Sorry this took forever, but I've always trouble writing Jack, so if it's weak, forgive me, I'll try to do better next time. One more chapter to go! Chapter/Epilogue really. Thanks for reading!

265 Minutes

She crisscrossed her knight over his pawns, leaping to the other side of the board where she exclaimed, "Chess!"

"Vala."

"What's wrong General? Didn't I do it right?" She batted her doe eyes in youthful innocence and Jack snorted in reply.

"Vala, I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'm not Daniel."

"Really Jack? I'm afraid I missed that tiny detail. But how can you blame me, all the males of your planet look so similar. I mistake Colonel Mitchell for Daniel all the time, which has led to several very interesting 'morning after' conversations."

Jack refused to flinch at the implied smear to the rather impeccable honor of Daniel and Mitchell and waited for her to fix the move.

Whatever crap the snake left in her head made her a quick study, and a better chess player than any nerd on the base (a realization that came only after she had cost them all significant amounts of their hazard pay.) She'd agreed to play thinking that the last of Daniel's best friends would be just as trusting as the rest of SG-1, but apparently she was wrong.

Trusting probably wasn't the best way to term it, but for their own reasons, the relationship worked. Teal'c respected her for surviving the Goa'uld, and for that whole affair on P8X-412 with the healing device. Sam and Daniel were generally referred to by the other offworld teams as 'the twins' (something else she picked up along with her poker winnings) and their similarities happened to extend to their belief in Vala. She wanted to help, and though she was still wary of their honorable approach to everything, she would do her best. Colonel Mitchell's regard seemed to stem from the fact that she always brought a little extra excitement to their lives.

But Jack O'Neill knew every trick before she pulled it and refused to let he win. Vala never tried to mess with Sam (Vala was daring, not stupid), only rarely with Teal'c (just to watch the marines' faces as he said something scandalous in return), and constantly with Mitchell (he got so frazzled and, on occasion, it would compel Daniel to jealousy.) Jack would fight with enough dripping sarcasm that Vala caught herself laughing at O'Neill remarks when she should've been firing back. He was insulting, demeaning, insinuated more things than her imagination could keep up with, and made Daniel blush in faster time than she ever could.

She loved him immediately.

And now they were seated on crates at a card table in the gateroom playing chess. The marines who had been on duty when Jack and Vala sat themselves down had started laughing, which led O'Neill to send them off to help clean up the commissary. This new development compelled the marines stationed there to rotate far more often than they usually did, and to dive out the gateroom doors whenever they couldn't control themselves anymore. (Between the two of them they'd taken out 17 marines).

She moved the knight back from the other side of the board into check and Jack muttered to himself, "And I thought Danny-boy was just full of crap."

"What?"

Jack slid his king back a pace to take it out of harm's way. "When he said you were good at chess."

"Ahh..."

They exchanged moves for a moment, with Vala mulling as she took a sip of the contraband beer that Jack had given her. "The other scientists must have complained to Daniel."

"Hmm?" He savored the rim of his bottle and slid the back of his hand across his mouth, giving him just long enough to release the grin he couldn't keep pent up anymore.

"About my taking all their money in chess games. They must have complained about me to him since they all operate under the dillusion that he can control me." She swung forth her Queen in aggression, taking out one of Jack's rooks.

"What would make you think that?"

"They haul him in to talk me down whenever I do anything remotely independent!"

"Vala..."

"Two days ago I couldn't sleep and so I decided to try your Tau'ri sleeping aid and get some warm milk. But silly me, every marine on your base followed me to the commissary and jumped every time I moved. When I sat down at one of the tables to drink it Daniel came flying through the door because they called him down because they thought I was going to burn the place down!"

"Vala..."

"Really, if I wanted to destroy your base I would choose something better than arson."

"Vala!"

"Yes Jack?"

He righted the pieces she'd rattled to the board when she slammed down the Queen she'd been aggressively playing for the last few moves. "How's life?"

"Fine, why?"

He picked up the Queen he'd just taken out in one of Vala's less brilliant moves. "Because I was actually going for why you think the scientists would complain about you to Daniel."

