Hi guys! Sorry it took me so long to update. We went on a trip again...down south to visit family. So anyway, I'm back now, and back for the rest of the summer so things shouldn't go so slow anymore. I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review so I know what you think so I can continue! Thanks! Oh yes, and if the lines are completely screwed up on this chapter, I'm really sorry. My computer was not cooperating with me today...

Chapter 6

Cameron Mitchell looked up first when Daniel and Vala walked into the 'gate room, where the rest of their team was already gathered.

"And, here come the Jacksons, last to arrive as usual," the colonel smiled.

"We're not late, are we?" Daniel asked.

"No, but you're not early, either," O'Neill offered.

"Thanks for the update, Jack."

"No problem."

Daniel looked to Mitchell again. "Did you catch Carolyn?"

Cameron shrugged. "Yeah, she came in about half an hour ago. She knows what's going on, but the kids are at school and as far as they're concerned it's life as usual."

"Well, that makes sense; they're only five," Vala commented.

Daniel winced. "Yeah. Janet's eight, but I'm still not so sure that we should have said anything to her. I mean, we didn't say much, nothing specific, but I don't want her to worry or anything…"

"Don't worry about her, Daniel. She's a happy kid; she'll be fine," Sam assured him.

"Unless the planet gets blown to bits," Jackson frowned.

"That is true, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c admitted. "But we do not plan to allow that to happen."

Vala hooked an arm around her husband's neck and kissed his cheek. "Yeah, Daniel, cheer up," she encouraged, attempting to bury her own reservations as well. Then she looked at Cameron.

"Let me guess; Carolyn's not happy about being left behind, is she?"

Cam smiled at that. "Not one bit. But she knows she's the doctor and they need her here, etc…"

"Can you believe Daniel tried to convince me to stay behind?"

"Hey-" Daniel began.

"I can," Sam interrupted. "Jack tried to do the same to me."

Jack protested. "But I was just-"

"I know what you and Daniel were thinking, Jack. It's sweet, really, but we'll be fine--all of us. We're going to do this."

Vala grinned. "It's time to kick some Ori butt!"

"You can say that again," came a familiar voice, and all turned to see General Landry approaching. "I'm here to send you on your way, SG-1. The Odyssey is prepared to beam you aboard. Ready/"

The six friends looked at each other for a moment.

"As we'll ever be," Daniel sighed finally.

Landry nodded. "I know what you mean. Just do what you do best--all of you."

Jack smirked. "You mean screw up?"

Hank skewered him with a playful glare. "No, I mean save the day. I hope you still know how to do that, Jack."

"Of course, general. I knew that," O'Neill amended, as his colleagues cracked up. Of course he'd known it, but under such pressure as they all were right now he hadn't been able to resist the urge to be snarky."

Landry rolled his eyes and turned to the control room. "All right, Walter, tell Odyssey they're ready."

"Yes sir," Walter Harriman replied from the other side of the window one story above them. The 'gate technician pulled on a pair of headphones and spoke into the mic, relaying the message to the ship in orbit. A moment later he pulled it off again and looked down at them. "Good luck," he wished SG-1.

The team nodded to their friend in the control room, and then returned their attention to Landry, who was backing away so as not to confuse the beaming signals.

"We won't let you down, sir," Mitchell assured him. "At least not on purpose."

"I don't doubt it," the general smiled.

Then came the bright flash of light that carried SG-1 away.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that day, Jack and Daniel sat together with their lunch in the commissary of the Odyssey as it sped toward the Ori ship. Both wished they could be doing something more at the moment, but planning for the encounter with the enemy would be useless until the next day, when they were much closer and could get more detailed readings of the ship.

Neither was saying much, but simply staring out the window beside them. Outside it the bluish-purple vortex of hyper-space rushed by them, creating a calm the two almost felt guilty for, in their current situation--Earth's current situation.

"Who'd have thought?" O'Neill huffed quietly.

"What?" Daniel asked, his head coming around to look at his friend.

The retired general shrugged. "Oh, I don't know--just everything now. Fifteen years ago, who would've thought that we would ever be anything but what we were? We were happy that way, as SG-1--you, me, Sam, and Teal'c. But then Fraiser was killed, and then I got promoted and took General Hammond's job when he moved on, and…"

"-Everything just changed drastically from there," Daniel finished for him, sighing. But then one corner of his mouth came up. "And now we're all married off and most of us have kids."

