Author's Note: I don't know if this requires a warning, but there's a touch of Cam/Carolyn in this chapter and mention of Sam/Jack.
Chapter 15
Barely fifteen minutes later, the gate activated and Daniel stood up from where he was sitting against the DHD. He helped Vala up next just as Sam, Mitchell, and Teal'c were stepping through the stargate, practically skipping down the steps toward them. SG-3 and another team came with them, presumably to pilot the ship back to Earth.
Sam gave Daniel a huge hug when she came up to him, it was almost half a minute before she let go. They all exchanged hugs after that, though they were careful of crushing Vala. They couldn't not notice her heavy pregnancy.
"Seems like something was missing from the official report," Mitchell observed. "Had an interesting time, I guess?"
"One could say that," Vala replied, defensively holding a hand over her stomach next to Daniel and noticing the other teams who were respectfully trying not to stare.
Sam diffused the situation by asking Vala to show them the ship. She led Sam and SGs 3 and 16 aboard and indicated the various controls. "How far away is Earth?" Vala asked.
"About 26 hours in hyperspace," Sam replied. "Colonel Reynolds, Major Holby and their teams can bring the ship in. We'll gate back to Earth so you two can finally get home and relax."
Both Colonel Reynolds and Major Holby nodded to Sam that they were good to go. Everything looked to be in working order. SG-1 and Vala exited and watched the ship take off. Then they walked back to the gate to dial home.
"Seriously, I gotta know," Mitchell pestered.
"Caaaam," Sam warned.
"I don't wanna know, but I gotta know."
"Colonel Mitchell, perhaps now is not the time."
Mitchell hesitated as if he was going to drop his question, but then he asked anyway, "Heck, we're all thinking it…Vala, is Jackson here your baby's father?"
Sam rolled her eyes and Teal'c raised an eyebrow while Vala stepped back slightly. Daniel, however, set his arm around her waist and held her close. "As a matter of fact, I am…sort of."
Both Daniel and Vala had agreed that they'd keep the baby's conception a secret from the IOA and the rest of Daniel's government. Privately though, they'd decided they could tell the others on SG-1, as well as Jack, Landry and Carolyn.
"Sort of?" Mitchell asked.
"It's a lo-ong story," Vala replied.
"But one we're not entirely sure we want to tell the IOA."
"But you'll tell us?" Sam asked, clearly worried for the two of them. "Are you both okay?"
"We're fine. Really," Daniel assured her. "The pregnancy is just a mystery to us, and we'd like to keep the government out of it."
"A reasonable request," Teal'c surmised with his customary nod. "Should we not return to Stargate Command? I am certain the two of you are looking forward to your medical check-ups."
"Oh, yes. Please, do the honors, Muscles." Vala wove her arm in Teal'c's. "I'm simply dying to see Dr. Lam again."
As the stargate sprang to life, they all stepped through and Daniel finally started to relax. They'd made it home.
Each of them checked in their weapons with the armory sergeant at the bottom of the ramp and proceeded toward the central elevators taking them to the infirmary.
"Well, tell us, what's been happening since we left?" Daniel asked when they reached the elevator.
"Cassie made dean's list again this semester," Sam replied first, shrugging her shoulders.
"Colonel Mitchell has been seeing Doctor Lam on a regular basis."
Vala laughed out loud while Mitchell glared at Teal'c. "T, I told you that in confidence, man to man." Then Sam laughed, too, and Mitchell turned on her, waggling his eyebrows. "Sam's been gone fishing in Minnesota every other weekend."
That shut Sam up and Daniel pressed his lips together to smother knowing laughter as they reached the infirmary level.
"Cam's actually been very busy," Sam said as they walked into the infirmary and each of them hopped up onto a bed, Daniel stopping to help Vala. "He got arrested for murder on Galar, got captured on P9G-844 and, well, you were accused of murder there, too, right?"
"Yeah," Mitchell answered, "but I was framed by the Galarans and got some help on the Sodan homeworld."
Sam held in a laugh as a few of Dr. Lam's nurses came in and started taking their vitals. "Yeah, but you also woke up Anubis's son on P3X-584."