She blushed, considerably, but tried to glide past her rather public lapse in well-honed denial. "Because Daniel's never actually paid enough attention to see me play."

"Sure he has."

"Oh yeah, when?" The disbelief in her voice was perfectly toned to suit an insulted teenager, but there was a giddy anticipation in her eyes that made Jack retreat behind his bottle to smirk again. He knew he was getting far too much enjoyment out of this, but he couldn't help it. He'd caught the same hapless grin on Daniel's face more than once when they stopped by for lunch in DC, and it gave Jack a rush to see his best friend so happy.

Hank had gone off to reminisce with some of his old unit buddies that he never got to see anymore, leaving just Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, and Vala for lunch at Jack's place outside the city. When there wasn't a crowd around her, forcing her to live up to her scandalous reputation (or Daniel to his immaculate one) they were happy. She played catch with Teal'c on the back lawn while she attentively listened to Jack give a dramatic narration of his favorite Simpsons moments. All the while Daniel treated her like a friend, not the vixen he was tied to against his will.

He'd glance over Vala's shoulder at Daniel, and just smile at how entranced she had the boy, even when she wasn't trying. Daniel had come across his fair share of smitten maidens over the course of their friendship, but none of them would ever last. The one thing Sha're had brought to Daniel, that none of the others had brought, was a challenge.

One who forced him to see the world differently, to make him be better than he was before. The other girls thought he was a saint, which was a hard image to deny, but the two that counted, they saw the human Daniel. The one who spent too much time in his office and bore the weight of humanity on his shoulders.

"Just because he tries not to pay attention doesn't mean he isn't...paying it...attention."

She suppressed her smile and the thought that Jack apparently couldn't hold his beer very well while in the SGC. Or maybe he just wasn't allowed to be saying this.

"Has Carter made you read 'Pride and Prejudice' yet?"

"Teal'c did actually. He said it was a staple of your Earth culture."

Jack just stared at her for a moment and shook his head. "I shoulda figured. I guess that's one of the perks to being big and scary, no one mocks you for chick books."

"What?"

"Chick books. Same genre as chick flicks." She raised her eyebrows. "Stuff that only women understand. Movies and such that doesn't really have much of a plot, but they end happy, and Daniel's already had to explain this to you and you're getting me back for earlier." She grinner wickedly as another marine fell out the door.

"Remember that time near the beginning of the book where Elizabeth is at Bingley's house, and she and Darcy are fighting?"

"Not really Jack. I think you should re-tell the story of this 'chick book' for me."

He just glared at her, and then at the remaining marine who made the fool mistake of snorting at O'Neill's knowledge on the subject. "You know, I was going to say something nice, but now I'm just going to drink my beer and kick you around at chess."

"Oh come on Jack. I thought Daniel was the one who was supposed to pout."

Jack opened his mouth, but the retort was cut off by Walter. "General O'Neill, sir, you've got a call from Washington." Jack smiled and headed up to the nearest phone, and then into several conference calls about the status of SG-1.

Vala waited until she got the sympathetic smile from Walter, and then cleaned up the board and helped herself to the last of Jack's beer before heading back to her quarters. SG-1 was offworld seeing to the location of Daniel, but before their departure someone had summoned Jack to play babysitter. Or maybe for Vala to babysit Jack, she never was sure.

She ate some pudding, annoyed some scientists, flirted with the newer marines, some of which were green enough to flirt back (which Teal'c would inevitably find out about and make them pay for on behalf of him friend), and then turned in.

Laying on her bed was a rather loved copy of Pride & Prejudice and a sticky note that read, "It's Carter's, I swear," and a page number.

She flipped it open, still enjoying the feel of parchment between her fingers, and the crack of much turned pages and battered binding. Though not the most efficient way, there was a romance to the Tau'ri form of record keeping, and she understood why Daniel loved it so.

Upon that page there was one line highlighted so much it glowed, and with a rather masculine arrow pointed to the text should she mistake it.

"He began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention."

She read it, and though she would never admit to such a thing should Jack ever ask, she giggled, sighed, and tumbled onto her bed, waiting for Darcy to come home.