Jack smiled. "Yeah, that was fun. I'd do it again, but Sam and I are a little old now--especially me," he grinned. "Besides, we've got Cassie, and that's enough for us. Janet Fraiser will always be 'mom' to her, and Samantha is okay with that, but she still calls me 'dad'!"

"And that's nice," Daniel agreed.

The Jack eyed him, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Oh yes, and speaking of being older…Don't you think you and Vala are pushing the envelope a bit?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Jack, she's several years younger than me, and you know it; she'll be fine. Besides, it's not like we plan to keep going after this one. This is it. Two. Is all we need. Janet will have a sibling, and she'll be happy."

O'Neill shrugged. "Sounds good to me. When will you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

Daniel thought for a moment and came up empty. "Uh…I don't remember at the moment. You'd have to ask Vala that one."

"Ah. So…what took you so long for the second one?"

Daniel frowned, as if it was a touchy subject.

"Oh, well, if you don't want to tell me…"

Jackson shook his head. "It's not that. It's just that I don't know either."

"It was her?"

Daniel nodded. "Yeah. She didn't seem to want another child until recently. I don't know why; she would always avoid the subject."

O'Neill sat back. "Huh. Weird. Well, it doesn't matter now, does it?"

Daniel smiled and looked out the window again. "Not really…" he trailed off, staring for a moment at the warped space outside and trying not to think about where it was bringing them. Jack stared with him, similarly immersed in thought, but a another minute or two and Daniel was looking around again, confusion on his face.

"Where is Vala, anyway?" he asked. "I know everyone has eaten and left, but did she ever come in in the first place?"

A pause for thought, and then O'Neill replied. "Now that I think about it, I don't think she ever did."

Daniel sighed and stood. "I guess I should find her then."

Jack stood with him. "Okay, I'll find the rest of them, then. Maybe we can start on…something."

"Yeah…something," Daniel said noncommittally, before heading off to search for his wife.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniel found Vala in the ship's empty briefing room, sitting on the ledge of one of the large windows with her back to him, staring out it as he had been doing in the commissary not long ago.

It wasn't in this room, but it's similar counterpart on the Prometheus, that he had first heard any of Vala's story. She had told him of her past as a Goa'uld host then as she ate a huge meal, while he had sat stiffly at the other end of the table, not really listening and keeping a zat gun carefully trained on the woman who had hijacked the ship he'd been traveling to Atlantis on.

As Daniel got closer he could see the troubled look on his wife's face, and when he reached her he slipped an arm around her shoulders. She swiped at her eyes before looking at him, brushing away a few tears she obviously hoped he hadn't noticed.

"Hey. What's wrong? What's on your mind?" he asked in concern.

Her eyes lowered. "Adria," she said quietly.

Daniel sighed. "Vala, you know that wasn't you're fault…"

"Of course it was. We knew everything would be turned upside-down when we destroyed the Ori, but we did it anyway. And with them gone the subjects on the planet she was on at the time turned on her and and...and killed her, and…"

"You couldn't have known that would happen."

"But I should have said something! Convinced General Landry that we should have captured her first, made sure she was safe…"

"There was no way we could have done that. She was guarded too closely. If we'd been able to capture her, we would have done it before then."

"But she was my daughter, Daniel! I should have done more to protect her, or something…" She trailed off, a few more tears escaping.

Daniel gulped and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. "It's okay," he said quietly. She cried for a few moments, and when she had stopped she spoke from where she was, without pushing away from him.

"You've probably been wondering why I hadn't wanted another child until now…That's why, Daniel. Because I was already afraid I'd screw up. Janet just kind of…happened, and then I was afraid I wouldn't make a good mother because I was never able to convince Adria to get away from the Ori. It only got worse after she died. It wasn't until recently I was able to put some of it behind me, but…then this came up, and…"

Daniel sighed. One mystery solved. He pulled her back a few inches so he could look at her. "I'm sorry. I didn't know…"

She sighed too. "No, it's all right." She pulled away and sat on the ledge again, turning back to the window. Daniel watched it with her for a moment before speaking again.

"We never found Tomin either, did we?"

She shook her head. "No. He disappeared. I don't know what happenedto him," she gulped.

Daniel stood behind her and put his arms around her, and both continued to watch the mesmerizing vortex of colors that sped by the ship--or rather, that the ship sped through.

Vala was the one to break the silence next. "We can do this, Daniel, can't we?" she asked quietly, of the task at hand.

Daniel held her tighter, knowing what it would mean if they couldn't. "We don't have a choice. We have to."