Water Over Stone
Part 3 of 4

Teal'c held up his closed fist, motioning for a halt. "I believe the remaining members of our escort have made camp just ahead," he softly informed the remainder of his own team.

"Ordinarily, I'd say there's safety in numbers..." Colonel Mitchell began. He didn't have to finish the statement, though, as they all remembered how the Ganar had left them to defend themselves. For the time being, SG-1 was far safer trusting no one but themselves.

Colonel Carter glanced up at the sky. "It'll be dark in a few more hours. We should probably try to find a good place to set up our own camp. It's going to get really cold, really fast."

Teal'c made some swift mental calculations. "If we press onward, we could return to the Ganar village within an hour of nightfall."

The last hour of their trip would likely be just as cold as the start of their mission eighteen hours before, but it would be far more difficult due to fatigue. Teal'c prided himself on his endurance, but he could already feel his muscles aching. The long hike, the ambush, and the worry over the fates of Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran: all were conspiring to sap him of his strength.

And if he was tired, then he knew his human teammates were exhausted.

Colonel Mitchell rolled his shoulders. "I don't know about you two, but I'm beat... but I'd feel a hell of a lot better about making camp if I knew we'd be ready to have a chat with the Ganar elders first thing in the morning."

"I have a few more hours in me," chimed in Colonel Carter, sounding far more energetic than she looked.

Teal'c let his lips curve into a smile. Many times since the fall of the Goa'uld, his fellow Jaffa had asked him why he preferred to remain with his Tau'ri friends, rather than return to live among his own race. To most of his brethren, humans were a lesser race, a species suitable only as slaves and hosts for the Goa'uld. It did not matter that the Jaffa themselves no longer served the Goa'uld, as all they could see was how fragile a human body was compared to a Jaffa's, how short a human's lifespan was, and how weak their regard for one another made them.

These traits had been all-but bred out of the Jaffa in the Goa'uld pursuit of the perfect foot soldier. Hardier constitutions made for warriors who could take more damage and still continue to fight. Longer lifespans meant more years of service to their "gods". Closed hearts owed allegiance only to their Goa'uld masters, and little regard was given to one's fellow warriors.

The Tau'ri had shown Teal'c otherwise, had taught him in ways that not even the wise and kind-hearted Bra'tac could comprehend. The so-called weaknesses of humans were, in fact, their strengths. To compensate for their weaker bodies, humans sharpened their minds. They devised clever tactics and built impressive machines to help them accomplish their goals. They practiced battle maneuvers which emphasized precision strikes and avoidance of injury as opposed to the highly-destructive engagements favored by Jaffa.

A human's shorter lifespan was one "flaw" with which Teal'c had the greatest familiarity. As he had watched his friends grow old and infirm, he had lamented the loss of their youth and enthusiasm. With the rest of SG-1 now young again—and unaware of the lives they'd led aboard the Odyssey—Teal'c was better able to appreciate the way they each filled their days with activity and camaraderie. Even when Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter buried themselves in their respective research projects, their days were fuller than the average day for a Jaffa. The Tau'ri might not live longer than a Jaffa, but they lived more.

But of all their defining traits, there was one which Teal'c held as their greatest: their hearts. Time and time again, he had witnessed his human friends perform impossible feats for the sake of friendship and familial love. Sparing a glance at the colonels doggedly keeping pace alongside him, Teal'c knew that both humans would push themselves beyond their physical limits to recover their missing friends.

Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran would do no less for them.

Vala closed her eyes and pressed her face into the sleeve of her jacket. She couldn't look down, but she couldn't continue upward, either. Her arms trembled, and for a moment, she considered just letting go of her precarious grip on the side of the cliff and plummeting after Daniel. The romantic notion of dying together had always sounded stupid to her, but right now, it didn't seem like such a bad choice at all compared to the sick feeling in her heart.

Daniel... Of all the things he'd endured and survived, it was saving her that had done him in for good.

"Ow," came a familiar groan, sounding surprisingly close.

Or not. "Daniel?"

"Ledge."

She frowned. "Ledge?"

"Landed on one... about fifteen feet down."

"Oh." Relief flooded through her body. "You mean I'd have landed on that ledge if you hadn't caught me?"

"Uh... probably."

Despite the gravity of the situation—no pun intended—Vala began to laugh. "Well, I suppose it's the thought that counts."

