This took a while again, I know...I'm still wrapped up in Left Behind, lol. : P Please forgive me, and let me know what ya think of this chapter. Also, just so ya'll know, we're leaving tomorrow on a short vacation so it'll be several days before I post anything else probably, unless I manage to get another chapter of Left Behind up before we go.

Chapter 3

Vala stirred uncomfortably in her sleep. Unconscious, she didn't know what it was, but something was bothering, pricking at her mind in her rest. She didn't know how long it had been there, but it was bugging the heck out of her subconscious self. She didn't know it, but it was a thin layer of pain covering her mind that was causing the annoyance. But it wasn't until it spiked suddenly that she woke.

She yelped and jerked away from Daniel without knowing why, but immediately the pain stopped. Frowning, she held a hand to her stomach. "Ow." The rain had stopped. It was still dark, and the clouds were rolling out.

That would have been it, and she would have tried to get back to sleep, ignoring the anomaly for exhaustion, but then the silence was broken by Daniel's sudden gasp of pain. It woke him up and brought him to a sitting position as it had her, but instead of seeming fine after the initial outburst as she had, he doubled over, gasping slightly like he was still hurting.

"Daniel?" Vala asked worriedly. She pulled him back up straight against the logs of the wall, and he leaned back against them, breathing deeply and slowly. His face was pinched. "What is it?"

He shook his head. "Nothing…I'm…I'm fine…."

"And I'm an honest woman. Cut the stories, Daniel."

Daniel gave her a short glare. "Look, I don't know, okay?"

She held up her hands. "All right, sorry…" She trailed off when she heard muffled grunts and thumps coming from outside their pen of a cell. Daniel shut his mouth too, and glanced around warily.

"You think it's them?" she asked quietly.

"Shh!"

There was one more muted thump, and then someone or something began to fiddle with the latch on the door. Vala hauled her waterlogged body to its feet, and kept an eye on Daniel as he pulled himself up, too. He was still breathing harshly, and leaned heavily on the wall, but his body was tense. So was hers.

After a moment, the latch broke, and the door swung open.

"We're here," a cheery, whispered voice intoned.

Vala sighed. "Colonel Mitchell." She only caught a brief glimpse of the colonel and Teal'c before Mitchell shined his flashlight beam in at them, momentarily blinding them. Daniel grimaced and shrank back against the logs farther. By the time she could see in front of her again because Mitchell had lowered the flashlight, she saw that he was frowning now.

"Hey, you guys okay? You don't look so good, Jackson. And you're both soaked." He stepped into the pen, and Vala noticed that both he and Teal'c had plastic rain ponchos over their BDUs.

"Of course we're soak; we got caught in the rain 'without' our packs," Daniel grumbled, straightening and standing away from the wall again. Or he tried to; instead he stumbled back when his breath caught and his face twisted in pain.

"Daniel--"

"Jackson!"

Vala and Mitchell jumped forward at the same time, and both of them caught an arm. The colonel looked concerned now. "Jackson, hat's up? You got cracked ribs in there or something?"

Daniel shook his head and took a breath. "No, I--I don't know."

Teal'c came closer, frowning. "What do you mean you do not know?"

"Well, the fact that he's got a stab wound in his side might have something to do with it," Vala reported. Daniel glared at her; he looked even cuter doing it when wet.

"What?!" Mitchell freaked out immediately, and Teal'c looked distressed.

"Stab wound?" the jaffa echoed.

"It's not deep, Teal'c, I'm fine," Daniel sighed, staring at his feet. "Let's just go home…" he started to take a step but crumpled, and this time Mitchell and Teal'c caught him. Both turned around to face the same way he was, toward the door, and pulled one of his arms over their shoulders.

"That sound like a good idea," the colonel agreed. "Let's get the heck out of here."

Vala just nodded in agreement, and never took her eyes off Daniel the entire walk through the dark woods back to the stargate.

The pain had gotten worse in the night; that had been what had woken him up, apparently, and by the time they got back through the 'gate it was worse. Daniel couldn't even explain it, exactly. It was simply pain, fanning out from the area of the wound and leaving his middle aching horribly. It had begun invading his legs by this point, as well, and though he tried to fight it, his knees gave way under him as he stepped off the ramp. Luckily, he was still suspended between Teal'c and Mitchell.

Teal'c didn't budge, but the colonel grunted and dipped a bit at the sudden increase in weight. "Whoa. Hold on, Jackson."

Daniel only nodded miserably, and looked up just enough to see General Landry stride into the 'gate room.

"Colonel Mitchell, what happened?" he demanded.

"Ah…we're still not entirely sure, sir. Vala and Jackson here got nabbed by the locals, but we sprung 'em, and we're waiting for the full debrief from them, but…Jackson needs to get to the infirmary."

