A/N: Sorry this has taken so long to get done, I am know back in school full time so things are crazy to say the least...also I haven't mentioned this before the story title comes from a song by MoZella called you guessed it Light Years Away, also this chapter and chapter ones titles come from the song Non-Believer by La Rocca, chapter twos title come from For Blue Skies by Strays Don't Sleep. Just thought I'd put that out there they are all great songs...Thanks to my wonderful Beta
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my love for the characters...and some season boxsets
Spoilers:None really for the show, but a major one for Farscape season three so be warned if you are currently watching it for the first time.
Chapter Three
Pain Isn't Hope
Daniel sat down heavily on the warm afternoon sand. He had left the village for a walk in an attempt to get away from the incessant happiness. Everyone was too damn mellow, he couldn't even anger Robert Rothman into an argument about archeology, mythology or ideology. A skill he had long ago perfected. Robert would just say that Daniel was right about whatever point he had been making, even though Daniel knew Robert would normally have disagreed.
Everyone was happy to the point of annoying…until he mentioned one of his friends not contained in this little heaven or brought up being homesick. Then the mood would shift entirely. His Mother would give him a tight smile and change the subject, Janet would walk away, his Father would grow silent but Shar'e was the worst. She would get angry with him, accuse him of wanting to leave her and yell. Something he had hardly ever seen her do. After their fifth fight he just quit bringing up his 'living' friends, chalking it up to an afterlife oddity.
Everything about this place was a bit odd. It was a carbon copy of Abydos but not. The temperature was always perfect, the sun never too bright, the wind always a slight cool breeze and at night every star was at its brightest. It was amazing but deep down he missed the heat and random gusts of strong wind that he associated with the desert planet, they were part of what made him love Abydos in the first place. They reminded him of Egypt and his childhood. He was growing used to the changes however, it's not like they were bad.
"You sir, are a strange fellow." A voice called from behind Daniel. Turning he faced the source of the noise, finding none other than Charles Kowalski standing in the sand, hands shoved into the pockets of his kaki pants and his white button-up shirt flowing with the breeze.
"Charlie," Daniel smiled, standing up to shake his hand. "Why are you here?"
"Well, Daniel, I'm dead and one of your former friends, sort of. Where else would I be but here? Why, you not happy to see me" Charlie asked casually, flopping down onto the sand without any semblance of grace, motioning for Daniel to join him.
"Of course I'm glad to see you, its just that everyone else that is here was some one I was a bit closer to. No offense but I didn't know you very well." Daniel explained, looking a bit sheepish.
"No offense taken, but you knew me well enough. I was there at the start of this little adventure that has become your life. And damn am I mad that I've missed all the fun…Spacemonkey." Charlie smirked, laughing out loud at the indignant look on Daniel's face.
"Can we please not discuss Jack's embarrassing nicknames?" Daniel asked with a glare.
"Okay, Okay….Let's talk about your ability to attract the hottest women. I mean how is it that a nerd of your standing can get those girls to even pay attention to you much less wanna date you? And Vala my god man, why did you even attempt to resist that beauty?" Charlie inquired.
"I am not a nerd. I haven't been one for years, I mean, hello I've helped save the world more times than I care to count." Daniel argued in a slightly whining manner he hadn't used for years, at least not to anyone but Jack or Vala.
"Seriously Jackson, why did you wait so long to give into Vala? It was obvious to everyone that she was crazy about you. Well, it was obvious to everyone but you, but you never looked closely." Charlie asked with a new sense of seriousness in his voice.
"She was just playing around." Daniel reasoned not looking away from the horizon. It would be nearing sunset soon and the horizon would erupt into a kaleidoscope of breathtaking color. It was his favorite time of the day here, everything would go still and peaceful and for a moment, one brief fleeting moment, Daniel felt like this was home, where he was always destined to be. The moment was brief but it was there and that was enough.