Mitchell pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and protested, "Number one: that was a complete accident, and number two: do you really have all these planets memorized?"
"New guy," Sam teased, sticking out her tongue, then accepting a thermometer.
"Oh, and how many times did you all touch something accidentally or…or…?" Mitchell finally shook his head in defeat. "Yeah, all right."
"Wait, back up." Daniel waved them to be quiet. "Anubis's son, as in the Goa'uld, Anubis?"
"Indeed, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel pulled a face and waved his hands in the air. "Well, explain already."
"There's not much to tell, really," Sam began, just after the nurse finished taking her blood pressure and heart rate readings. "His name was Khalek and he was essentially a clone of Anubis's pre-Ascended form. All of his lab notes were in Ancient, and well, since you weren't available, we called in for some help."
"Hehp?" Daniel mumbled around his thermometer.
"Jonas Quinn returned to assist in the translation of Anubis's research," Teal'c said, trying not to be distracted by the nurse's penlight shining in his eyes.
Mitchell continued, "He learned that Anubis was trying to enhance the clone genetically so he could ascend again. Khalek had all of these funky super-powers like telekinesis, self-healing, super-hearing or maybe telepathy."
Vala's eyes widened and she glanced quickly at Daniel. "Like the priors."
Mitchell snapped his fingers excitedly. "Exactly! The IOA even came down and ordered that Khalek be studied to see if there was anything we could learn about his mental capabilities, anything we could use to defend ourselves against the priors."
"Not such a bright idea," Daniel remarked, staring off absently. "Let me guess, it backfired."
"Hell, yeah," Mitchell replied. "He killed a couple of SF guards and I guess that finally convinced Woolsey that we should send him back to the stasis chamber on the planet. But then Jonas figured out that probably wasn't the best idea."
"Khalek was just waiting to go back and get one more session in that lab," Sam finished. "It was likely the final step to ascension." Sam nodded to Mitchell and Teal'c. "We were able to prevent him from getting back to the planet and we also learned that with a well-timed diversion we could get past his defenses and neutralize him."
"You mean kill him, this pre-ascended, Goa'uld-human hybrid?" Vala responded and Sam agreed with a nod. Vala looked down at her hands and continued, a little more warily, "How did your IOA react in the end?"
Mitchell shrugged his shoulders. "Woolsey admitted that he'd made a mistake keeping Khalek around for study. But he also admitted that his hands were tied. We were in desperate need of something to take back to the check-writers." Mitchell paused. "My guess is he and the rest of the committee will be even more cautious about super-human prisoners in the future."
Daniel and Vala glanced at each other as Sam, Mitchell, and Teal'c got up from their infirmary beds. Dr. Lam rounded the corner then and looked over her nurses' readings.
"The three of you look fine. I'll get started on Daniel's and Vala's tests right now. Daniel, I should be done with you in about forty-five minutes to an hour. But I think I'll need to keep you, Vala, for about an hour, hour and a half."
"That should be good, doc," Mitchell said. "We'll come get you an hour, Jackson. Have fun!"
After his tests, Daniel got dressed in a fresh set of BDUs. Vala was dressed in some wonderfully scratchy blue scrubs and envying Daniel for getting to leave early.
"Were the tests any fun?" she asked with a wide smile and fake excitement.
Daniel returned her smile with a smirk of his own as he set a new pair of glasses on his nose. "Hmm…a full-body scan and a complete fluids test. Yeah, I'd say it was a pretty good sixty minutes." At that moment, Mitchell stepped into the infirmary's doorway. Daniel looked over his shoulder at him, then back at Vala. "I'm gonna go brief Landry on everything else that's happened since we last communicated." Leaning close to Vala he whispered in her ear, "If anyone asks, let's say it happened that night you woke up in the cave, all right?" He then looked at her stomach. She nodded back that she understood.
"Have fun, darling!"
"You too, princess," Mitchell called back as he led Daniel from the infirmary.
Dr. Lam walked in from her office. "Well, all set, Vala?"
"Of course, Dr. Lam."
