Bring it all Back
Chapter 18
Chicken Toe
Had every intention of it being a normal day. They have reservations at a nice restaurant downtown because it's their three-year anniversary. Three years and he doesn't want to be cliched and think where has the time gone, but then in their line of work something could be sapping time from them.
He groans, his thigh hurting a bit from sitting too long, stretches his leg out without getting up from the chair, foot sneaking out from underneath his desk. He's reading through the mission reports from yesterday, Vala and the Wonder Twins went to another ruin searching for more clues to the Clava Thessara junk and came back with a little more than a few pictures of ancient text on walls, and something that looks like a chicken foot made out of brass. It has a few cogs in it and looks like it might be a time piece. The Jacksons didn't have time between missions to figure out what it was, but it's not showing up on any radiation meters, and doesn't seem to be omitting anything harmful.
When he pulls the plastic bag tighter against the chicken foot, he can see there's a missing claw, only thee instead of four with a space in between. Vala did yank it out of her jacket pocket at the last minute and when they gave her the same unsurprised look, she shrugged and said she almost forgot it before it poked her in the thigh.
It's nearing 1800, time for him to check in with Dr. Lee about the new time dilation weapon he's been working on. It's been his project for the last year and during the latest trials on snails he managed to slow them down—he thinks. Then he's got a meeting with Lam to make sure she's prepared to vaccinate all the teams that visit the cyclone planet making them a little less conductive. Has no idea why O'Neill agreed to continue in their planetary aid, but he's far too tired, too preoccupied to care. Just keeps sending Teal'c and Rodriguez back until they tell him otherwise.
Also has to read through a rough draft of the Alien Act Landry and the IOA are working so closely together on. It's about the size of two and a half phonebooks, and he's just going to try to pawn it off on the Jacksons when they get back.
But first he knocks on O'Neill's door, it's Landry's door really, but O'Neill is filling in and someone forgot to tell him Sam was taking a journey on the Odyssey for the next two months, because he arrived pissed and is still pissed.
He doesn't wait for an answer, just opens the door, to relieve his armful of mission reports and the weird chicken leg thing.
"Mitchell," O'Neill greets him without glancing up from what he thinks is last week's mission reports but is actually the newspaper's weekend crossword puzzle.
"Here's the mission reports from yesterday." O'Neill nods towards his overflowing in box, as he fills in another answer, so he tosses down the chicken foot. "And the loot they brought back."
"Gross." The general pokes at it with the end of his pen, then nudges it along until it sits to the side.
They stand in an awkward silence for a few seconds and he juts his thumb to the door. "I've got to go visit Lee before SG-1 returns from—"
"Actually, while I have you here, can you stay put on base tonight?"
"Can't tonight, Sir, I actually have plans."
"Yeah, I saw that you signed Mal Doran out for what—" he snatches out a piece of paper from the middle of the inbox pile, finger counting while scaling down a column "—the fourth time this week, or the fifteenth time this month, you guys must be really good friends, huh?"
"I know what it looks like—"
"Me too." O'Neill scratches a new word over an answer he's filled in at least twice by now, the pen almost tears through the paper. "It looks like you'll both be staying on base tonight."
He's a little pissed, reserved the restaurant over two months ago. Wanted her to feel special because it seems like every time she goes on a date with anyone it ends up badly. She's probably been looking forward to it all day, juggling the Jacksons and translating Goa'uld in a hot, humid cave covered in dirt and all sweaty and he realizes that he hasn't been paying attention to a single thing Dr. Lee has been telling him.
The doctor glances up with dipping eyebrows and his hands fastened to the large, oversized weapon. "So, you understand, right Colonel Mitchell."
There's a beat before he knows he should answer, defensively he crosses his arms and gives a stern nod. "Of course."
"Good. Good." Dr. Lee lets out a breath of relief and wipes the back of his sweat soaked forehead with the sleeve of his lab coat. "I'll give you my report before the conference tomorrow."
"Ugh." He turns towards the door knowing that the Wonder Twins and Vala are due back any minute which takes precedence over some conference he hasn't heard of before now. "Sure thanks."
"Great." Dr. Lee nods and gives him the thumbs up and he tries not to think about what he could've possibly gotten himself into.