Landry sighed, nodded, and got out of their way, so Daniel's carriers could continue. Vala followed them--though she didn't have much choice--and they brought him to the infirmary. On the way Daniel struggled to make his legs cooperate with him, but only succeeded about half of the time.

Doctor Lam, the new chief medical officer of the SGC, came out from her office when the four of them tramped in. She didn't look particularly happy.

"What now?"

Vala was the one to speak up first. "Shallow stab wound, and the prior did something else; there's some kind of poison in him somewhere."

Lam's countenance changed completely, and suddenly she was all business. "Get him on a bed."

Vala waited just outside the infirmary with Mitchell and Teal'c. Not only was she worried about Daniel, but she couldn't have gone much farther from him anyway. She didn't have one of the convenient wrist time-keeping devices--it was called a 'watch', though she wasn't quite sure why--so she didn't know how long it had been, but it seemed like an eternity before Doctor Lam slipped out between the double doors to them.

Mitchell went forward to her first, with Vala and teal'c close behind. "How is he?"

The doctor crossed her arms. "The wound isn't that bad. It's been cleaned and bandaged, and it should be healed rather nicely within a couple of weeks. His hand will be fine, too, though it may need a little bit of physical therapy. What's giving me trouble are the other effects. I have no idea what's causing them. I'm having blood work done, but it'll be tomorrow before we get the results on that back."

"How severe are these 'other effects'?" Teal'c asked, a concerned look on his face.

Lam shrugged. "I'm not really sure because the only way I have of gauging them right now is by how much pain he appears to be in, because that's all it is, as far as I can tell. For some reason the wound is somehow causing a kind of pain it shouldn't be able to, and it's spread through most of his body. And the really confusing part is that he's not responding to drugs--pain killers, sedatives, antibiotics--none of it's having any effect at all. His body isn't even rejecting them; it just isn't recognizing them."

"Crap," Mitchell shook his head.

Vala swallowed. "Well…it was a prior that did it. We already know the priors can do some pretty strange things. Is that really all that far-fetched when it comes to them?"

Lam sighed. "No, not really, but that doesn't mean I like it."

"Me either," Vala agreed quietly.

"And just how long is this gonna last?" Mitchell questioned.

"I don't know that, either," the doctor admitted. "But I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

Teal'c was scowling by now. "That would be consistent with the actions of priors." But it was obvious he didn't like it, either. The jaffa seemed downright angry. Then again, that made sense--he had known Daniel for a lot longer than the rest of them had.

Vala spoke up. "The prior did say it would stop though. He said a few days."

"And are we just supposed to let him suffer until then?" Mitchell glared at nothing in particular, getting angry now as well.

"Well, no…."

"I don't know that we have a choice," Lam interjected quietly. "Right now I don't know of anything I can do for him beyond making sure that the wound itself heals well."

So that was it? They were just going to leave him like that until it worked itself out? "But there has to be something we can do," she protested.

Lam shrugged again helplessly. "I won't stop trying, but right now there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry." With that, the doctor retreated, telling them that they could go in and see him if they wanted.

Teal'c pushed open the infirmary doors immediately, and Vala followed him with Mitchell as he made a beeline for Daniel's bed. By now the injured archaeologist was in blue infirmary scrubs--again; how many times had he ended up here in them since she'd been here? Vala wondered--and lying on his back on his bed, on top of the sheets. He was breathing hard, his eyes were closed, and half of the front of his shirt stuck to him; through the thing fabric she could see the outline of the bandages around his middle covering the stab wound. Gauzy bandages were tapped around his cut hand as well.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c got to him first and put a hand on his shoulder.

Daniel opened his eyes and squinted at them. "Hey guys."

"How are you feeling?" the jaffa asked.

He shrugged. "I've been better," he answered weakly. Then he gave a small amused smile. "But hey, I'm gonna live this time, so I'm not complaining."

Mitchell just shook his head. "Jackson…"

After a little while Daniel managed to convince Mitchell and Teal'c to go and get some sleep. Vala curled up under the sheets a couple of beds away--because she couldn't go back to the room she usually stayed in, since it was a lot farther than a hundred yards away--and fell asleep almost immediately. It probably wouldn't take the other two very long to get to sleep, either.

It was a different story for Daniel. For the remaining few hours of the night he dozed fitfully, but the sleep he got was never good, and never long. It was enough to keep him from being half dead by the time morning came, but that was about it.