"So, how are you feeling?" she asked, pulling out a medical file and taking notes.
Vala smiled back and replied a bit sarcastically, "Wonderful."
"Any injuries I should know about?" Dr. Lam lifted her head from the file.
"No, no injuries." Vala shook her head. "A couple months ago I was left on an altar for three days without food or water. Not too bad as far as torture goes."
Dr. Lam cocked her head to the side. "Hmm, I see."
Daniel and Mitchell met up with Sam and Teal'c in the briefing room. "I expected an IOA representative to be here as well."
"Tomorrow, probably," General Landry responded, walking in from his office. "Thank you, Colonel. And would you mind asking my daughter to get me those tests results a little faster?"
"I'll light a fire under her, sir." Daniel, Teal'c, Sam, and Landry all turned to stare at Mitchell who lowered his head and shook it back and forth. "Really, really bad choice of words," he muttered as he dialed the infirmary from the phone near the door.
Landry turned back around and offered his out-stretched hand to Daniel. "Dr. Jackson."
"General, sir." Daniel shook his hand.
"So, anything new to report about the crusade?"
"Well, this should be the last procedure," Dr. Lam announced, "and I think you might actually enjoy it."
"But, Doctor, I hope I haven't given you the impression that I didn't enjoy any of the other wonderful little tests and scans you've run," Vala jabbed playfully.
Dr. Lam smiled back and pushed up Vala's top to smooth a cool kind of jelly on her stomach.
"What's that?" Vala asked with a detectable amount of concern in her voice.
"We'll do an ultrasound now to take a look at the baby," Dr. Lam explained. "This is just a lubricant so that I can smoothly run this device over your abdomen." As she explained, a fast kind of underwater beating sound was heard throughout the room.
"Is that…"
"Your baby's heartbeat, and over here," the doctor pointed to a monitor, "is what your baby looks like right now."
Vala turned her head to the monitor and felt…well, whatever she felt it was indescribable. Joy, exhilaration, pain, hurt, anger. Good feelings and bad mixed together because this baby was anything but a happy miracle if she and Daniel were correct and it was actually an Ori child. She felt tears filling her eyes and she looked away from the monitor and wiped her face. "I'm sorry, Doctor."
"Don't be, it's a completely normal reaction." She lifted up the paddle and started to put her instruments away while giving Vala a towel to wipe off her stomach. "I've seen it with plenty of new mothers." Dr. Lam smiled as she helped Vala sit up straighter. "And I think at this point you can start calling me Carolyn. I did let you use my body for a while."
"Yes, thank you for that. It was nice to be back, even for a little while." Vala smiled back cautiously. She was in over her head a bit and she desperately wanted to talk to someone about everything, or at the very least have something to eat and lie down for twenty or thirty minutes.
"There's no need for you to stay here. I can release you to your quarters. But I'd like you to have something to eat and even take a nap. I don't like how pale you look."
"Believe me, neither do I, Doctor," Vala looked up and saw the concern on Dr. Lam's face, "Carolyn, sorry." She sighed in an exaggerated way. "Maybe I'll find a bowl of ice cream in the cafeteria."
Carolyn laughed a little to herself. "As long as you sprinkle some folic acid on it." She handed her a bottle of prenatal vitamins. "You're completely healthy, and I can see nothing wrong with the baby at this time, but these can't hurt either."
"Thank you, Carolyn."
"I suppose the last thing to report is that there seems to be a weakness in the priors' abilities," Daniel said. "One of them came upon us when we were trying to steal the ship. Vala zatted Panos hoping to convince the prior he wasn't in on the heist. She said she didn't have a clear shot at him or she would've zatted the prior instead. He struck Vala and I kept him talking to somehow distract him. He wasn't interested in talking though and was about to attack when Vala elbowed him and kept him focused on her long enough for me to shoot him. I had no idea it would work, but it seems there's a level of concentration needed to use their powers."
"We've determined that as well," Sam agreed. "We've actually been able to develop a device to neutralize their powers. You both were still extremely lucky."
"True," Daniel nodded. "But that's about all we know so far," Daniel said. "There should be more information in the scout ship's databases."