Runs into the room as the gate bursts to life and two Jacksons march through. Two Jacksons and that's it. He waits, he doesn't know why he waits, but by the time the Jacksons are over to him he knows what's happening.
"Tell me the problem."
"Apparently Vala's been to this planet before and didn't remember it." Daniel One huffs from the side of his mouth.
Daniel Two yanks of his glasses and produces a cloth to clean them with. "She didn't actually remember until she was being arrested."
"So, she's in jail. Again."
"Again"
"And Again."
"Then go back and get her out." Speaks through a clenched jaw.
"We tried Mitchell."
"We hit a block."
They drop their packs and begin removing the contents, including the currency they took in the very unusual occurrence that Vala get thrown in jail. "Didn't you have enough money?"
"It wasn't that—"
"The planet is very superstitious of twins."
He snorts back a laugh, keeping his composure because the Jacksons still have to go back to drop off her bail. "Did you…tell them…that you weren't twins?"
"Yes. Of course."
"They didn't believe us."
"Well, can you blame them?" Both look very unhappy with his ribbing because they want nothing more than to be seen as separate people despite having the same everything. "What's the plan for retrieval then?"
"She can retrieve herself."
"What?"
"The jail isn't a dungeon and it's certainly not high security."
"She'll be back by the end of the day."
Sure enough nearing 2400 he gets commed to the gate room for an off-world activation and she looks awful. She's covered in dirt and sweat like he thought, but she's guarding her left arm and is limping a bit down the ramp.
"What happened?" He slides an arm around her back to help, but the pressure of his shoulder against her arm makes her hiss. "Broken arm?"
"Dislocated shoulder. I'm sorry, I'm just a bit—" she pants and he directs her to the bench at the back of the room. She hobbles and falls into place with a gasp of pain. He tries to assess her injuries, as professionally as possible. There's a deep cut on her one leg, and her ankle is almost swollen over the top of her shoes.
"High class jail my ass." Holds her hand as he rolls her pant leg back down.
"What, darling?" Her face is wet and shiny and red as she breaths deeply and she might be on the brink of passing out.
"Get medical to the gate room now."
Dr. Rix stiches up her leg and resets her shoulder. Her ankle turned out to be a bad roll, at least that's the first thing she tells him when she hobbles into his room at 0130.
"I didn't have time for a shower." She warns as he helps her, actually swoops her, towards the edge of his bed.
"Doesn't matter." He wiggles off her boots and tugs off her socks. Directs her arm out of her sling holding the weight in his hand as he slowly peels her black t-shirt, heavy with sweat and it slaps to the floor. Lets her shimmy out of her pants while he turns down the bed. "Heating pad or ice pack?"
"Ice pack." Cradles her arm to her chest and kicks away her remaining clothes.
Throws the sheets back for her, cracking the ice pack a little too early making his hands go numb. She settles with some difficulty beside him, her body turned against him, injured leg thrown over his, and rests on her uninjured shoulder. He sets the ice pack on her shoulder and she shivers shuffling against him. She smells like earth and sweat.
"Oh," she pops awake seconds before falling into a complete sleep and pecks a kiss to his jaw. "Happy Anniversary, Darling."
"Happy Anniversary."
When he wakes she's not in his room. It's a little before six and he's running a bit late to the debriefing meeting of the botched mission. Manages to get in a quick shower, the locker room oddly full for a Saturday morning when most privates have leave, and then jogs to the cafeteria to grab an awful coffee and muffin before the meeting. Expects to see her among the room packed for breakfast but can't find her in the crowd. He bags his muffin, she probably had an early check-up with Dr. Lam, so he jogs back up two storeys.
"Morning." Lam greets him as he pops through the door before it's fully slid open. He's holding a Styrofoam cup full of thick black liquid they're pulling off as coffee, but it smells more like tar and something illegal. A quick scan of the room reveals that she's not here either. Maybe she got to the meeting before him. Lam must notice his confusion. "Looking for someone?"
"Oh, I just thought maybe Vala snuck in here early for a check-up." Knows she can't reveal any private information but maybe asking if she's been there is basic enough.