"Playing around?" Kowalski asked a look of shock on his face, "You, Jackson have to be the dumbest nerd I have ever met. The woman searched the galaxy for a legitimate reason to come find you again. She's nearly died trying to prove herself to you countless times. You made her want to be a better person. That is not playing around Daniel. And maybe if you hadn't been so worried about betraying the past you would have noticed her love sooner. She might not have had to take a blast for you to take her seriously."
"Why are we discussing my past relationships and whether or not Vala really loved me?" Daniel asked slightly annoyedand deep down desperately wanting all talk of Vala to stop. It was too painful. Especially talk of 'that day' as he now referred to it.
The mission was supposed to be a breeze just a simple check up on P4X-772. But things never went smoothly for Sg-1. They were halfway back to the 'gate when Ori soldiers had surrounded their position. It seemed that the villagers had converted to the Ori and informed the local mother ship of Sg-1's presence as soon as they had stepped onto the planet.
Things went from bad to worse however, when the young Ori soldiers decided to get trigger happy, and the fire fight began. It was going in their favor until Vala noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, not even taking a moment to think she pushed Daniel out of the way taking a staff blast to her stomach.
"Vala, what the hell…" Daniel yelled struggling into sitting position, ready to read the ex thief the riot act for nearly getting them all killed, when he noticed she was laying motionless on the ground bleeding. Badly. Daniel was at her side instantly kneeling next to her trying to staunch the bleeding, the color was draining from Vala's face too quickly. Her pulse was growing thready and weak. They had to get her to the 'gate. Fast.
"Oww…I really have to stop doing that." Vala complained once she had regained the ability to speak, trying for a joke but only managing to sound weaker.
"Yes, you really do." Daniel agreed, looking around to see the rest of the team still engaged in the fight.
"I only do it because I love you, Darling." Vala managed to smile up at him.
"Damn it Vala, could you stop the teasing for one minute." Daniel snapped, trying to form some sort of plan that would get Vala to help without getting herkilled along the way.
"Not teasing…" Vala gasped out, her pain intensifying to the point that she was near losing consciousness. "Love you, Darling."
Daniel shook his head furiously, trying to do away with the memory of Vala pale and bleeding in his arms. It had been two weeks later that he had asked her to goon a date with him and five months after that she had moved into his apartment. That had been three weeks before he had come to this place.
"I never thought you would do it," Charlie stated sadly, pulling Daniel fully from his memories. "Take the deal that is. I guess I really didn't know you at all….Welcome home, Daniel, I hope you find it worth the sacrifice."
Without sayinganything further, Charlie walked away leaving Daniel alone with his thoughts. He was home, Daniel thought to himself. Thatwas all that mattered, whether or not Vala had truly loved him was beside the point. He was home, what else was more important than that?
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"Have you found any new leads?" Mitchell asked as he stepped in to Sam's office,not even bothering with pleasantries.
"No. And nice to see you too, Cam," Sam responded barely looking up from her computer screen.
"Sorry, hey Sam how has your day been so far?" Cam asked with a slight smile as he sat down on one of the spare chairs she kept around specifically for the rest of SG-1.
"Not too good, every time I get close to figuring out who is sending out the messages the location or inscription code changes making it impossible to trace." Sam said rubbing her forehead in frustration.
"So that means we have a smart spy?" Mitchell asked with a little uncertainty.
"Yes, that is exactly what it means." Sam smiled, "Any luck from your end?" She asked hopefully.
"Nothin'. All the members of off world teams hate the Ori as much as we do. I really can't see any of them betraying any member of the SGC." Cam stated
"If we don't have this figured out by the end of the week, the IOA will send Woolsey to conduct his own investigation," Sam said sitting down with a sigh.
"Yeah, and that is the last thing we need right now."
