Whew! Sorry it took so long to get this updated. I was busy, and on vacation, and had writer's block...ugh. But anyway, I managed to get this done for ya'll, because several of you were demnding an update, lol. So here it's it. Sorry that's it's not long, but I didn't have a ton of time and the chapter seemed to naturally end right there. But I'll update a lot sooner next time, I promise. :) This weekend at the latest, ok? And those of you reading LB:SG-1, I'm gonna update that soon, too. So keep a lookout. :)

Well, I hope you like this chapter, and please do review so i know ya'll are still with me here. Thanks so much!

Chapter 9

Daniel had passed out again soon after getting back through the 'gate, and been brought to sickbay. Vala wandered the halls of the SGC looking for someone, anyone, to talk to. She called Charlie and Adrian out at Carolyn's. She did some long-overdue paperwork. Anything to distract her mind from the possibility that what Daniel said might be true. That Janet might really be…

It was early morning when they returned, and it wasn't until late that night when Daniel woke up again. By then Carolyn had needed to come in for work, and Charlie, Adrian, and the Mitchell children had been dropped off at Grandpa Landry's.

Vala was beside him by then, and saw when he stirred. She took his hand as he woke. "Daniel?" It took another moment or so before he was awake enough to open his eyes. "Hi…"she trailed uncertainly.

Daniel only looked at her for a moment before grimacing to himself and turning away evasively. "Daniel…please don't…" She stood from her chair and sat on the edge of his bed. "Talk to me," she pleaded, squeezing his hand. He tried to pull it away, but she held on too tightly; not hurting him, but enough to make sure she kept it. "Please."

Daniel's eyes clenched shut. "I can't," he whispered.

"Can't what?"

"I just…not right now."

She leaned over and kissed his cheek gently. "Just talk to me."

He pulled in an unsteady breath. "Vala please…I can't do this. Not yet…"

"You can't tell me?"

He didn't say anything, and Vala had her answer. The dagger that had been stuck in her chest since they'd found him twisted again. She had to fight not to gasp for air. She swallowed hard. "A-All right…" She stood reluctantly. "Would it help if I left you alone for now?"

"Please…"

Vala blinked back tears and let go of his hand. "If you're sure…"

Daniel was silent again, and she didn't risk trying again. She stood where she was for another moment or so, looking at him. His back was to her. Finally she couldn't stay there anymore.

She ran from the infirmary.

Jack was heading for the infirmary to check on Daniel when he literally ran into Vala. She came around the corner in front of him faster than his dwindling reflexes could counter for, and she wasn't paying attention. He managed to stop her, but when he tried to keep her from running off again she fought him.

"Whoa! Take it easy!"

"Let go of me," Vala growled, jerking her arms from his hands. Then she crossed them over her chest. "What?"

"Well, I was going to go check on Daniel…"

"He's awake," she told him. Then why did she sound so disdainful?

"Isn't that…good?"

Vala looked away. "That depends."

"On what?"

"Are you going to leave me alone?"

Jack looked at her unwaveringly. "No."

She fell silent at that, and still wouldn't meet his eyes. Jack sighed and gently pulled Vala into the nearest empty exam room just off the main corridor and shut the door so they could talk undisturbed. She came with him not quite reluctantly, but not happily, either. "What is it?" he asked quietly. There was no way to know what was going on behind those eyes, and with the current circumstances, it couldn't be pretty.

At first she still refused to say a word, but after he had stood there looking at her long enough, she finally blurted. "He won't talk to me."

Jack made a face as he caught what she meant. "You mean he won't tell you what happened," he ventured, voice barely above a whisper.

She shook her head. "He wanted to be left alone."

"I can understand that," he swallowed painfully.

Vala looked at him sharply. It only took seconds for her expression to become horrified and nervous. "But--but that can't be it! There has to be some mistake! I won't just believe that--that she's-"

Jack could see the tears pushing at the corners of her eyes, and he didn't want to do what he knew he had to. But, as much as it was in his power, he couldn't let her delude herself any longer than she already had. The longer she did, the more it would hurt when she stopped. He knew that much from experience.

He shook his head slowly. "There's no mistake."

"Of course there is!" she practically yelled at him.

He took a deep breath. "Vala…I've been there. I know what it feels like. I know what it looks like, and I know what I'm seeing. As sorry as I am about it, I know why he's acting the way he is."