Angry voices drifted to her from over the top of the cliff, but Vala didn't understand a word being said. Moments later, a Shan-wi peered over the edge, spotted her and Daniel, and chattered back to his compatriots. A second man appeared instantly, and the duo leaned down and grabbed her by the hands. They were surprisingly strong, and in just a few seconds, Vala was seated on level ground, having the ties about her wrists carefully sliced away. Once the long tether was separated, one end was knotted to a wide leather sling, which was then lowered over the wall.

Someone pulled Vala's gloves off and began to clean and bandage her abraded wrists, but Vala kept her eyes firmly glued to the rescue operation underway for Daniel. Once he was safely at the top, she scrambled to her feet and dashed over to him, enthusiastically wrapping him in a hug. With his hands still tied, he couldn't return the gesture, but Vala didn't care.

He was shaking, and when he swayed and nearly fell, she guided him to sit on the ground. Unable to stop touching him to make sure he was real, she laid one arm across his bowed shoulders, and leaned him against her side. Relaxing a little into her touch, he looked up at the men who'd pulled him up from the ledge, and though Vala didn't understand his words, she knew by the look on his face that he was thanking them.

He'd been pelted with stones, pounced on by a hunting cat, kicked, roughed up, and shoved over a cliff, yet he was thanking them. Daniel would never cease to amaze her.

A Shan-wi man dressed in colorful clothing knelt beside them, a look of barely-restrained fury on his face. At first, Vala thought it was them he was angry at, but an instant later she realized his displeasure was over what had been done to them. From his dress and behavior, he was not a member of the hunting party but a leader of their people, and he was not at all happy about the way his men had been treating the prisoners. Speaking softly to Daniel, he drew his knife and carefully cut away the bindings about the archaeologist's wrists. He spoke for a moment longer, pointing to the trail above, then motioning for the medic to come over and finish wrapping Vala's wrists.

"Tien wanted us to know that the man who pushed you—us—has been punished," Daniel informed her, grimacing as he flexed his hands. "Apparently, he's been instructed to rejoin the hunters and cats down below, and won't be bothering us again."

"Tell Tien I said 'thanks'," she answered distractedly.

Since she couldn't understand the words of their captors anyway, Vala had turned her thoughts inward, puzzling over her reaction to Daniel's fall. It wasn't the first time she thought she'd lost him, but the despair she'd experienced was greater than she could remember it being the last time. Maybe it was because she'd had the rest of the team to draw upon for strength.

Maybe it was because her feelings for him had grown.

"Uh, he wants to know if we can walk," Daniel began, grimacing. "Their village is at the top of the cliff, and they want to get there before nightfall."

Groaning, Vala pushed herself to her feet. She ached all over—as Cameron might say, her bruises had bruises—but she could still put one foot in front of the other. Daniel needed some help getting upright, and didn't look particularly steady once he got there. Vala immediately tucked herself under his right arm, lending her own meager strength to his. "We'll manage," she smiled.

Working together, they followed Tien up the trail.

The Shan-wi village was poorly-named. It was a fortress.

It also wasn't built at the top of the canyon, but rather into the cliff itself. Clever, irregularly shaped facades kept the home of the Shan-wi concealed from a distance, blending it perfectly with its surroundings. Between its natural camouflage and the difficulty of the trail leading up the rock wall, the only way anyone could ever storm this particular castle was to assault it from the air.

Until the Odyssey finished its mission or the Apollo returned from the Pegasus Galaxy, Daniel and Vala could forget about the SGC launching a rescue.

Tien hadn't been particularly chatty—nor had Daniel felt up to holding much of a conversation—but he had explained that the Shan-wi had been surprised to find humans fighting alongside the Ganar. Once Daniel and Vala had been taken prisoner, the attack had been halted, and it was presumed that their three companions were still alive. This news had been taken with much relief by the exhausted duo, as had the promise of warm food and bedding. There would be many more questions later, but for now, they were instructed to rest.

The accommodations to which they were escorted were lacking, however. The Shan-wi idea of a prison cell consisted of a ten foot-deep pit inside one of the cave-buildings. Daniel and Vala used a ladder to reach the bottom, but the wood-and-rope construct was pulled out of the pit once they were there. A few minutes later, a pulley along one wall was used to lower a tray bearing two bowls of meaty stew, a large wedge of cheese, and a pot of clean water. The pallet was lowered a second time to deliver a bundle of bedding, though Daniel had asked for their military-issue sleeping bags. The trust he had been building with Tien went only so far, as it seemed the return of any of their gear was still forbidden.

It wasn't until they began to separate the bedding that Daniel and Vala realized there was only one straw mattress in the pit, and that sleeping separately would leave one of them without that essential barrier between body and cold stone. Shrugging their shoulders at one another, they spread the furs and linens out in a single bed, just barely big enough for the two of them. They then stripped down to undergarments and t-shirts, and crawled beneath the covers.