"SG-1 to the briefing room immediately….SG-1 to the briefing room immediately." Walter's voice boomed over the loud speaker. Without second thought, Sam and Mitchell were rushing down the hall to the briefing room. They already had a meeting scheduled in two hours so the news had to be bad for Landry to call them early.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
"Jaaaack!" Vala called in a slightly whining tone. Jack rolled his eyes and set down his book getting up and heading toward the living room where Vala was parked on the couch watching Firefly. Teal'c had bought her the complete series and the movie on DVD since she was stuck in the apartment so frequently, along with Worm-whole Extreme, Farscape and some show called Roswell.
"Yes, Princess, what do you need?" Jack asked as he entered the living room, barely keeping back a laugh at Vala reclining against seven pillows, hair in lopsided pigtails and her pregnant belly peeking out from under her ducky pajamas. She was adorable, annoying as hell but adorable. She was made even more adorable because she wasn't crying, at least for the moment, and that was a very good thing. After her break down last week everything seemed to push her into tears, though they were not really tears of anger directed at Daniel. Mostly it was natural pregnancy hormones. It had been a bit annoying when she started to cry during a Fruit of the Loom, underwear commercial, just because it contained a father and his son. Then there was the 'Steel Magnolias Incident.' Jack hadgone grocery shopping, only to come home and find Vala crying her eyes out after watching it on one of the movie channels. After that Jack had begun child locking any channel that played chick flicks. He would have gone bankrupt buying Kleenex if he hadn't put a stop to it.
"The baby is doing that weird kicking thing again, the one that's really fast." She whined, motioning Jack over to her and placing his hand on her baby bump so he could feel the rapid movement from inside her.
"I think he's got the hic-ups." Jack smiled, moving his hand to the left to feel better. "Charlie got them all the time during Sara's last month of pregnancy it would have driven me crazy but she had the patience of a saint."
Sensing that Jack's memories were heading in a direction that would be painful, Vala quickly changed the subject.
"I have decided something while watching these television shows," She began sounding as if she were about to state a new universal truth.
"Well, by all means, enlighten me."
"You must always watch out for the quiet, the sweet, and or the nice ones, they always get themselves killed. The Doctor on Worm-Whole Extreme, killed though granted he did come back but still. Wash off of Firefly, killed. Alex from Roswell, killed. Crichton from Farscape, killed…And is it just me or does he bear a striking resemblance to Cameron?" Vala added.
Jack thought about it for a second before saying, "Nope don't see it."
"Oh, well anyway I have decided that the next time I fall in love its going to be with a mean, sarcastic jerk." She explained
"So basically you're going to fall in love with me?" Jack asked, smiling when she smacked him with a pillow.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Teal'c and General Landry were already assembled in the briefing room by the time Sam and Mitchell entered. Taking their seats quickly, Landry began without delay.
"Walter has intercepted another message, this one more specific though again lacking many useful details except one." He explained passing out folders to each of the team members.
"So a lot of ass-kissing hallowed are the Ori but no names or places." Mitchell sighed opening the folder and scanning the message transcription, one name however, jumping out at him. His eyes grew wider with each sentence he read.
"Sir…" Sam began but stopped when she could find nothing to say. Looking back down at the message, she re-read it carefully looking for any hidden meanings.
The pregnancy is progressing well. The mother is at the base
twice a week for care. The child will be born in approximately a month's time.
The Orici's plan is progressing well.
The child shall one day be an instrument of the Ori if shown the path.
May the unbelievers be destroyed through him.
Hallowed are the Ori.
"Woolsey will be here in three days. From what I gathered from our last conversation, he wants to take Vala to Area-51 for 'her own protection'…You all have been on back to back missions lately, take a four day weekend and relax." Landry added, his meaning clear: get Vala out of Colorado Springs.
"Yes, sir, you won't see hide nor hair of us for four days. Maybe General O'Neill and Vala can do something?" Mitchell stated casually, while sending the General a look that said the only time Vala would be out of his sight would be for bathroom breaks. He'd be damned of he let anything happen to another member of his team, especially the pregnant team member. And between himself Jack, Teal'c and Sam, Vala was about to become the most heavily guarded woman in two galaxies.
A/N: Reviews are love, let me know what you think.