Vala was already shaking her head is vigorously in defiance--and denial. "No." She gulped past something and kept going. "No. We almost lost her once. We went through so much to keep her." Her voice was rising in pitch as well as volume again. "You know what we went through! You helped keep her here! It can't all be for nothing!"

Jack hesitated before putting a hand on her arm. "It wasn't for nothing…So far you've had eight more years than you would have otherwise." He couldn't bring himself to put Janet in the past tense completely. Not yet. They had only known for a few hours, and they weren't even sure how it had happened. If it had really been Osiris, then it wasn't hard to guess--and he grimaced at the thought of one of those hand devices--but still…

It was much too soon.

And it was too painful. Just because he was outwardly holding himself together a bit better at the moment than Vala was didn't mean that his heart wasn't breaking over this, too.

Vala pulled away from him again, but with much less force this time. He saw a pair of tears escape her eyes. "No! She's not gone…"

Jack gulped again. "I'm so sorry…"

"No…" Her head lowered into her hands, still shaking weakly. She staggered, he caught her arms again, and she all but fell against him. "No," she sobbed.

Jack didn't know what else to do but hold her, and inwardly cry with her--for her sake, his own, for dear Janet's…and for his best friend.

Why was fate doing this to Daniel? Why did he and Vala have to suffer the same tragedy Jack and Sara had? Why? It made no sense.

It wasn't fair!!

Janet struggled against the ropes holding her to the chair, wondering why she even cared.

Dad was dead.

But wouldn't the others still be coming for them? If they did they would only find her…and then what would she tell them? Part of her couldn't help but still feel that it was her fault. But that was all she felt.

The rest of her didn't care about much else anymore.

"I'm not to going to tell you anything," she told Osiris bluntly, straight-faced.

"Well, I'm sure you'll come around," the Goa'uld smirked.

Janet felt her jaw clench involuntary and her fingernails dig into the arms of the wooden chair. "You killed my father."

"Funny. You're father said just about the same thing after he thought you were dead. That was why I was forced to kill him. I admit; maybe it wasn't the best choice of tactics. But what's done is done. Now I would suggest that you cooperate. You wouldn't want to end up like him, would you?"

She said nothing; only looked away.

Osiris sauntered closer and shoved his face close to hers. "Is that you agreeing? Or are you going to continue to be stubborn like that fool of a father of yours?"

She couldn't top herself. Janet snapped back around toward the snake immediately--and spit right in his face.

Osiris jerked back in surprise, howling in anger. "Insolent Tau'ri!" he shrieked, lashing out with a wildly thrown arm. It struck her across the chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her chair backward. But the Goa'uld caught it and sent it back on all four feet before it could fall. He wiped his face, and the guards looked ready to jump on her at any word from their god.

But instead, he took care of it himself.

Seconds later, Janet found herself trapped for the second time in the excruciating orange-yellow beam of the ribbon device. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help but scream. And this time it wasn't only several seconds. It was much longer before the beam finally snapped off and she slumped forward, gasping hard and barely able to put a coherent thought together.

Osiris's voice, now silky and placating, came from out of her line of sight--which was pretty much the dirt.

"Now now, dear. There's no reason to make me hurt you anymore. Just tell me what I want to know. A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be--"

"You…will get…nothing from me," Janet hissed without looking up.

"Don't worry; you will come around. Surely you want to see the rest of your family again, however large or small it is."

Now she did look up, and glared at him vehemently. "And just how would I do that if you're going to take over our planet? We'd all die anyway if I told you anything."

"Oh come now; if you help me, of course I'll spare your life. If you help me enough, then I would consider sparing your family's lives as well. Maybe even a few close friends…but only if you give me the information willingly."

That made Janet do an inward double-take. Travis…And she couldn't forget her mother…and Charlie and Adrian. She couldn't let them die. But she would keep everyone out of danger if she refused to tell Osiris anything. But then again…if he killed her, they would still be hurt. She would be gone.

But they were already hurt. Dad was dead.

That snapped her quickly back to being angry.

"Then you can go rot," she snarled.

Osiris didn't seem the least bit surprised by this answer. Only annoyed. "Like father, like daughter, I suppose."

"You'd better believe it, snakehead."

