Vala didn't want to spend the day on the base. Sam wouldn't leave her alone and Mitchell was running around trying to meet her every little need. Teal'c on the other hand just kept staring at her in disbelief and had barely spoken two words to her. Everything was a constant reminder of Daniel, and it was a constant reminder that she might never get him back.
"Sam do you think that maybe I could…" but Vala wasn't able to finish her sentence. Sam had wrapped her arms around her and Vala was given a startling hug.
"It's okay Vala," Sam said with a stutter in her voice. "You can talk to me. I want to know how you are feeling."
Vala didn't want to tell Sam how she was feeling. She slowly tried to shake Sam off of her. "Sam I…"
Mitchell popped up around the corner and entered the lab. Vala almost smiled when she saw him. "Mitchell can you get Sam off me?!" Mitchell smiled and lightly pulled Sam off Vala. Vala smiled and began to thank him. "Do you think I could…" But she barely had time to get that out before Mitchell had wrapped his own arms around him.
He pulled away from her with a half-goofy but mostly sad smile. "You looked like you needed that."
"Agh!" Vala yelled and started to walk out of the room. Suddenly Teal'c appeared and gave her that depressed look he hadn't been able to get rid of since the funeral. She just stared at him. "You deal with them Muscle. I'm going to Daniel's office!"
She stormed off down the hall. She knew her friends meant well, but this was getting ridiculous. She couldn't go three feet without someone trying to comfort her or tell her how she must feel.
The SGC had been through Daniel's office already, most of those things were property of the SGC and another anthropologist would be taking over in a couple of days. Vala however had been spending a lot of time there of late. She didn't know why but there was a lingering scent of him there, as if he had left a mark on the room itself.
She went over to his computer and started to open his files. She hated she had to do this, but the SGC was going to delete all his personal files, or something close to that extent. She was going through and making sure Daniel's personal notes and diaries weren't totally wiped out or locked away.
Suddenly the computer screen flashed. Words appeared on a black screen and Vala blindly stared. "Where would you rather be? Don't leave me. Not yet." She stared blinking, the words began to change. "Life is not always simple. You can choose your path forward. You can choose to be free of this." Vala blinked again.
"Daniel?" she asked softly staring at the screen.
"Expect nothing. Nothing is as it seems." The screen flashed the words with such conviction Vala couldn't but help believe it. She didn't know if this was Daniel. He wouldn't be allowed to do this if he was ascended. Would he?
"What's going on?" Vala asked hoping she would finally get an answer. "Are you still alive?"
"Open your mind. I am…"
"Ms. Mal Doran," an airman said approaching from the doorway.
Vala startled by him looked away from the screen. "Yes?" She looked back at the screen; she saw Daniel's desktop, no black screen and no words.
"The General said you needed to commission a ride?" the airman asked quickly. He seemed nervous; maybe he didn't know how to act around her right now.
Vala smiled at him thankfully. "Later today if that's alright."
The airman just nodded and backed out of the room just as nervously as he had entered.
Vala turned back to the screen. She stared at it for a moment, and then shook her head. She was just tired and had probably imagined it. She shook herself and got back to Daniel's files. She was going through things quickly and radically but when she finally came upon a document marked 'My Vala' she stopped. She titled her head curiously and started to open it, but she stopped herself mid-click. It was the last file he'd written before they'd gone on the mission, maybe this wasn't something she wanted to see. She shook herself for the ridiculous thought and opened the document.
--- She is the woman who I love with all my heart. I have never felt this much joy. I have loved before, but this love is different. She owns my heart and she owns my life. I do not think I could spend my life without her. She is the one I want to be with forever. No matter what happens I live on in her.---
That's where it ended. Vala smiled and wiped a tear from her cheek. She could almost recall Daniel writing this. She had interrupted him and he had closed the file quickly when she had approached. She almost laughed now, Daniel was so sweet and silly.
She couldn't do this now. It was too hard to think that he was here only moments before. She got up and started to go back down the hall to their room. She wanted to go back to sleep, and she didn't ever want to wake up, but on her way Vala was pulled into some room by Sam. Sam was being very clingy these days.
"There's something going on with his will," Sam began to tell her. "I wouldn't have bothered you with it but…"
Vala shook her head. "It's okay Sam. What is it?" She sat down and waited for Sam to explain.
Daniel, being a man who died quite often, had been more then prepared for the event. His will was an extensively elaborate work that reflected the very nature of his work, but a few weeks ago Daniel had gone and talked to his lawyer and he had made sweeping changes to the document.
Vala was surprised and almost mortified when she had found out he'd left her everything. Well almost everything, there were a few trinkets here that were going to different people for sentimental reasons. Daniel however had left express notes for Vala, telling her how she could get money loaning artifacts to museums, or selling them at auctions. Vala had been disgusted with him that he really could think of her that way after all this time.
"One of the artifacts at the house," Sam began to tell her. "Daniel has a note attached to it that it's supposed to go to you, but the will says that it's going to Catherine Langford."
Vala hadn't been able to dig through his apartment, now her apartment, to figure out what to do with all his junk. The will had been extensive enough that every item had a note attached, expressing how exactly Vala could extract the most value from it's use. Vala didn't want to get rid of anything. Everything was Daniel's, and every item had in some way been important to him. She couldn't understand why he had suddenly placed material value on each item and decided they all belonged to her. Was that how he thought Vala would evaluate his life? How much could she get out of these things Daniel had loved?