Despite his exhaustion, Daniel found himself unable to fall asleep, and from the dissatisfied noises Vala was making, she was having similar difficulty. The cave was lit by a fire near the entrance, but the warmth didn't reach the bottom of the pit. As the night grew colder, Daniel and Vala's bodies instinctively migrated toward the nearest heat source: each other.

When they were on their sides, practically nose-to-nose, Daniel rolled his eyes. "This is such a cliché," he joked, knowing he sounded like Jack O'Neill again.

"How so?" Vala asked, wriggling a little more as she tried to get comfortable. Her motions were doing interesting things to long-neglected parts of his body, and he had to draw upon every ounce of self-discipline he possessed to keep from reacting.

"Being forced to share body heat to stay warm," he answered aloud, shifting slightly to put a little distance between himself and Vala.

This would have been so much easier if he'd been trapped with Sam and not Vala. Sam was like the big sister he'd never had—most of the time—and wouldn't bat an eye if his body responded to her close proximity. After ten years fighting side-by-side and back-to-back in various situations, scenarios, and sometimes even stages of dress, the original members of SG-1 shared an ease with one another that went beyond mere friendship. Sure, he'd be embarrassed as hell if he got a hard-on while snuggling with Sam, but she wouldn't tease him unmercifully about it.

She certainly would know better than to keep pressing her body against him.

"You know," Vala mused, "there's more than one way to share body heat." Suddenly, she moved again, grinding her hips against his pelvis.

"Stop it," Daniel growled, pulling away from her as far as he could without leaving the warmth of the furs.

Whether she simply didn't hear his warning or chose to ignore it, Vala provocatively rocked against him again. Clearly, she was trying to get a rise out of him—oh, bad choice of words—and it was working, too. All his determined efforts at maintaining strict control over his body's reactions were failing, fading, falling...

"I said stop!" he shouted, grabbing Vala's shoulders and pushing her away from him before scrambling free of the bedding. Skittering backwards across the pit floor, he kept moving until his back pressed against the frigid wall. With nowhere else to go and his aching muscles protesting the sudden movement, Daniel wrapped his arms around his knees and fought to recover from his momentary panic. What was wrong with him?

"What's the matter with you?" Vala demanded.

"With me?" he echoed. "What's the matter with me?"

"Yes, you!"

"I told you to stop!" Daniel retorted, finding it easier to lash out than to try to reason out his own turbulent emotions. "You're the one who decided to press the issue."

In the flickering firelight, he could see her eyes roll dramatically. "It's just sex, Daniel."

"And I said 'no'," he repeated.

"Why not?"

He shook his head. "I don't have to give you a reason, Vala. When I say 'no', I expect you to stop, not—"

"Why the hell not?" she demanded hotly. "Am I that repulsive to you? Do you even like women? What?"

Daniel's nostrils flared in anger. "No, you're not; yes, I do; and I'll say again: just saying 'no' should be enough. Jeeze, Vala, have I ever given you any indication that I want that from you?"

"And I'll say again, Daniel, why the hell not?" Vala snapped. "It's not like I'm asking for a relationship here... what's so wrong about that?"

Still fuming, he made another concerted effort to rein in his raging emotions. "Okay, let's see if I can get this through to you: 'no' means 'no', and it doesn't matter if it's a woman saying it or a man." She didn't seem to be getting it, and he instinctively went for the proverbial jugular. "When you were host to Qetesh, did she ever make you do things with your body that you didn't want to do? Did she ever make your body respond to someone when you didn't want to have sex with them? Did she leave you screaming inside while your body did things that made you sick when you thought about them later?"

Vala's face had gone pale. "D-Daniel," she stuttered, "why are you doing this to me?"

"That's what you were doing to me!" he shouted. "Dammit, Vala, I'm only human... self-control goes only so far, and I sure as hell can't stop my body from reacting when you're trying to... trying to get me to respond. I've... I've been betrayed like that before, Vala, and I don't want it to happen again."

"Again?" she repeated numbly, her eyes still dark and haunted.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Daniel laid an arm across his knees and dropped his head down to rest on his forearm. "Years ago, when the Stargate program was just getting going, we ran into Hathor... or rather, she found us. We didn't know she was really a Goa'uld, at first, and we certainly didn't know... didn't know she had the ability to control men. I thought she was my friend... right up until she forced me to have sex with her."

"Forced?" Vala echoed.