"No." Lam shakes her head and sets a folder onto a metal desk, flipping through it briefly. "She hasn't been here. I didn't know she was back."
"Yeah, she came back late last night, about midnight."
"Did she get her health check-up?"
"Yeah as soon as she got through the gate, she was pretty banged up." Turns to leave because she's probably either slept through her alarm if they gave her sedatives or couldn't sleep at all and beat him to the conference room.
Lam shakes her head again. "I've got the logs here from yesterday and there's nothing from her."
"You sure?" Stops so fast his coffee sloshes, thick liquid beading drops onto his skin, burning a bit.
"Yep, log for Thursday—"
"Oh no, it was Friday."
"What."
"She came back yesterday."
"That was Thursday."
"No, it wasn't. It was Friday."
"Cam." Her face very straight without a hint of playfulness. "Today is Friday."
"No, it's Saturday."
She holds out her arms to the office and scoffs. "If it's Saturday why am I working. I get weekends off remember?"
"Yeah but—" Glances down to his watch the ticker tape numbers read that it's Friday the twelfth. "Okay but I swore—maybe it was just a dream then." Pauses and when he turns his arm more coffee spills onto the floor. It was so real, the coldness on his hands from the icepack, the slickness from her sweat and blood, "I gotta go."
"Are you feeling all right?" Lam takes a few steps forward, her lab coat swaying. "Been sleeping and eating okay?"
"Fine Carolyn, I just, I gotta go."
Runs, doesn't jog, to his office where after he juggles a coffee and a muffin, he gets the door open. The chicken foot in a bag stops him. Either he's got some new cool powers, or he's been here before.
"General O'Neill did you put this back on my desk?" He holds the chicken foot in a plastic bag, still as he remembered it, dried, very thin bronze with three tines, one broken off and missing.
"Ew, get it off." O'Neill exclaims as he pushes it away from the crossword on his desk. The same word written over only once. "The hell is wrong with you, Mitchell?"
"I think I'm reliving the same day."
"Get your own plotlines." O'Neill nudges the chicken foot into his inbox and flaring his nostrils in disgust. "By the way I'm gonna need you to—"
"Yeah, yeah me and Vala will stay on base tonight," mumbles and turns for the door.
"What's this about you and Vala?" O'Neill yells after him but is probably more interested in the crossword puzzle.
Skips his meeting with Dr. Lee and has Walter comm the Jacksons and Vala off-world telling them to return early.
"Why does Mitchell want us back so early—"
"He agreed to let us have until six o'clock."
"Look Sunshines." He grabs the microphone from Walter who throws his hands up in protest but then just sighs. "Vala there with you?"
"I'm here, darling, explain away."
"I need you all back here now."
"Is it an emergency?" Whichever Jackson it is sounds pissed.
"Consider it one."
"You can't just tell them it's an emergency without it being—"
"If they stayed, Vala might be found out, this planet should've been on her blackgate list, but the girl must've missed it." Leans over the console watching as the gate whirs to life. It's been twenty-five minutes, the longest twenty-five minutes of his damn life.
"What girl?"
"The office assistant."
"Oh she's really sweet, she brought in cupcakes for—"
Daniel One runs through the gate, followed by Daniel Two carrying Vala, she's ragdolled in his arms and there's blood all over his BDU jacket.
"No." Doesn't realize he's saying it, doesn't realize what he's doing until Walter is calling for medical.
He takes off down the stairs, two at a time, and the clomp to the ground sends a irradiating pain up his thigh. He runs over to where Daniel Two lays her against the bench, her arms, her shirt covered in blood, and he counts four entry holes before one of the Daniels forces down a towel to stem the bleeding.
Her shaky hand reaches up for him. "Darling."
"I'm here, baby, I'm right here." The Daniels are gone, Walter is gone, the random privates witnessing their reunion are gone.
"I wasn't—I wasn't fast enough and—" There's a gurgle in the back of his throat and he can feel each beat of his heart, his hands go numb, but this time there's no icepack, just her hand.
Wants to tell her it'll be okay because the med team is on their way and they'll take her and patch her up and he'll have her out dancing by the end of the week.
But she's bled through the towel.