Vala shrugged. "I don't care," she told Sam getting up and heading for the door. "It's just one artifact. I know Catherine will love it and treat it the way Daniel would have." Meaning that somehow she wouldn't? She shook her head and started to head back out.
"Vala?" Sam asked softly.
Vala turned back and found herself being embraced once again. All these hugs were driving her insane. She never made it back to their room on the base. When Sam had given her the nineteenth hug of the day, Vala decided it was time to get out. She was still wearing Daniel's pajamas when she signed out of the base. She had made her escape with help from Doctor Lee, who had somehow distracted Sam so Vala could squeeze out the door. Mitchell and Teal'c had been harder to dodge. She actually had to run from them and race to the elevator. She even offered the airman who checked her out some kind of bribe if he acted like he had never seen her.
She hated that she had never learnt how to drive. She hadn't been thinking about that when she had raced away from the boys. She stood in the base parking lot and tried to think how to best escape from here. She closed her eyes and tried to focus. The airman! He would call for her ride!
"Hey Vala!" a familiar voice shouted from not too far away.
Vala turned to look, surprised more then ever. "Daniel?" she wondered why she was still so surprised that he kept popping up. She raced towards him and jumped on top of him. She started to kiss him passionately but he was being resistant. It took her a moment to remember why he would be resistant to her loving embrace.
She wasn't with Daniel in this reality and she backed away from him quickly, seeing his look of surprise and annoyance. She didn't care though, even if she would never have him, at least he was alive.
"Sorry," she mumbled suddenly blushing. She took another step away from him. "Really, really sorry."
Daniel's glare softened a little, she did sound apologetic. "What was that for?" She could hear the annoyance in his voice, and she loved that sound.
She jumped, acting a little bouncy. "Just for being you, darling."
Daniel shook his head, as if this was something that happened all the time. "You're a fruitcake," he muttered as he turned to his car.
She smiled and bounced again. It was Daniel all right. "Where you going darling?"
Daniel turned back and looked at her confused. "We're going to my place," he told her in all seriousness. "You were going to help me set up for the party."
"Party?" Vala asked a little excited. She remembered what was going on now. Daniel was having a party at his house to commemorate Jack's something or other. Vala smiled, but then she remembered what she had to do. She grabbed Daniel's arm and in all seriousness spoke, "No Daniel. We have to figure out what's going on. I need to tell you…"
But before she could finish her sentence she opened her eyes and realized she was on the steps of the apartment building. There was an SUV pulling out of the driveway, one of the airmen had given her a ride. Vala sighed; she was back in a world where Daniel was no more. She fiddled with her keys, not even questioning how she got here.
She found her way into the apartment. This was going to drive her insane. One moment she was here, the next she was in a world where Daniel was. And then the message on the computer screen? What did this all mean? She wished she knew what the hell was happening.
She opened the door to the apartment, threw the keys down in their regular spot and found her way to the couch. She flopped down and sighed as she looked around. As if it wasn't surreal enough that Daniel was gone, now she had to figure out if she could get him back.
She stared around the room. She remembered the last time they had been here. Daniel had been talking about marriage, he had been acting like a complete idiot, and she had loved it. They had curled up on this couch, wrapped close together to keep warm. Now Vala sat and tired to remember the ghost feeling of his touch but she just felt cold.
Suddenly she heard voices shouting from the kitchen.
"No Jack!" it was Daniel's voice, and he sounded angry. "I will not let her be exposed to that! Not after everything we have been through."
"Daniel," Jack seemed to whine.
Vala got up from the couch and headed towards them. Her head felt fuzzy, and she reached for memories but realized none of them were there.
"She's old enough to decide for herself."
"She's five!"
Vala stood in the doorway. There they were. Daniel was holding a knife, cutting something looking like some sort of cook. He looked older then she would have imagined, and somehow that made him seem more beautiful. Jack was standing munching something and standing on the other side of the room, as far away from the ranting Daniel as he could be.
"Daniel I think it's time you…" but Jack never finished his sentence. He looked up and saw Vala standing in the doorway. His eyes were wider then they had ever been in his life.
Daniel turned to look at Jack. "What…" Jack pointed towards Vala.
As Daniel turned to look she smiled and waved. "Hello," she said the words slowly. "What's going on?"
Suddenly Jack had a gun pulled and Daniel looked just as ready to kill her. She threw her hands up in the air. "What did I do?"
"Who are you?" Daniel asked, suddenly seeming afraid and fragile.
She gave him a confused smile. "You know who I am Daniel." She started to take a step towards them. They both seemed to jump back. "I'm…" She didn't have time to finish the sentence. She felt a pain filling her gut, and her heart was starting to slow. She put her hand to her stomach and felt blood. She stared at her hand in disbelief, the red substance looked like something she had never seen before.
"Daniel?" she mumbled as she collapsed onto the floor.
She remembered now. This reality was different in so many ways. Everything after P3X-292 was dark, dark and yet peaceful. She remembered nothing of it, because for her none of it had occurred. She remembered now. Daniel hadn't died on P3X- 292, she had.
As everything started to fade to black, Vala heard soft words whispered like an echo. "Nothing is as it seems."