"Col. Reynolds has been checking in regularly. They should be arriving sometime tomorrow." Landry stood to leave and so did everyone else. Sam and Mitchell went first, heading to the infirmary to check on Vala. Daniel was about to follow them when Landry spoke up.
"Even though you'd probably like nothing more than a quiet night at home, I was thinking of having a welcome home party for you and Vala back at my house tonight. Something to boost morale, I think."
"A party, sir?" Daniel asked cautiously.
"Nothing big, just you and Vala, the rest of SG-1, and Carolyn, of course, if I can get her to stop kissing Colonel Mitchell for long enough."
Daniel smiled shyly from Landry to Teal'c, who had remained behind. "I think I'd like that, sir, thank you."
"I'll get everything arranged then. Walter!"
"Yes, sir."
"I'm done for the day. Reschedule the afternoon's meetings and—"
"Already done, sir."
"And call ahead to the butcher's—"
"He's got eight filets set aside for you," Walter reported, then picked up some files on the table and made his way out of the room.
Daniel and Teal'c each raised their eyebrows and shared a look.
"Thank you, sir. I don't know what to say."
"Neither do I." Landry stood there baffled, staring out the doorway as Walter left. Shaking his head, he looked back at Daniel and Teal'c. "I'm probably going to get burned for this tomorrow, but you have my permission to leave the base unescorted. I'm sure you'd like to go home and relax. I'll take the heat from the IOA."
"I appreciate that, sir. But, maybe for protocol's sake, that is, if it's all right, Teal'c, maybe you can come with me. I wouldn't want us to get into trouble on my account."
"I would be happy to, Daniel Jackson."
"Thank you, son." Landry smiled and turned for his office once more. "Come on over to the house whenever you two are ready to eat."
The two men nodded to Landry and left the conference room as well. "Let's catch up to Sam and Mitchell. I wanna ask them something before we leave."
"As you wish, Daniel Jackson."
The picked up the pace and finally caught up with their teammates.
"What's up, Daniel?" Sam asked, hearing them approach.
"Do you know about the party Landry is planning tonight?"
"Yeah." Mitchell snapped his fingers. "We were gonna try to surprise you."
"It's okay, you can keep it a surprise for Vala if you want." He felt a goofy grin start to spread along his lips and he quickly pressed them into a line. "You're going to bring Carolyn," he guessed more than asked.
"Look, I know what T said earlier, and it's not like all the gossip going around," Mitchell tried to defend himself.
Daniel waved him off. "I don't really care about all that. I just need to explain some things and it might be easier if Dr. Lam is there tonight."
"Yeah, okay. I can make sure she doesn't blow it off."
"Thanks." Daniel paused. "Teal'c and I are going back to my apartment to see how much dust has settled on everything and kind of make it livable again. Do you think one of you could… I mean, I don't want Vala to be left here tonight."
"The party's for both of you guys," Mitchell assured him, "one of us will make sure Vala's got a ride."
"I'm picking up General O'Neill from the airport," Sam commented. "The Daedalus is on its way back from Atlantis, the Prometheus is doing training missions with some new recruits, and the Odyssey has just launched, but its systems aren't at 100% yet, including the Asgard beams." She laughed a little to herself. "He hates schlepping nowadays."
"That's Jack for you. Thanks, guys."
"No problem." Sam reached for his arm and squeezed it warmly.
Daniel nodded and both he and Teal'c took a few steps towards the elevators.
"Hey," Mitchell called and they both turned back. "After hearing what you guys went through out there," he paused. "Look, I'm just glad you both made it back in one piece."
"I concur," Teal'c said and nodded to Daniel.
He smiled back at them all. "Me, three."
"Vala," Sam greeted her and both she and Mitchell helped her scramble down from the bed.
"The tests went all right?" Mitchell asked.
"Yes, I think so," she replied. "Carolyn reported that I am 'fit as a fiddle' whatever that means," she said, waving her hands and shrugging her shoulders in confusion.
"It just means that you appear healthy," Sam replied with a genuine smile.
Mitchell nodded to them both then ducked around the corner into Carolyn's office.