Surprisingly, Mitchell was the first one to wonder back into the infirmary that morning, and Vala was still asleep so they talked as well as they could with Daniel occasionally having to cut off to deal with a nasty spike of pain. It was kind of, funny, actually. Since the colonel had gotten here they hadn't had a whole lot of time to get to know each other, and now they could, with this happening. At least it kept his mind off how the rest of his body felt.

Teal'c came in around mid-morning or so, around the same time Vala woke up, and Doctor Lam arrived around noon with the blood test results. Unfortunately, it didn't reveal anything they didn't already know, nor any other way his condition could be helped. Great.

Upon hearing this news, Mitchell convinced Doctor Lam to let Daniel stay in his own room, since there was nothing she could do anyway. And it did take some convincing. But to Daniel's relief, she agreed. That way, Vala could stay in her own room across the hall. While she was often annoying, he didn't want to inconvenience her anymore if he didn't have to.

So, that was how Daniel ended up suspended between Mitchell and Teal'c again, who were taking him to his room, and Vala trailing behind them. Even though the wound itself didn't hurt so much today, the other pain was worse, and it had left his legs completely uncooperative. He would not, though, accept the use of a wheelchair when Doctor Lam had offered. Being half carried was almost better. It was only half so because he could still hold himself up by his arms around their shoulders.

Vala ducked past them and opened the door of the room for them. Mitchell thanked her briefly, Teal'c nodded, and then the other two men made their way over to the double bed and lowered Daniel onto it. He grunted some and winced.

"Sorry," Mitchell apologized.

"No big deal…" he assured.

"Are you all right?" Vala asked.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I'm as fine as I'm going to be for right-" He stopped and sucked in a breath, clenching his eyes shut to ride out a sudden wave of pain. It passed quickly, and he lay back on his pillows. "-now," he finished, eyes still closed.

"Uh huh," she observed skeptically. Daniel just sighed.

The rest of the day Mitchell and Teal'c took turns hanging around, keeping him company, and Vala drifted in and out, never far away, of course. It wasn't until late that night that he really fell asleep, exhaustion overriding the annoyance of the sharp aching.

When Daniel finally, finally winked out for real, Teal'c, who had been there at the moment, left him alone. The jaffa motioned that she should go across the hall to her own room and let him sleep as well, as much as he could, and she nodded in agreement. Then Teal'c was gone, and vala was the only conscious person left in the room. Quietly she tiptoed around the bed toward the door, but before opening it stopped and looked back at him.

Daniel was asleep all right, but his expression was far from peaceful. The pain was still bothering him in his sleep. She only wished there was something she could do about it. She had turned and was about to open it again when something occurred to her.

Slowly Vala swiveled back toward Daniel again, thinking. Back on the other planet, when they had been trying to sleep the night before, she had felt something in her sleep, after she had been leaning on Daniel for a while, and it had stopped the second contact was broken. She hadn't known what it was, but now that she thought about it, maybe it had something to do with the lingering effect of the bracelets. Maybe…

Silently she went back around the bed to the side where his uninjured hand lay, and carefully sat down on the edge of the bed. She paused a moment to make sure she hadn't woken him up, then reached down, picked up his hand, and wrapped hers around it. If she was right, after a few moments or so this should start to help some.

For several minutes nothing happened. She didn't feel different, his face didn't look different, and Vala was afraid she'd been wrong. But finally, she began to feel something--a faint ache in her torso and legs. Another few moments, and it got worse. It wasn't really painful, just really annoying. But she didn't let go, because at the same time the pinched expression on Daniel's face was evening out. It didn't go away completely, his brow stayed a bit creased, but that was all, and he seemed to be sleeping a lot better now than he had been before.

Halfway bent over to ease her own discomfort, Vala waited a while longer, but it didn't get any worse for her, or any easier for him, it seemed. She didn't really know what she was doing, but she didn't have to know how it worked to know that she was helping him. She could share it.

It had to have something to do with the bracelets, though why it required physical contact to work she had no idea. The bracelets themselves didn't have anything to do with that, so it didn't make much sense, but then again the effect of those bracelets hadn't been meant to remain after they'd been taken off, either. None of it made sense.

But if she could help Daniel, well…Vala intended to do so. She would probably have to do when he was asleep like this, though, because he wouldn't let her touch him like this when he was awake. Oh well. At least she could do something for him.

Not quite sure exactly what do now, Vala stood up slowly, not letting go of Daniel's hand, and hooked a nearby chair with her foot to bring it closer. She winced when it scarped against the floor, but thankfully Daniel didn't wake up. She positioned the chair next to the bed, sat down, and rested her arms on the bed and her head in her arms, keeping hold of his hand with both of hers.

Vala had to close her eyes tight to ignore the discomfort level, but once she reminded herself that it was worth it, she was all right. Eventually she managed to drift off to sleep herself.