Oi! Finally ffn cooperates with me and let me upload. Whee! So anyway, to apologize for not updating this in so long, this chapter is long. :) Now that I'm done with "Arrows of Fire", this is all I'm working on, so I will update regularly. :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please tell me if you like it! I'd love to know what you all think of this story sop far. Thanks!

Chapter 3

Bands played, the people of Naboo cheered--Human and Gungan alike--and peace was declared. Then, of course, there was that entirely obvious look passed between Queen Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, but soon after that the credits rolled, the singing cutting to the end title theme of Star Wars. Daniel glanced down at Janet, who had fallen asleep against him, and then up to see Travis grinning over at them in amusement. Something about the expression made his brain start to form a parallel between what he'd just seen in a brief moment on the movie and the present--but he immediately stopped it from continuing--ridiculous.

Vala stood and quietly put the DVD away and turned off the electronics; light from the kitchen came them enough brightness to still see. Travis stood as well, and helped her bring the empty ice cream bowls to the kitchen.

Daniel secured Janet in his arms and got up as well, groaning a bit. She had already grown over three inches just since this time last year, and with that came more weight--not to mention that at the moment it was all dead weight, since she was asleep. And Daniel wasn't as young as he used to be.

Vala came back into a living room a moment later as Daniel made for the stairs with Janet in his arms, and immediately came over to him, frowning.

"Daniel, what are you doing? You'll hurt yourself doing that; just wake her up long enough to get her upstairs," she said softly.

"There's no reason to do that. She's not that heavy, Vala," Daniel protested quietly, shifting her weight. He was lying, of course--but he had his pride to maintain. "What?" he asked, smirking a bit. "You wouldn't have even said anything last year."

She crossed her arms. "Yes, but that was before her growth spurt, and last year you weren't developing a bad knee, either."

Daniel winced. "You have to continue to remind me that I'm turning into Jack O'Neill…" he muttered. He was already just a couple of years shy of the age Jack had been when he'd left SG-1. He sighed. "Look, I've already got her; I'm fine."

Vala stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "All right. You get her to bed then. I'll be in the kitchen. Travis offered to help do the dishes we messed up with junk food tonight."

Daniel smiled. "That's nice. He's good kid." She nodded in agreement, then headed back toward the kitchen, and Daniel started up the stairs. But halfway up the steps, something happened.

Daniel gasped as sudden pain clamped like a vise around his chest and the rest of his torso. Grunting, he lowered to his knees on the stairs and set Janet down on the step in front of him before he dropped her. Another wave of pain came, and he leaned heavily against wall, eyes clenching shut.

What's happening? He thought in panic. I can't be having a heart attack! Pain swept over the entire middle section of his body, and he knew that wasn't it. It was something…else. He heard something in front of him, movement, and then a hand on his shoulder. A small, worried voice penetrated his pain-clouded brain.

"Dad? Daddy??"

"-'m here," he grunted out.

"Daddy, what's wrong?" Janet asked, voice rising. "Daddy?"

Daniel opened his mouth to give some kind of answer, something to keep that painful worried tone out of his daughter's voice, but another swift rush of agony doubled him over. He felt Janet's arm catch him and hold him up partially, enough to keep him from toppling down the stairs.

"MOM!" she screamed. "Mom, Travis, HELP!"

Over the roaring in his ears Daniel could just make out pounding footsteps come toward the stairs and then up them behind him.

"Daniel!"

"Doctor Jackson!"

The two worried voices came at once, and then someone was helping him sit back up more, back against the wall again. Then Vala's gentle hands were holding him up, one of them stroking his forehead, pushing back the hair there and calling his name.

"-niel. Daniel, what is it, what's wrong?

"I don't kn-ow," he gasped. Then the world faded out.

Vala and Janet caught Daniel when he slumped again. Vala pushed him back up, but his eyes were closed and his face slack.

"Daniel, come on," she gulped, shaking him a bit.

"Mom, what's going on??" Janet questioned, fear in her small blue eyes. Vala looked at her but didn't have time to answer before Daniel woke again and gasped. He sagged against the wall, moaning once.

Travis's eyes were wide. "Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel turned his head to look at them, but his expression was taut with pain.

