack in the wall."
"Vala, if you not going to—"
"Cameron, darling, it is just a crack in the wall."
"I'll have to take your professional opinion of it." He scratches down to ask about the crack later. They're due back by 20:00. After debriefing, and the regulatory health checks and a shower, it'll be nearing ten again when he sneaks into her room.
They miss the fifth check-in, the tenth hour one. Maybe that crack really did lead to somewhere. Maybe Daniel's reading aloud an ancient curse bringing zombies to life and Vala is filling each pocket on her BDU outfit full of gold doubloons. A more likely answer is Daniel got mad at her, they forgot to turn off the walkie, and the battery drained.
Half of him chides not to worry about it, they're two of his team members, both have been in the face of danger several times, both have died at least once, he supposed that is kind of reassuring because they've both come back.
He holds his walkie in hand and taps the antennae against his bottom lip. Half of him remembers the last time when he didn't worry about her until it was too late, and she crash-landed in the drill field like the biggest cloud of swamp gas this side of Roswell. He clicks the walkie and opens his mouth but exhales and clicks it off. His fingers tap the table, his shoes tap the floor, the antennae taps his chin and as he motions to speak again her voice rings out.
"Cameron."
"Vala." His answer is too quick.
"We have a problem."
His least favorite sentence. "What kind of problem?"
"I can't particularly explain it to you right now—"
"Vala—"
"But we'll be home soon enough."
"Vala, please tell me you're going to use the stargate."
"Of course, darling, how else would we make it back?"
Waits at the gate starting fifteen minutes before 20:00. Stands astride with his arms crossed and the clipboard digging into his chest. The attendance sheet he has to check off has only two names and he doesn't know why he brought the damn thing down, but it's starting to become a necessary piece of his uniform like a communicator or a passkey.
The gate whirs to life, the iris rippling into place and Vala walks through looking in the same physical health and appearance as she did twelve hours ago, she doesn't smile but pulls that 'we're in trouble' face where her lips disappear, and her eyes grow like saucers. Daniel isn't that far behind her, arguing, he thinks to her, trying to devalue her opinion with his facts, just the usual diatribe.
But then another figure slips through the gate after Daniel, who is also arguing, and wearing a black shirt and BDU pants, who also carries another huge ancient text.
Who is also Daniel.
"There's—" He lifts his hand slowly to the Daniels now walking side by side and arguing in earnest, not even a scholarly debate, more like a schoolyard fight. They lead with the same foot, tilt their heads the same way, tuck the book under the same arm, and both push their glasses up at the same time.
"Oh yeah." She stands beside him, arms crossed mimicking his stance and he read an article at lunch that said couples comfortable with each other will start subconsciously copying each other's actions and she makes him smile. "Welcome to my last four hours in hell."
"How did this happen?"
Cups her hands around her mouth when their arguments evolve to the next level of noisiness. "Hey."
"Vala, was that really—"
"Vala, don't interr—"
"You boys tell Cameron how this happened."
"That's not important right now." The first Daniel sets his text on the ground and stoops to tie his boots.
"Exactly." The second Daniel stoops, grabbing the loose lace of his own shoe and follows suit. "What's important is how to get rid of the copy."
"You're the copy."
"I am not the copy, you are."
"No, you are."
"Noooo. You are."
He whistles with his teeth sinking into his bottom lip, just as he would when he was calling in the cows from pasture back on the farm. Both Daniels stop and rolls their eyes at him, while Vala arches an eyebrow at the hidden talent. "So, you were cloned?"
They both start into a ramble off the explanation and he's never regretted asking a question as much. They start correcting each other, and then trying to discredit the other's perspective. Vala touches his wrist, cold fingers against his pulse to get his attention. "He walked into a room I told him not to, the door slammed behind him and when it opened there was two of him."
Two scoffs come from his left and when he glances back both Daniels have their arms crossed. "Okay, so this is easy, we just find out which one is our Jackson and axe the other one."
"What?"
"What?"
Both Daniels stop in mid argument, their eyes growing large at the threat, and then turn into a narrow-eyed glare. If one Daniel doing this egged him on, two Daniels almost gives him practical reason to draw his gun in defense.
Vala is more openminded than him, maybe because it's Daniel, maybe because she knows what it's like to have her personality and body stolen. "You can't kill the copy."
"Why not? Won't having two Daniels throw the universe out of whack or something?"
"It hasn't so far," the first Daniel argues as the second points a finger at his clone in agreement.
"It's only been four hours," he grumbles. If they both follow him down the hall in the morning asking to visit another laundry list planet, at least they can go together, and probably end up murdering each other in biblical fashion.
"It doesn't matter, they're completely identical in mind and body."
Completely identical in mind and—"In body?"
"Relax, darling," Taps his shoulder gently and both Daniels raise the same questioning eyebrow. She swivels in a small circle around them. If he didn't know better, meaning what the Daniels probably think she's doing is eyeballing them sexually, but he knows her, and knows she's trying to pick out mistakes in the counterfeit. "What I mean is both Daniels have had their appendixes out."
He doesn't want to know. He really doesn't want to know. Asking will only bring pain. Don't ask. "How do you—"
"I've dealt with a Daniel clone before."
"What?" Expects this to be one of those things she jokes about that really shouldn't be a joke, but she passes off as one.
"Mitchell, when Ba'al infiltrated the SGC with his clones."
"Yeah, a clone of me shot O'Neill."
The Daniels continue weaving their story, overlapping details, something about blowing up Ba'al's base, and being on the Sun Tzu. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, where was I?"
"You were on a secret Sodan mission."
"That you refused to drop details of."
It's like having twins. It's like parenting the pair of most annoying twins in the universe.
"You never did tell us what you and Muscles were up to."
They were on vacation. Went to a resort on a high-end planet, visited a casino, saw some shows, learned a few new fighting tips, met some lovely ladies, none lovelier than the one at his side now. "Still classified, Princess." She pouts, and he loves it. "So what are we going to do with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum here?"
"Ha-ha, Mitchell."
"Vala doesn't even get the—"
"Yes, I do, I've read the book."
"When?"
The arguing flares up again, this time with Vala defending herself because she has read the book. Learned about wonderland somehow and he picked her up a copy from a used bookstore and she read him a chapter each night before bed. It is not a children's book. He slaps a hand over his eyes because it has to be nearing if not past 2100 and he just wants to be Daniel free. "I'm just going to shoot one of you."
"Oh, not it." Her hand bursts into the air, and he shoots her a look, a mixture of don't prolong this and I would never shoot you.
"Tomorrow me and, well, me will go back to the planet and see what exactly that device did."
She leans her head against his shoulder, her voice raspy, "Oh Cameron, what if four of them come back?"
"No. We're done talking today. Debriefing over, go get Lam to check you over. We'll deal with this tomorrow." He juts a thumb to the door and the Daniels start up again before they even leave the gate room. If push comes to shove he can exile one of them to Atlantis. "But if the universe starts to go to crap before then, I'm shooting a Daniel."