Vala opened her eyes. She felt the pain in her gut as if it were an echo. She was in their room on the base, staring at it with disbelief. Moments before she had passed out on Daniel's kitchen floor, but he was gone now. She had lost him again. Every feeling was so brief, every moment was like some trap lulling her into the false idea that Daniel was still with her.
Suddenly she felt a sweeping rage come over her. Daniel had been an idiot, protecting her and getting himself killed. Vala started to pick up Daniel's things and started to throw them against the far wall.
She heard glass crash and break with glee. Every artifact, every little thing she threw and break gave her just a little bit more peace. "Damn you Daniel!" she shouted. She was screaming as she threw things.
She could hear the footsteps running down the hall but she didn't care. She wanted to destroy everything of his, she wished he was alive just so she could kill him all over again. He had left her. He had decided that her life was more important then his, and right now she would do anything to make sure their roles had been reversed. Daniel's life meant more then hers, because she couldn't go on living without him. Vala heard the door open, and she stopped her tirade. She stood in the middle of the room, slumped and panting.
"What the hell is going on?"
She turned; she should have been expecting this. "Daniel?"
He approached her slowly and eased her into his arms. "Vala?" She collapsed into his arms and fell to the floor. "What's wrong?"
She hated him. She hated his every bone and breathe, but he was here, and despite everything she wanted to feel, she couldn't help but love him.
"Help me Daniel," she muttered softly. She was crying in his arms. Any second now she would be moving somewhere else, all of this would be gone. "Please Daniel. Help me."
Daniel took her to the infirmary, hoping they could get some answers. Vala was hysterical; she couldn't stop crying long enough to explain anything to him. When they arrived at the infirmary Carolyn had shooed him outside. Daniel paced madly outside, wishing he could be with Vala, hoping Carolyn would figure out what's going on.
Vala could see him pacing out in the hall. She tried to focus on the doctor but her thoughts kept straying back to Daniel in the hall. She could hear him muttering words of worry, and when Sam arrived she realized she could hear the conversation with a precise clarity she had not thought possible.
Sam arrived and she glared at Daniel. "What have you done now?" Sam asked him pointing an accusing finger.
Daniel backed away from her throwing his hands into the air. "I don't do know what I did."
Sam backed off but continued to glare. Her look softened as she asked him. "Does it have something to do with the baby?"
Daniel couldn't do more then shrug. "I got kicked out because Vala wouldn't stop crying while I was around… I think she might be..." But before he could finish his though Carolyn poked her head outside the infirmary door.
"Ummm hi," she said to him awkwardly. "I was just…" She stopped when she caught sight of Sam. "Oh, Sam good!" She sounded odd, like she'd come up against something she couldn't solve on her own. "I was just going to get you."
"Me?"
Daniel looked between both women. "Why Sam? What's going on? How's Vala?"
Carolyn looked worried. "She… calmed down after you left. She told me…" she paused. "She thinks she's shifting through realities… she says this isn't her reality… ummm…." Carolyn's base assessment was to get a psychiatrist down here as quick as possible, but this was the SGC so anything was possible. "So that's why I need Sam."
Suddenly they heard a loud crash in the infirmary. All three of them went racing in. Vala was on the floor, blood streaming from some unknown wound. Vala felt reality fading quickly, something about all of this wasn't right.
Vala found herself in the driver's seat of a car. She was in the middle of the road. There was a screaming child in the back of the car, and sitting next to her, was Daniel. She stared at him for a moment; he looked like he was scared.
"Vala!" he screamed at her. "Keep your eyes on the road!"
She suddenly turned back to the road and swerved. "This is insane Daniel!" she let go of the steering wheel and threw her arms up in the air. "I can't drive."
"What!" Daniel shouted grabbing the steering wheel. Vala quickly put her hands on the wheel and tried to remember what she was doing. "Pull over!" Daniel shouted at her, his voice full of shock and annoyance.
She did what he asked as best as she could. Apparently they had been driving some kind of urban community, she pulled over and parked the car. She undid her seatbelt and literally jumped out of the car. She started to pace up and down the sidewalk. What was going on? She had died. She was dead. Daniel was supposed to survive, keep going. Had anything really changed? Was any of this even going on?
"Shit," Daniel muttered as he slowly got out of the car and followed her. He found her sitting on the side of the road. She was holding her head in her hands. He sat down beside her and put and an arm around her shoulders. "What's going on?"
Vala slowly began to tell him everything. "I'm shifting between realities Daniel." She lifted her head and looked at him. "You're not my Daniel." He looked shocked. He didn't know what she was saying. "That's not my car, cause I have no idea how to drive. And that's most definitely not my kid."
"What!" Daniel said suddenly afraid. "What are you talking about?"
She shook her head. It was too hard to explain now. She didn't understand it, how was she supposed to explain it to him. "I don't know. Maybe I came in contact with some kind of technology. Maybe you're sending me some message from beyond." She didn't know how to explain it; those reasons didn't seem to make sense. This was too painful. "Maybe I'm just going insane." She turned away from him and felt tears smearing her face.
Daniel took a hand and touched her cheek. He pulled her face so he could look into her eyes. She meant it, every word. "I think we should head for the base."
Vala just nodded. That was a good idea. This was getting to be too much. She got up and started heading back to the car. "Ummmm…" she turned back to Daniel and handed him the keys. "You drive."
She turned from him and got into the passenger seat. She sat down. That rushing pain was returning, but she tried to ignore it.
Daniel was silent as he started the car and began to drive.
She lowered her vicer and opened the mirror. In the back of the car was a small three-year-old girl. Black hair and bleu eyes, she was the most beautiful child Vala had ever seen in her life. Vala smiled at the girl, and the girl smiled back. Vala quickly closed the mirror and vicer and tried to pretend she wasn't feeling any emotions at all. She needed to keep her head clear.