"Did you need me for questioning?" Vala asked. "Carolyn said I was free to go, and I think there is a bathtub calling my name."
"Nope, I don't need you for anything. I'm actually here to escort you to your new quarters. You've got the VIP suite now. Much better bathtub." Sam winked.
"That sounds heavenly." Vala smiled appreciatively. They stepped into an elevator cab and rode it to the level with the base personnel's living quarters.
Sam glanced over at Vala as they made their way down the hall to her new room. "You know, I meant what I said before, a few months ago when you'd returned. I appreciate what you did for us and I feel awful about what I said about you being a 'back-up singer.' I'm not usually so insensitive."
"It's fine," Vala told her, giving Sam a friendly smile. "Water under the bridge and all that."
Sam nodded in thanks. "Well, I want you to know that if there's anything you need or anything you want to talk about, feel free to come see me. My door's always open." They arrived at her room and Sam swiped an access card through the reader, then turned it over to Vala.
"Thank you, I appreciate it." Vala nodded, somewhat subdued. She tried to summon a smile but she was so tired. "I think I'm going to take that bath now, and then maybe take a nap. I—"
"Say no more." Sam held up her hands and smiled. "I'll get out of your hair now. I just wanted to make sure you knew you could rely on me."
Vala nodded again as Sam turned to leave, then she shut the door and turned around to look over her room. It was so spacious. A plant grew in a pot in the corner of one wall, and a round table and chairs occupied another corner. The bed was nice and wide, instead of the single bed she'd been given in her old room. She turned down the covers and drew her hands over the sheets. They were so very soft to the touch she practically fell down into the bed right then and there. It might be nice to be a VIP for a change.
Peeling off the scratchy blue infirmary scrubs, she walked into the bathroom and started the water running. She sat on the edge of the tub and pulled off her socks and underwear, then slipped gingerly into the soothing, hot water.
Could it really be that this morning she awoke in the Ori galaxy and not even twelve hours later she was relaxing back at the SGC, safe and sound? Unfortunately, even as she formed the question, she knew things were probably going to get more difficult.
During Vala's check-up, Carolyn had tried to ask delicately if it was necessary to do a paternity test. Vala was suddenly very uncertain about what to say. She knew the people on the base saw her as some kind of vixen, hell-bent on tormenting their exalted archaeologist. She didn't want a paternity test to feed any rumors flying around that she might have slept with other men on the base. One: because it wasn't true, and two: because Daniel had already claimed the baby as his own. The rumors would only hurt him in the long run, false even as they would be.
But having the Ori tell him in a dream that the baby was his didn't really count as proof, did it? She so dearly wanted an actual medical test to absolve Daniel of any responsibility he might have for the child…and any guilt he might experience if the child did actually grow up with enhanced powers and spouting Ori propaganda.
In the end, she had told Carolyn that the test wasn't necessary. Daniel was the father, they'd shared one night together in a cave once she had woken up. She'd been unconscious for well over a day, almost two, and they had both been extremely relieved that she wasn't hurt in any way. She didn't have to elaborate any more than that. Carolyn had raised an eyebrow at first, but then seemed to accept the simple explanation.
This is what she and Daniel had decided a while ago. Daniel had said there was every reason to believe that their suspicions about the baby's true origins would not go over well with his superiors. Tight arses, she thought, remembering her trip with him, Teal'c, and General Landry to that place called Washington. She closed her eyes and tried to relax once more.
When the water had cooled down enough to make her shiver, she finally sat up, stepped out of the tub, and dried off with a towel, and wrapped herself in a soft, fluffy robe. Walking out into the bedroom, she stopped at the dresser. All of her clothes had been moved in ahead of time, all of her sexy clothes that no longer fit her. She laughed then in a sad, hollow way, thinking the universe might actually be out to get her.
Then she noticed a short stack of clothes and a note in the middle drawer. Vala sat down on the bed and opened the note, thinking maybe Daniel had stopped by while she was in the bathtub, but it was actually from Teal'c. He wrote that these were some of his old SGC pants and shirts, all clean, and considerably larger than anything she probably had with her. He must've put them there before, between his check-up and their meeting in the conference room. She fingered the clothes gently and almost broke down in tears right then and there.