"What hurts?" Vala pressed worriedly. He didn't answer, just sucked in a sharp breath and wrapped his arms around his chest.

"That's not good…" Travis commented with concern. Abruptly he stood on the stairs and started down. "I'll call 911--"

"Mom…"

"No wait," Vala stopped him. The teen stopped and looked at her a bit strangely, but for reasons of national security she couldn't explain why she didn't want him to do that. "We...we don't have time for that. Just help me get him to the car and I'll bring him to the emergency room." Of course, it wouldn't be the emergency room, but the SGC--or straight to Carolyn. "Can you stay here with the kids?"

Travis nodded a little hesitantly, but only because whatever was happening was probably scaring the heck out of the kid.

"But mom--"

Vala turned quickly back to her daughter. "But 'buts', Janet. You're staying here." She turned back to Travis, who was already back up the steps helping her lift a groaning Daniel off the stairs. "Thank you."

"No problem," the teen gulped.

With one of his arms over each of their shoulders, Vala and Travis got Daniel into the back seat of her car and laid him down. Janet brought Vala's purse out to her as she climbed into the driver's seat.

"Charlie is asleep upstairs, so he shouldn't be a problem, just look in on him every now and then; Janet can show you where he is, and I'm sure between the two of you you can figure out what to do if he starts crying, but he should be all right," Vala supplied in rush, fumbling to get the key into the hole and be heard over Daniel's moans and shaking breaths.

Janet stood by Travis just outside the open car door listening to this, eyes brimming with tears by now. "Mom, Daddy's going to be right, won't he?"

Vala nodded quickly, reached out and pulled her daughter to her. "He'll be fine. Don't worry about us, all right?" Janet hugged back tightly and then let go, casting a worried glance at her father in the backseat before letting her mother kiss her cheek and getting out of the way so she could shut the car door.

Vala pulled out, and once the house was out of sight she spoke.

"Daniel, are you all right back there?" she asked, looking at him in the rearview mirror.

"Stupid question," he hissed. He was already half doubled over again, breath coming hard and sometimes rapidly, interspersed with grunts and moans.

"Do you have any idea what this is?" she queried.

"Yeah…but couldn't say so...back there," Daniel gasped.

"What?" Vala said, voice rising.

"Something to do with…something off-world."

"That's it? That's the theory?" she asked in disbelief. "You've got to have more than that--some kind of idea about a specific planet or thing that would do this, whatever this is."

"In case you haven't noticed I'm not in a position to think right now, Vala!" he almost shouted in return, quickly in a rush just to get the words out before the next moan became a partial shout of pain.

Vala's hands tightened on the steering wheel. She swallowed hard, tears stinging her eyes. "Just hold on," she told him, pulling her cell phone from her purse. She dialing the Mitchell's number, and after several rings a very groggy Cameron Mitchell answered.

"'Ello?" he asked sleepily.

"Cameron, this is Vala. I need to talk to Carolyn--now."

"Okay…just a second…" he trailed off and moved away from the phone. There was an annoyed feminine groan in background, and the rustling of bedsheets, and a moment later Carolyn's voice came over the line.

"Is there something about the name 'Jackson' that makes a person enjoy waking me up at all hours of the night?"

Vala huffed. "Look, Carolyn, I'm sorry, but we've got an emergency here."

"All right, I'm sorry, what is it?" she asked, suddenly all business.

"Daniel."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"That's not funny. He's in pain, Carol, and a lot of it, and we don't know why."

"What kind? Where?"

Vala pulled the phone away from her face and glanced back at her husband. "Daniel, what hurts? How bad is it?"

He groaned. "Everything from my shoulders to my waist--and bad." Vala repeated that into the phone to their doctor and friend, who sighed.

"Any other symptoms?"

"No, not that I know of."

"All right, our house it between yours and the SGC, right? Stop by here first and let me look at him. Right now I can't tell any more than you can. That doesn't sound like anything normal."

"Tell me about it," Vala gulped. "That's why I had to get him out of the house. We had a guest over who doesn't know about the stargate." She hear Carolyn start to say something else, but then realized she was about to miss the turn to the Mitchell's house, and swerved.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, just headed your way. We'll be there in about five minutes."

