Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. There will be a lot of DV from now on, I think.

For the people of CBO. Shout out to my bestest bud online and off - Tina.

Enjoy!

Also, if formatting is off, it's because I wrote this all on a cell phone…

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"Daniel! Hurry up! It's bloody cold out here!" Vala yelled through the door. Johnny and Emmy were standing with her, shiverring. They had all been dropped off by Sam about 8 minutes before. She realized then that as cold as she was, they were likely worse off, since they weren't used to having a changing climate. She'd managed to steal some jackets from Cam and Sam for them, but it didn't seem they were doing much to help. Both looked an odd shade of blue, teeth shatterring together.

"Daniel! Your children are about to freeze to death. Open the door!" she called again, pounding harder.

"Calm down!" Daniel said, swinging open the door. "I was just taking the food out of the oven. I didn't want to set the house on fire."

"Food?" Vala grinned, slipping into the house. "What kind of food?"

"Chocolate-y food," he replied.

"Ooh, why didn't you say so, Darling?"

She skipped into his kitchen and took a fingerful of the icing that sat in a bowl on the counter. She spotted the M&M's and made a bee-line for them.

"Leave some food for the rest of us," Daniel scolded.

Vala grinned, her mouth full of the candy-coated chocolate. He shook his head and left her to her delights. In the meantime he grabbed blankets for his kids and turned the heat up a couple degrees. They really did look ill from the cold. He felt bad for making them wait.

Wrapped in blankets, Emmy reached for the popcorn, receiving a glare from her brother, who was about to do the same thing. She stuck her tongue out at him, boasting in her win.

Daniel, oblivious to what had just transpired, was busy fiddling with the DVD player, attempting to make it work. For someone so talented with alien languages and technology, he certainly wasn't very good with that of his own planet. After a few minutes of cursing in Latin under his breath, he finally jumped up, a smile of victory across his face. He had finally beaten the machine which threatened his health.

"Vala!" he called. "Movie's starting."

She swiftly entered the room, still popping bits of chocolate into her mouth. She took a seat between Emmy and Daniel, grabbing and handful of popcorn when her daughter wasn't looking. Daniel shook his head, finding himself amazed by her, though not in a disproving way. He stood to turn off the lights.

Vala couldn't help but sing along to the songs and eventually forced Daniel to join her. He seemed to be unable to turn her down, wondering at the same time when he had lost his willpower. He just couldn't stand the thought that the adorable grin might disappear from her face. After what she'd been through this past year, and especially these last few months, he realized he just wanted to see her be truly happy once again. The part of this discovery that scared him though, was the recurring thought that he wanted to be the one to make her truly happy. He tried to force the idea out of his brain, but much as he denied it, it lingered, not just waiting for, but demanding acceptance.

Vala was smiling. Not just because she loved the movie. It was more than that. She was smiling because for once, she felt part of something; part of a family. She still despised not remembering her children growing up, or even being born, and a large part of her ached in the knowing that she and Daniel may live out a different course in their relationship than they did on the ship. But for now, she allowed herself to ignore that and just enjoy being with the man she cared more about than she would ever admit willingly and the kids she'd only recently met.

When the film ended, Johnny and Emmy locked eyes and shook their heads.

"What?" Daniel asked, noticing the exchange.

"Well, it's just that..." Emmy started.

"That's almost exactly like a story you used to tell us as children," Johnny finished.

"Only, instead of Dorothy, you were the lead character," Emmy said, nodding at her mother, "and the witches were Goa'uld and Tok'ra. Etc. Etc."

"But the basic idea was the same," Johnny added.

Daniel shook his head at Vala. "Story thief!" he joked.

She opened her mouth to protest, despite knowing her own lack of innocence. She had, after all, used the story before.

"Actually, Dad, it was you that told us the story," Emmy interjected.

Vala burst out laughing at Daniel's expression. "Story thief!" she mimicked. He rolled his eyes and grinned.

"I'm starting to think neither of you are very creative," Johnny stated. "I've seen a bunch of episodes of that X-Files and they seem very familiar." He gave his mother a joking smile.

She grinned, not bothering to deny it. Hey, Daniel had done it too.

They chatted for awhile, munchin on more M&M's, until eventually Vala ate the last from the massive package. Johnny and Emmy had fallen asleep long before then, but Daniel and Vala continued laughing. He learned more about her in that one night that he probably had in the two years he'd known her. With every reply he gave, he felt a tinge of nerves that perhaps he may say something which would cause her to stop. As far as he knew, she had never confided her past in anyone. Especially not voluntarily.