She's shaking.
She's so cold and starting to fall asleep.
"Vala." Bends on his knees, his thigh ache no longer matters as he moves in closer and she smells like sweat and blood and earth. "Listen, just stay awake. Please you can't—"
"It's all right," her voice is soft and reassuring as the Jacksons scream orders at privates around them, pure chaos and through it she manages to peck the tip of her index finger and reach for his nose. He has to finish the action for her because she falls short. It makes him laugh as the first tears fall and when she doesn't respond he touches her face, light, then heavy handed.
She doesn't respond.
The med team has to pry him away.
They were ambushed on their way back to the gate. Vala pushed the Jacksons ahead allowing them to work the DHD as she covered them, but there were too many officers. Daniel Two said it was like a firing squad.
She's had the blood cleaned up off her, and the machine removed from the tube in her mouth. Her skin is very white in the already bright room, and she looks small, smaller than he's ever seen her. Her hair has blood clumped in it, and some dried leaves and a small stick. Her fingernails are painted a deep purple and are caked with dirt.
He sits, alone, in the cold room with her laying on the table, blood no longer running from her body, and he cries. He holds her hand, icepack cold and holding a phantom kiss for him and he cries until his eyes are dry.
He cries until he gets a headache
Cries until he can't breathe.
This is his hell.
This is his nightmare.
This is him sending her out on a normal recon mission with the Jacksons and her not coming back.
Never coming back.
Her clothes are still in his bottom dresser drawer because it's easier for her to crouch than it is for him, also sometimes he gets a good view of her ass. There are plants in his backyard that she put there, and leftovers in his fridge for her.
When he starts to fall asleep, he shimmies the stool forward so he can lay his head against her chest and pray for her heartbeat, but it's silent, everything around him is silent and white and cold.
Vala is gone.
He is not.
And he failed her in everyway possible.
He wakes up in his bed the next day, his eyes still pained from crying and his face looks like shit. Doesn't know what to do. Stay in bed all day. Quit. Take an extended leave of absence as he drinks himself into a stupor and starts to see hallucinations of her. It's 0500 and he doesn't change out of his pajamas, which is against protocol, and he walks the hallways like a zombie with shuffling feet inside hard soled slippers.
The door whooshes open to the medical bay and he finds Lam yawning, siting perched at a stool and typing up things onto her very white computer. She startles a bit when she notices him, "Cam, oh my God, you look awful."
"Where is she?" The doors slide closed behind him and he shuffles to the room they put her in last night, after they pulled him away, after both Jacksons had to keep hold of him because he kept trying to return to her.
"Where is who?"
"Goddammit." His fist pounds the desk and her coffee jitters, sending drops all over the floor. She gasps and pushes back until she hits the filing cabinet and he stops because she wouldn't want him to act this way. Rubs his aching eyes with cold, coarse fingers. "I'm sorry, I just want to see Vala before you move her."
"Vala?' When he doesn't respond her eyebrows droop in concern. "Cam, Vala's still planet side, she's not due back until 1800—"
He's out of the room before she finishes.
Calls them back at 0600 as an emergency which Walter still doesn't understand. They make it through the gate by 0630 and by 0631 he's got her in the biggest bear hug in front of half a dozen privates, both Jacksons, and Walter. Before she can protest he grabs her hand and drags her out of the gate room back to his dorm and he can barely keep his hands off her before the door shuts behind them.
"Cameron, darling, while I'm not one to—oh." His hand skirts up the length of her thighs and stroking her through day old BDU pants. "Did you really—oh—did you really—fuck it."
He doesn't remember much about the rest of that day, only that General O'Neill manages to catch them in bed together, probably because of his uncharacteristic unprofessionalism, and he gets suspended without pay, Vala is suspended without pay and while he's forced to leave the base for that time, she's grounded within it.
But at least she's alive.
Wakes up in his bed on base the next day.
And the next.
And the next until he loses count and he doesn't know what the hell happened but he's lived so many lifetimes in one day.
It took him three weeks to read through all the paperwork that Landry sent him on the Alien Act and so far it's a little unjust, certain religious rights and freedoms being denied here and there under extenuating circumstance, he knows the words and the law gibberish inside and out. Not that savvy with law, but he knows how to use Google.