"The ability to control men, remember?" he answered, looking up just long enough to meet Vala's stunned expression. "She had some sort of pheromone gas or something. I was married, Vala; I didn't want to betray my wife, but Hathor took control of my body away from me and made me have sex with her anyway... took my 'code of life' to make hundreds of her larvae. Do you have any idea what that's like? To be forced to do something that makes you violently ill when you finally remember how much of an active participant you were in the betrayal of your own body to a Goa'uld's perversions?"

"Yes," she whispered, curling in on herself in a miserable huddle which nearly mirrored his own position. "Oh god, Daniel, I'm so sorry! I didn't know... I didn't..."

"Now you do," Daniel finished, releasing a shaky breath. His limbs were still trembling, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was from the adrenaline, his injuries, or the cold. "Now you know."

As the silence following his accusations lengthened, Daniel closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. Vala was right, in a way: to her, it was just sex. Call him idealistic or a romantic fool or something, but Daniel didn't believe in meaningless sex; there had to be some underlying connection between the participants. He knew he cared for her a great deal—she was more than a teammate, she was a wonderful friend. The problem was, Vala had a reputation for using men up and throwing them away when she got bored with them.

Daniel wasn't sure he'd survive if he ever let her break his heart.

Vala turned her face away, letting her curtain of dark hair hide her from Daniel's sight. She couldn't bear to look at him now, afraid she'd see only disgust and loathing on his handsome features. "I'm sorry, Daniel," she choked. "I had no idea you... that you hated me so much."

"What? I don't... I don't hate you."

Tears of anger, frustration, and humiliation were gathering in her eyes. "Then what's wrong with me? Why won't you—" She clamped down on her lower lip with her teeth, trying to still the quaver in her voice while battling to keep her fear and anguish from taking over her.

"I can't, Vala," he answered softly. "I can't do 'casual' relationships; it's all or nothing. I loved... I loved my wife with all my heart and I lost her and I... I just can't open myself up to being hurt like that again. Do you understand? Does that make any sense?"

Unfortunately, it made too much sense. With a sickening feeling, Vala realized that Daniel would never be with her. For a time, she'd fooled herself into believing he might actually see her as something more than just a friend, but after joining his team and spending more and more time with him, she slowly began to accept that he simply wasn't interested in pursuing a relationship with her at all. She'd allowed herself to become friends with him, but like a fool, she hadn't stopped there.

The emotions she'd experienced when she thought he'd fallen off the cliff made more sense now: she'd fallen in love with him. Worse, she'd convinced herself she could live with not having him completely. She thought she could offer herself to him and pretend like it didn't mean anything to her, and that would be enough. Somehow, simply sharing her bed with him would be all that she needed of him.

Daniel, damn him, was right: she couldn't do 'casual' any more than he could. Her brief temptation to throw herself off the cliff after him was proof she didn't want to live without him, and if that wasn't love, what was?

A horrible ache clutching her heart, Vala choked on a sob and buried her face in her hands, giving in to the hated tears. She cried for the love she'd lost and never even had, and wept for all the horrible things Qetesh had done with her body that had left her with a shameful disregard for how beautiful a thing sex—making love—could be. Most of all, she mourned the cruelties of fate, the horrible circumstances that had left Daniel scarred and forever bound to a love he could never have, either.

"Vala?"

It wasn't fair. Vala knew she wasn't perfect, knew she'd done a lot of things in her life she wasn't proud of, but since joining the SGC and the fight to repel the Ori invasion, she thought she'd done a lot of good things, too. At first, her part in the battle had been for herself and for the way the Ori had hijacked her body to sneak one of their own into the galaxy. She fought for Adria, the child who should have been hers but wasn't, and for Tomin, the man she loved for his gentle spirit—a nature which had reminded her of Daniel—but whose religion was slowly corrupting him. After a time, she stopped considering her own goals, and at the end of it all, the one and only person for whom she still fought was Daniel himself.

"Vala? Please look at me."

Shuddering, Vala ground the heels of her palms into her eyes, then turned her body further away from Daniel. She cast about, trying to find something to do, something to keep her from acknowledging Daniel's presence and devolving into an even bigger emotional wreck than she already was.

Strong fingers delicately cupped her chin, turning her around to look at him. Vala tore her eyes away almost as soon as they met his, frightened by the intensity he now showed. She didn't know what he was looking for, but it left her afraid that he'd once again find her lacking.