Maybe it was the sugar rush, or maybe it was the knowledge that she had told him all of this before and he'd accepted her anyway, or maybe it was just that she knew him; knew he would listen, that allowed her to open up for the first time. This whole thing had forced her to grow up. Forced her to accept what had been and what may never be. She would never remember what happened on the Odyssey, but she finally accepted that what happened with Adria was not her fault. She felt oddly relieved, though she would probably never fully get over everything that happened.

She didn't disclose everything though. To be sure, she didn't even disclose the major events. She didn't tell him how Qetesh had used her body to kill her own mother or how her brother had been the first to stone her when she'd returned to her home world once freed by the Tok'ra. She left out that her fiance had married her best friend and now had six children. But she told him of the good times. How she'd skip through the fields as a kid, picking goldanias, which she found were similar to the Earth's marigolds. How she'd been known as Ribbon because she wore ribbons everyday until she was nineteen. How she'd stowed away a few times on her father's ship and visited other planets. It was nice for her to finally allow herself to remember the good times when for so long she'd only focused on the bad.

She talked until she'd talked herself to sleep. He was listening, which was what he did best. She curled up and closed her eyes. He didn't bother to wake her when she moved, burying her face in his leg. He just leaned his own head back and closed his eyes. Before drifting off, he thought to himself how lucky he was to be the only one to know this side of Vala. Normally she'd run before allowing anyone to get this close. Before allowing herself to be even a fraction as vulnerable as she'd become recently.

Daniel awoke with a start with the sound of clanging metal. He shook off the sleep and got up to follow the noise into the kitchen. He smirked when he saw Vala there, frowning into his fridge, pans piled up on the counter beside her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She whipped around. "You have nothing in here!" she exclaimed.

"I know," he replied. "I'm usually at the base, so..."

She looked at him questioningly. "Then how did you bake last night?"

He grinned and she noticed the take-out menus on the table. She looked at him with mock disapproval.

"They were just keeping warm in the oven," he explained.

She rolled her eyes. "Guess I won't be making anything for the kids," she replied.

He pulled out a box of Pop Tarts. "These ought to suffice," he said.

She frowned, but was secretly thankful she didn't have to cook. She was a great chef, but she rarely ever enjoyed it. She far preferred others catering to her needs.

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"Should we tell them now?" Emmy asked, her tone more serious than normal.

Johnny nodded. "We have to at some point. May as well do it before Sam tells them."

Emmy nodded back. "Yeah, you're right."

"Breakfast!" Vala exclaimed as she walked in, balancing a tray of Pop Tarts on her left hand. One of the few times she got to use the skila she'd picked up at Sol's Diner. She gracefully put it on the coffee table in front of them. Daniel followed with four glasses and a jug of milk.

Johnny and Emmy exchanged looks.

"What?" Daniel asked, having noticed this. He and Vala took their seats.

"We have something to tell you..." Emmy began.

"Okay," Vala replied, hesitantly.

"Uhm, well," Emmy began, "we have some news."

Vala's eyes narrowed.

"Well, I mean, we can't... We've been given an opportunity," Johnny said.

"What kind of opportunity?" Daniel asked.

"A great one!" Emmy exclaimed.

"That's not what I meant," Daniel replied.

"I know," Emmy said. "Well, we've gotten jobs."

Vala raised her eyebrows. "Jobs?" she repeated.

"With Stargate Command..." Johnny said.

"Science jobs," Emmy added.

"So you're working with Sam?" Daniel asked.

"Not exactly," Emmy replied. "I mean, kind of... Sometimes..."

"Okay, great," Vala replied, clapping her hands together and reaching for a Pop Tart.

"Why do I get the feeling there's something more?" Daniel asked, suspicious. Vala froze, looking up at her children.

"Well... There is," Emmy answered nervously.

"The job isn't..." Johnny began. "It isn't on Earth, exactly."

"What?" Daniel coughed.

"We can't stay here. We've already messed up enough by letting you know who we are," Johnny explained.

"So you're going off-world? To where?" Vala questioned.

"Just to the Alpha site," Emmy responded.

Vala nodded. "But we like having you here," she whispered, half-choking.

"We'll miss you a lot," Emmy replied, "but we've already messed up the timeline enough. We aren't supposed to be here."

"We were just too selfish to let ourselves vanish. But we're not so selfish as to stop you from living your lives," Johnny added.

"We have to go..." Emmy stated.

Vala nodded and took a bite from her Pop Tart, pouting. Daniel mumbled that he understood and reached for a tart of his own.

"When do you leave?" Vala asked.

Emmy winced. Johnny cleared his throat. "Tomorrow," they answered together.

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Okay, I hope you liked it!! Reviews are love!!