"All right, I'm hanging up then. I'll be ready," Carolyn told her. "Will you need help getting Daniel in the house?"

"Probably."

"Okay, Cam'll come out to help." With that, Carolyn hung up, and Vala shoved the cell phone back in her purse. With her ears not focused on listening to Carolyn anymore, Daniel's harsh breathing assaulted her ears again. She took a deep breath to keep her voice from shaking.

"Daniel, how are you doing back there?"

"-'m alive," he grunted. Vala glanced at him in the mirror again and saw that he was completely curled in on himself now.

"We're going to Cameron and Carolyn's house first, all right? We're almost there." She saw him nod, then turned her full attention back to the road. Not soon enough, the Mitchell's house came into view. The downstairs lights were already on. Vala pulled into the driveway, shut off the engine and jumped out. By the time she got around to the other back door of the vehicle, Cameron was already out the front door of the house and headed her way to help. He was still in t-shirt and pajama pants, and his hair was sticking up in every way possible, but his eyes were wide and alert.

Cameron helped Vala pull Daniel out of the car, and support as they made their way back to the house to Daniel's gasps and moans.

"Daniel, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" the colonel mussed.

"Cam—shut up," Daniel hissed, eyes clenched tight.

"Sorry…" the other man gulped, looking at him with genuine concern.

Carolyn met Vala and Cameron at the door and opened it for them, then closed it behind them once they had Daniel in, and led them to the living room where she instructed them to put him on the couch. Vala worked with Cameron to gently lower her husband to the sofa, then crouched beside it and took his hand. Daniel hair and face were damp with sweat by now, and when his eyes did open they looked bleary and glazed with pain.

"Daniel, can you hear me?" Vala asked. She gulped as she rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. He nodded weakly.

Cameron, who had gotten out of the way, leaned on the back of the couch looking down at Daniel worriedly and sharing glances with his wife, who went around to the front next to Vala and leaned over Daniel. She checked his pulse and looked him over while Cam and Vala waited anxiously. Finally she straightened and crossed her arm, lips pursing into a frustrated line.

"I can't find anything obviously wrong with him right now, but then again we're not at the SGC. We'll have to take him there," she said, looking rather concerned. She looked at Vala. "You were right to assume whatever's going on isn't usual to earth.

Vala squeezed Daniel's hand, and he squeezed back. His eyes were closed again, and his chest was still heaving in pain, but he was hearing them. Carolyn crouched down beside Vala for a moment and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Daniel, listen to me. We're going to bring you to the SGC, but before we go, I can give you a sedative. Since we don't know exactly what this is, that could be a little dangerous. Though I haven't seen anything to indicate it would be, it's still slightly risky, but if you want it, I'll give it to you." The doctor glanced up at Vala for a moment, and she nodded, telling her it was all right with her if Daniel wanted it. Vala knew Carolyn knew what she was doing; she trusted her. She wouldn't have even suggested it if there had been too much danger.

Vala squeezed Daniel's hand again to communicate her thought process to him as well, and he tightened his grip as well and held on. She saw him nod, but he didn't open his eyes. The pain was getting worse.

Carolyn saw his answer, nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

"Where's she going?" Vala asked.

"The back room," Cameron answered, looking after her. "She keeps a locked cabinet of stuff back there for emergencies and stuff, like in case she gets called out somewhere and doesn't have time to get to the SGC for supplies." He turned back to her and winced a bit. "Or for something like this."

A couple of minutes later Carolyn returned with a syringe and came back to the front of the couch. She knelt beside Vala again, and warned Daniel that she had the drug, and asked him again to make sure it was all right with him. This time he pried opened his eyes to nod, and when Vala saw the amount of pain in his eyes, she couldn't have been more relieved that in a moment he wouldn't have to feel it anymore.

Carolyn carefully injected the sedative, and as she slipped the needle back out of his skin, Daniel's eyes were already shut again. Vala held onto his hand as his breathing slowly eased and the tension in his body and face lessened. She felt him give one more small squeeze before his grip went slack, and the up and down of his chest lapsed into the slow, steady rhythm of sleep.