Soft, dry lips closed over her own, planting a chaste kiss just firmly enough she could taste him, but light enough it felt as no more than the softest whisper. Just as quickly, Daniel withdrew, lightly caressing her jaw. He pressed his forehead against hers, and her hands came up to wrap around his biceps, holding herself in place. For the longest time, they sat in the cold and flickering firelight and let their breaths co-mingle.

"You're shivering," he whispered at last.

"So are you. We should—" She let the intended comment trail off, fearful Daniel would take it the wrong way.

"Go to bed?" he finished, voice tinged with amusement. "Yes, we should... but bed only."

"Bed only," Vala agreed hastily.

Awkwardly, Daniel wrestled with the furs, trying to not bump into Vala but finding such a task impossible given the limited space. When they were both beneath the covers, they lay back-to-back and tried to warm up again. Finally, Daniel couldn't bear to feel Vala's shivering any longer and twisted around, pulling her into his arms.

"Just don't move so much, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered in reply. "Just one thing... real quick, then that's it."

"Go ahead."

Shifting, Vala turned around to face him, tucking her head against his shoulder and slinging an arm across his waist. "Much better," she sighed.

She was right, and it felt so right to have her cradled in his arms, nestled against him in a perfect fit. Daniel dropped a kiss into her hair and let out a sigh of his own. So much for not falling in love with her...

"I love you."

Surprised, Daniel jerked back, staring down into startled gray eyes. The dim light made it difficult to see behind them, to see what she was really thinking, but then Vala laid a finger over his lips.

"It's okay if you don't—"

"But I do," he interrupted her, stroking along her jaw with the thumb of his right hand. "I didn't want to... I tried to fight it." He chuckled. "Somewhere along the way, you... you wore me down. I'm glad you love me, Vala, 'cause I love you, too."

The normally-verbose Vala didn't say anything at all. Instead, she caught his hand, kissed the palm, then snuggled even closer to him. Exhaling softly, she promptly fell asleep.

Feeling a stupid grin take over his face, Daniel joined Vala in slumber.

The morning dawned far too early, but not soon enough. No sooner had the first rays of sunlight pierced the sky than Teal'c was rousing his remaining teammates. Sam was sore, tired, and hadn't slept at all well, despite the extra warmth from the gas heater; it was hard to enjoy such comforts when she didn't know how Daniel and Vala were faring.

They ate a quick breakfast, packed up their supplies, then headed into the Ganar village. The team's return was greeted with mixed concern and hostility, which Sam attributed to their having arrived without the escort with whom they'd left. She didn't understand a word being said, but she sure hoped Cam did.

Cam looked extremely uncomfortable in his role as translator-slash-negotiator. "I'm never taking Jackson for granted again," he muttered at one point. It wasn't until after the remainder of their escort arrived in the village that he finally began to get somewhere.

"Get this," he exclaimed in disgust. "The guys who attacked us were human. The impression I get is that the Ganar were afraid we'd side with them if it came down to a fight." He paused. "Which it did."

"Are they going to help us or not?" Sam asked, feeling her patience wearing thin.

"Well, if I understood half what I think I did, then there isn't really anything they can do to help. The humans live way the heck up in the hills, and the Ganar seem to think there's no way to get up there without being attacked." He kicked at a loose rock. "I guess we wait for the Odyssey and hope for the best."

"Is there no way of reasoning with the human inhabitants?" asked Teal'c.

Cam rolled his shoulders. "Well, that's just the thing! Norraul said something about always giving them a chance—kinda like how they waited to see what we'd do—but these guys just attack on-sight. They'd like to make friends with 'em, but just can't."

Sam rested her hands atop the butt of her rifle. "You know, what if we go back to the SGC and get a diplomatic team together? See if we can't open a dialogue between the two groups? We can have the Odyssey on stand-by to beam our people out if things get ugly."

"You want us to try to get them to play nice with one another?" the other colonel asked, incredulous. "Sam, these guys have been fighting one another for centuries! That kind of bad blood doesn't go away overnight."

"I know, and there's a lot of risk involved... but if there really is a naquadah mine in those mountains, we're going to need the cooperation of both groups, not just the Ganar."

Seeing the wisdom of her suggestion, Teal'c threw in his two cents. "Would not Daniel Jackson ask us to seek such a solution?"

Cam stared at his teammates. "What, we gonna all start wearing bracelets that say 'What Would Jackson Do?'" He rolled his eyes and turned back to the Ganar elders standing before him. A few brief exchanges later, he faced Sam and Teal'c again. "They're willing to give it a shot." Under his breath, he added, "I just hope the other guys are willing to listen."

Author's Notes:
See? No big cliffie today. Last one up tomorrow!