Finds out what Lee was actually talking about with his time dilation gun and thought that the weapon was making him relive the same day, day after day, without aging without anything on his body changing save for the constant ache in his thigh. Turns out Lee's weapon was sort of a bust, and the doctor asked him to get Sam to present it at a conference Saturday, so Lee could have the night off to be with his wife.
Speaking of Sam, he got her on the horn more than once to talk some sense into a very grumpy general who was not happy being stuck on babysitting duty without his partner in crime. Didn't hear what she said to O'Neill over the phone, but nine times out of ten it straightens him out. On the tenth time he hangs up the phone before even listening to her by saying, "Oops, my finger slipped."
The Jacksons and Vala are a little more tricky. He doesn't have the same timeline with them as he does with everyone else. If he gets them out before 0700 they're all fine but then he has to explain why he cut the mission early and everyone just assumes it's so he and Vala can have sex, which is right ninety-nine percent of the time. Twice she's calmed him and let him reclaim his senses.
Between 0701 and 1100 if he calls them back., Vala dies painfully in a riddle of bullets and he's seen it enough that it wakes him up at night despite living the same day.
From 1101 to 1500 if he calls them back, one of the Jacksons dies, which doesn't seem like quite a loss, but he's seen her reaction to it, which is hard to bear when the day before he was reacting the same way to her death.
If he calls them back between 1501 and 1800, both Jacksons die, and he's had to view the anguish on her face enough times to last however many days they have left remaining together. Laid beside her in bed as she sat upright, her whole body shaking, her arms capturing her knees and rocking and gasping until she's so exhausted that she lets him hold her, calm her until the sobs raking her body slow into a gentle sleep.
The Jacksons appear through the gate at 1801, and they're Vala-less because he's let the normal day run its course. But he's prepared because he's going off book today, had Vala draw up plans to the jail in previous days and now he knows it inside out. It's tattooed into his memory and he brings only the weapons she suggested with an amused laugh.
"Let me guess." Brushes by the Jacksons as they tilt their heads in confusion at him. "Vala's in jail. Again. Again again. Again again again. Again to the last degree because I'm tired of this shi—"
And through the gate he goes.
There are no cops or guards waiting for him because he's not a wanted man on the planet. Always assumed the gate was in the middle of a wooded area with a huge hike to civilization, but it's almost in a city square of sorts. It's very bright with light gray stone reflecting direct sunlight and children running around with dog-like animals playing in puddles from a recent rain. There are vendors trying to peddle goods, and women meeting for tea at open cafes. Vala would love it here if they didn't already arrest her.
Walks straight, following her instructions playing in his head that she offered up one night while sitting in his lap and tugging on his ear with her lips. There's a hard right and then the street sort of banks in to the left where a small prison sits up on a hill, surrounded by guards and a large electric fence.
"Sorry, Sir, no outside guests allowed in." The guard at the gate offers him a friendly grin leaning against his tasing pole like a cane.
He grabs his SGC ID from around his neck, yanking so the lanyard breaks and hands it to the guard. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell from Stargate Command, Earth. I'm here to collect one of my wayward soldiers." It is entirely an understatement.
The guard assesses his ID, then his face, then mumbles something into the communicator located on the sash around his armor. Walking away from the gate for more privacy. A few moments later he walks back and nods with approval, opening the gate.
Inside he has to hand over his weapon, the one Vala told him to bring, a simple sidearm and the warden or chief is so surprised SGC sent someone to retrieve her, that he steps carefully down a spiral staircase before the cell area to meet with him.
"I need to take her back." Cuts right to the chase because he knows if he leaves her for much longer she's going to start fidgeting and dislocate her shoulder breaking out of her cuffs, then tear her leg open hopping the wall, and roll her ankle falling on it badly on the other side.
"I completely understand that Colonel Mitchell." The warden is an older man with a big moustache and very thick white hair. "But she needs to serve time for all the objects she pilfered."
"Can I take her if I pay you the monetary amount for the objects lost."
"Well, I suppose so but—"
"What's the amount."
"It's quite expensive, Colonel Mitchell."