"Can you answer some questions for me?" she asked him slowly. She tried to repress a sharp intake of breath as she felt the pain in her gut increase. She brought her hand to her stomach and tried to ignore it as best she could.
Daniel just nodded, he was frustrated, who wouldn't be?
"We're married?"
"Yes!" Daniel said sounding angry. He calmed his voice. "Yes, we got married off-world 4 years ago. We were going to look at a house today."
She smiled at him slowly. She could feel this worlds memories rushing in. She tried to push those thoughts aside. It wasn't safe to give into the reality. "Grace?" She didn't have time to see Daniel's reaction. She reeled over in pain and felt suddenly faint. She closed her eyes and removed her hand from her stomach. There it was, the blood. "Daniel," she cried softly. "Help me."
Vala's head was rushing, but the fuzzy feeling was fading. She opened her eyes to find she was in the infirmary on the base. Carolyn, Sam, Teal'c and Mitchell all hovering over her. "What's going on?" she muttered as she tried to lift herself up. A gentle hand pushed her back down.
"Don't move Vala," Carolyn's voice told her.
Vala blindly obeyed and stared at them. "Have you figured out what's going on?" she asked them, her eyes still feeling blurry with all the lights.
They all seemed to look at each other. "What do you mean Vala?" Sam's voice finally said.
Vala choose to focus in on her friend. She could see Sam clearly though Vala felt blind to everything else. "The shifts," Vala told her quickly. "All of them the same but different. All of them ending in pain. Help Sam. Must find place… to stop."
Her friends looked worried. Carolyn leaned in but she didn't know what kind of test she could perform at the moment. Suddenly Vala saw all their heads turn and she vaguely saw a figure approach.
"What happened?"
She tried to ignore his voice. She tried to close her eyes. Maybe it was her fault. If Daniel didn't know who she was, what was going on… What was going on?
"She woke up?"
Vala couldn't keep her eyes shut any longer. "Daniel?" She felt his hand press against her own and she tried to shake him away. "Help me."
Daniel's words sounded like whispers. "It's going to be okay," Daniel muttered. "Just fight Vala. Fight it. Don't leave me now."
But before she could do anything she was fading away once again.
She was standing in Daniel's office and there was Daniel sitting at his desk looking over some kind of artifact. She almost screamed but suppressed the sound. She needed time alone, where she could think. She walked out of Daniel's office and started walking down the hall.
If she let herself die Daniel could survive, that had to be the answer didn't it? That's what all the shifts were trying to tell her? If she died, if she could take that staff blast instead of Daniel, then Daniel could live. She had seen him, he could be happy. He could take care of life without her; he could do more then just survive. She couldn't survive without him, she realized that now.
Then again, maybe they could both survive. They could be happy together, grow old together, friends or lovers. Was that what this all meant? Could she even save him? Was that possible? She shook her head, none of this was possible, but it was still happening.
There are many paths to walk. The one to enlightenment is the one that will….
She was stopped before she could finish the thought. "Vala?" It was Sam, Sam who couldn't seem to keep to herself.
Vala turned glaring at her friend. "Whatever it is Sam, I don't have time for it! I need to be alone!" She stormed away from her friend and slammed the door to her room. She sat down on the bed and curled up under the sheets.
This is where she had been not too long ago, thinking of how she would survive without Daniel. Daniel who had always been so much better then she had been; Daniel, who she had loved with all her heart; Daniel who deserved to live much more then she did. "What am I supposed to do?"
She didn't know the answer to the question. She felt a memory nudge her attention and she heard a voice rumble darkly in the distance.
To sacrifice ones life to follow the path is to follow the way to genesis. To give ones life to save another's soul is to follow the way to origin.
She heard the door open and she pulled the sheets up over her head. She knew it was Daniel, and she didn't want to talk to him. "Vala?" she heard him whisper through the room.
"Go away!" she muttered. She didn't want to talk to him. "I don't want to talk to you." She sighed and rolled onto her belly. She was pouting beyond belief.
"Are you alright?" He sat down on the bed and started to pull the sheets off her head. She held on tight. "Vala, will you please talk to me."
She sighed. He was so sweet, and he was so understanding, but she didn't want to talk to him, couldn't talk to him. "Just go away!"
He sighed. "Vala I can't."
"Why!" she yelled at him.
"Because you are dying, Vala."
Vala shot up in bed but when she opened her eyes Daniel wasn't there. She was in the apartment, cozy and warm on Daniel's side of the bed. She laid back down in the bed. Something about this morning felt familiar. She shook off the feeling and rolled over in bed, whatever it was it could wait.
Then suddenly she remembered and she shut up in the bed. She got up so quickly she didn't know what she was thinking. Where was Daniel? Where the hell was Daniel? She raced into his kitchen and she found him standing impatiently by the coffee maker not at all happy. Then she slowed herself down, she approached him on her tiptoes.
But before she reached him Vala shook her head. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. Nothing was as it seems, and this seemed too real.
Daniel turned and saw her. "Why are you up?" he muttered grumpily.
She smiled and gave him a good morning kiss. "I have something to tell you darling," she muttered to him softly.
But Daniel would hear none of it. "You get back to bed. You're not well." He put a hand on her stomach and started to push her back to the bedroom. He was slow in the morning, at least until he got his coffee, but he was using an unusual amount of force.
"Daniel what's going on?" the words came slowly and she was barely able to mutter them through the pain he was causing. She looked down at his hands. There was the same open wound, blood staining her cute pajamas. "Daniel?"
She looked up and suddenly saw Daniel's eyes red with fire. He spoke with a cold voice that was not his own. "Do not worry. We shall save you."