The Goa'uld glared at her and started for the cabinet. "All right then. We will continue to do this the hard way."

Vala wasn't the only one Daniel wouldn't talk to. He hardly said a word to anyone the rest of the night or the next day, either. Finally, Vala decided just to go get the boys and go home that night. She'd been away from them for long enough, and Daniel would be in the infirmary for at least a week.

Hank was surprised to see her when she knocked on the door, but didn't ask questions. He went to get the boys, and they came quickly, with their bags in hand.

"Mom! Mom!" Charlie called worriedly. "Is Daddy okay? And Janet? Where are they?"

Vala sighed. "Dad is back at the base. He needs to get better, but he'll be fine."

"What about Janet?" he asked again.

She shared a glance with Landry. He'd been told what was going on, but he couldn't offer much help. Still, he opened his mouth as if to assist, but she spoke before he did. "We don't know, Charlie," she answered quietly. "Janet…she might have-" She cut off there, gulping back the tears that wanted to come. "Might have gone somewhere else," she finished lamely, feeling how useless that explanation was. How could she tell two little boys that there sister was…was gone?

"Might have?"

"We think so," she whispered.

Landry help the boys bring their bags out to the car. As Adrian climbed into his seat, he finally spoke.

"Mommy?"

Vala wiped away a tear before he could see it and crouched down outside his door. "What is it?"

"Is Janet coming back?" he asked softly. From the look on his face, he'd seen the tears anyway. He was so much more perceptive than his older brother, even though he was only six. She loved him for it, but right now she wasn't sure she could take it.

"I don't know, sweetheart," she answered. She knew now that…whatever had happened…there wasn't much chance. But she wouldn't tell them that their sister was never coming back until she knew for sure or not. And when that was would depend entirely on Daniel.

Adrian nodded slowly and buckled his seatbelt as she stood up. She kissed his forehead and got out of the way so he could close his door. Then both of the children were in the closed car, and she was left standing on the sidewalk with Landry.

Hank gave her a friendly embrace. "Just hang in there," he urged gently. "We don't know yet."

Vala shrugged as if she understood, but still couldn't hold out much hope beyond the part of her that would always be stubborn.

The part of her that would always want her baby back.

She thanked him half-heartedly and climbed into the vehicle herself. Charlie wasn't asking questions anymore, and looked like he was beginning to understand that something was wrong. She wished she could do something about it, but it was out of her hands.

At the house, the boys asked hesitantly if she would read them a story before bed. Vala wanted to--to do something normal, something that wouldn't remind her that things were changing forever. But in the end she had to decline that, too.

"Not tonight, boys. It's late, and Mommy needs sleep. I've been working for a long time." Not to mention that if she tried to do that now, she might not make it through it. They would doubtlessly want to read their favorite book, which had been Janet's favorite book at that age too, and--"Maybe tomorrow, okay?" she choked out, masking her strangled voice as much as she could. Then she kissed them and left as quickly as she could, before they could see they tears that broke from her eyes soon after.

Daniel couldn't bear to look at any of them. He couldn't talk to them. He knew it was irrational, but he was scared of what they would think of him if they heard what had happened. As much as they told him they just wanted him to talk to them, he couldn't.

Because if he did, he was sure that they wouldn't want to talk to him again.

They would hate him. How could he ever really face any of them again?

So he lay where he was, letting his body heal and trying not to think at all.

If he did he might not be able to deal with what showed up in his mind.

Jack came and sat by him for hours at a time, just waiting for him to talk. That was the way Jack was. Sam came every now and then, when she could get a few minutes away from her busy schedule, but he couldn't even look at her, because she would talk to him, trying to offer comfort, even if he didn't reply. Teal'c and Cam, they came too at times. After a few days Vala stopped coming. It hurt, but he decided it was for the best. Charlie and Adrian needed her much more than he did.

He didn't deserve her anymore.

Daniel wasn't fooling himself about the legalities, either. He knew he would have to tell them what had happened eventually. A debriefing would be required, at some point. It was just procedure. The Powers That Be would wait until he was out of the infirmary, probably, but they would still ask for one. They would certainly want to know everything he could tell them about Osiris. A handful of them wouldn't care at all that his daughter had died while he was there. That was bureaucrats sometimes. They only cared about squashing the threats.

Why? Why did they have to be like that?

And why was this happening to his family?