"Which is?"
"In Tau'ri coin? Perhaps five thousand dollars."
He almost laughs, almost laughs until he's red-faced at the kind old man who doesn't know he has almost another fifty thousand dollars stashed away on him to break his girlfriend out of jail again. Manages to keep a straight face and throws some extra bills on the table. "That's six thousand, an extra grand for any trouble she's caused you since getting arrested."
The warden's eyes light up as he hurriedly collects the money, stammering something to the guards to let him retrieve her at once. "She must be very precious to stargate command."
He stands waiting for the guards to open the cellblock door and half grins. "She's irreplaceable."
They've shackled her to the wall, which he understands because this is Vala, she's pretty much the David Copperfield of the universe, but it doesn't make him any less bitter. The guards disengage the door, which is more of an energy shield, and it disappears.
The guards hesitate before entering the cell.
"You do something to them, princess?"
"Not recently."
They press buttons on a panel to the side, breaking down the forcefield and the energy beams acting as shackles. She topples to the ground, her legs giving out briefly as she rubs her wrists. "How much did I cost you this time, darling?"
"Only five grand, your stock has really plummeted." The guards watch as he approaches her crumpled on the ground and offers her a hand to help her stand. "A bad fiscal quarter."
"I expect to make it up in sales." She dusts the shoulders off his jacket and grins. "Hello handsome."
"Later." He hums well aware of the guards watching their every move. "Can you walk?"
When she takes a step her legs almost give out and he catches her. "Eventually."
He ends up piggybacking her to the gate, her idea not his, and her hands keep sliding up to cover his eyes at the worst times, but then he hears her giggle, and remembers how cold her body felt all the times it was laid out in Lam's lab and he lets her. She relaxes her head against his shoulder while they bounce through town and through his BDUs he feels her sigh.
"You okay?"
"That was the first jail full of gentlemen I've ever encountered." Catches the meaning, relieved that she's not hurt. He stops before the DHD and lets her squirm down his back, but something catches him, like a nail in his ass.
"God, what the hell was that." He rubs the area in question getting a very amused smirk from her.
She digs through the front pocket of her jacket, the one she never brought back because she either left it in a hurry after he demanded their return to the SGC, or she left it in jail after breaking out. "Oh, it's this piece from that scrawny little fork I brought back yesterday."
He almost laughs at the word yesterday.
The last tine fits in the fork perfectly and the Jacksons reassure him, with Sam on the line, still giving shit to O'Neill when she knows he's rolling his eyes, that he should stop being in a time loop now, that the piece just needed to be reunited and he forgets they're talking about the chicken foot for a second.
The restaurant is perfect, a quiet little place tucked into the back of a renovated warehouse. Big bay windows that leak in sunlight and the industrial look sort of works with the lacy tablecloths and tealight candles. Their table is the perfect size, enough to fit them both, the food is great, they share an appetizer and when she asks to get three different types of martinis he obliges, but she quickly plays it off as a joke.
For dessert there is a pie, a whole pie that he got from her favorite bakery just for her. If he was smart enough he would've thought ahead and buried a ring in it but knowing her huge bites and love of pie she would've just eaten it.
They end the night on his bed, watching zoo bloopers on the Animal Channel, she's reclining on top of the sheets when he exits the bathroom, wearing a tank top hiked to just under her breasts and a pair of panties, her stomach overfull with food.
"You need to pace yourself better, honey." Tosses his shirt into the hamper and yanks his pants off before crawling under the covers.
She groans at the waving movement of the mattress. "You were going to let me have three martinis."
He shrugs, "You wanted three martinis, who am I to deny you that. It's your anniversary."
"It's your anniversary too." Her hand flops to his head tickling through his hair as she grins at him, half awake and very satiated.
"Yeah well—" he clicks off the light and falls back beside her, pulling the blankets up over her and nuzzling his nose at her neck. His arm wrapping around her as she shivers into him. "Drunk Vala is fun too."
"Mmm," she doesn't sound convinced but holds her hand to his cheek. "Happy anniversary, darling."
"Happy anniversary, princess."
The next morning he wakes up in bed next to her, and he closes his eyes to go back to sleep.