Here was a group of people intent on being kind to her and helping her through this difficult time, and she was nurturing the offspring of the Ori in her womb. How she loathed herself. How she hated being used like this, again.
She didn't completely understand why Daniel had wanted to keep his government out of their affairs. She didn't completely understand why Daniel was still being so protective of the child. It was becoming very obvious to her that she was carrying a ticking time bomb inside her. But even as she thought it, she couldn't bring herself to go down to the infirmary and tell Carolyn that she didn't want the baby anymore.
There had to be a reason for Daniel's behavior, she just had to give him a chance to explain it to her. But before she could think any more about it, she heard knocking at her door.
"Hey there," Mitchell greeted her.
She summoned a glowing smile for him. "Hello. You don't need me for any questioning, do you?"
"Naw, everything's fine. I just came by to invite you out to your welcome home party."
"I…Well, I don't know what to say." Vala stood there in her bathrobe, stunned. "While I hardly ever say no to a party, I am rather tired tonight and I was hoping…"
Mitchell fixed her with a soft look. "Please come, Vala. It's just SG-1, General O'Neill, General Landry, and Carolyn. And Jackson will kill me if he thought I'd forgotten you."
Vala thought it over, then finally she gave in and nodded her head. Daniel wants to tell them the truth. "Yes. All right, then. Can I have a few minutes to get dressed?"
"Yeah, of course," he replied. "I'll just wait outside."
"No, you can wait here. I'll get dressed in the bathroom and be out in a few minutes," she said, picking up the stack of clothes from the drawer and shutting the door to the bathroom behind her.
She hurriedly got dressed in Teal'c's large cast-offs, then ran a blow dryer quickly through her hair. She tied her hair in messy pigtails and, surveying herself in the mirror, she decided she passed well enough. She stepped out of the bathroom and noticed Mitchell opening up a small duffle bag and smiling.
"Grab a few things, we're busting you out for the entire night."
"What?"
He walked past her into the bathroom and picked up an extra set of Teal'c's pants and another black T-shirt from the counter, then grabbed her toothbrush, hair brush, and hair dryer. "Need anything else?"
Vala sighed and walked over to her dresser, pulling out a small bag of essentials—some things she'd brought to the SGC and some things she'd picked up during her first stay here. She stuffed the whole thing into the bag in Mitchell's hands, and he zipped it up and slung it over his shoulder.
"Good. Now just one more stop 'til freedom," he smirked.
She followed him through the hallway to the elevator, and they rode it to the infirmary level.
"Wait here," he stopped her near the exam beds, "I'll just be a sec." He rounded the corner to Carolyn's office where Vala could still hear him talking. "Hey, gorgeous."
"You're as transparent as glass, you know that, Cam?" Vala heard Carolyn reply and she shifted closer to the office. The pretty, dark-haired doctor was looking up from her charts and laughing. "I know part of you is happy to see me, but a bigger part is tickled pink that Daniel and Vala are back."
"What? Isn't everybody?"
"Yes, but you're like a kid in a candy store," she snickered again, "literally bouncing with happiness."
"Hey, it's the band, Lyn." Mitchell shrugged. "I don't know how else to explain it."
"I know." Carolyn swiveled around in her chair to face him, then reached for his dogtags and pulled him down to her for a small kiss. Vala smiled knowingly and went back to the main door. Suddenly eavesdropping had lost its appeal.
A minute or two later, Vala heard the two of them getting up and moving closer to the door. "He left with Teal'c a couple hours ago, to air out his apartment, I think. My guess is she'll be staying with him tonight." Mitchell checked his watch and continued shooing Carolyn out of her office. "If you sit there much longer, you'll be late to the party."
"And we wouldn't want that, I guess," Carolyn said, lowering her shoulders in defeat.
Completely oblivious to Vala, Mitchell leaned over to kiss his girl one more time. "No, we wouldn't." Then he was striding to the main doors and leading Vala out of the infirmary, smiling contentedly.