On Dakara, after the day's preliminary explorations and excavations, Daniel sat in the balmy night by himself, his BDU jacket folded at his side. He looked up at the stars, the constellations being a little different to the star patterns visible from Earth, and he sighed. They hadn't had any luck earlier with regard to the location of the Ark, or whether he was even chasing a solid lead. He chuckled to himself humourlessly – if this was all for naught, he may have started off a mission in a war zone for nothing; he may have needlessly dragged the team away from their impending nuptials – except for Teal'c of course who had made it quite clear that he had no intention of marrying Ish'ta any time soon; and he may have endured a lot of insults from Jack for nothing, the General having seen the team off prior to his own planned visit to Atlantis.

He, grimacing as he felt a new low, took his glasses off and exhaled. He then sensed a presence to his left and he put his glasses back on before looking up to see the looming figure of Teal'c in the darkness, the Jaffa looking down at him with a mild look of concern on his face. Daniel, smiling slightly, budged up on the part of the ruins that he had been sitting on, inviting his team-mate to sit down, and Teal'c did so. The Jaffa said when Daniel took to looking up at the sky again,

"You cannot lose hope, DanielJackson."

Daniel grimaced again and asked quietly, looking down, "But what if I've led you all out here for nothing?"

"That is not possible."

Daniel laughed self-deprecatingly. "Right."

"We will locate the Ark and bring about an end to the enslavement that the Ori and their forces have inflicted on the inhabitants of the Milky Way and of the Ori home galaxy... there is no doubt."

Daniel looked across at his friend, seeing the conviction in amongst the age-old wisdom in the man's eyes, and he patted Teal'c's forearm. "Thanks, Teal'c."

Teal'c bowed his head a little. "It is nothing." He patted Daniel on the shoulder. "Get some rest, DanielJackson – we have a long day before us."

Daniel nodded as Teal'c got up to return to SG-1's encampment. "In a minute. 'night, Teal'c."

"Goodnight, DanielJackson."

As the Jaffa walked away, Daniel couldn't help but smile as he returned his gaze from his friend's retreating figure to the stars once again as he remembered how they as a team had managed to get Teal'c to say 'goodnight' instead of 'I bid you a pleasant and peaceful night.' Closing his eyes, he rubbed his neck and then groaned quietly as he straightened out the kinks in his neck, rotating his head from side-to-side.

He looked up on hearing someone else to see a worried looking Sam with her hair down, and without her BDU jacket. He grimaced a little as he looked down. He had stayed out here to think – he hadn't wanted her to get worried. She sat down next to him, much closer than Teal'c had, and she interlaced her fingers with his, her head resting on his shoulder. He gazed down at her and smoothed her cheek with his other hand.

"I'm sorry."

"Come on, Daniel... less of that. We're on a mission."

He shook his head, resting her head against hers, and she looked down at the hand that she held. She removed her fingers from his and stroked the back of his hand as her brow furrowed ever so slightly with worry. "Daniel. It's not a wild goose chase. We'll find it."

He, not surprised that she knew without being told why he was worried, said softly, "But what if we don't? I have schizophrenia in my family history... after everything we've been through, after everything we've seen, what makes you so sure that I'm not nuts?"

She countered, amused at his self-doubting, "What if after everything... you're not? And besides, you'd make a very convincing argument if you were nuts or not."

"Exactly."

"But..." She looked up at him and caressed his brow. "Daniel, come on, how many times have you been absolutely completely wrong when you've found the smallest of clues? Take Merlin for instance. Oh... and let's not forget that you knew about the Goa'uld in principle before you'd even set eyes on that cover stone."

Feeling sad on seeing his gaze drop as he was no doubt thinking of Sha're and once again blaming himself for her fate, Sam kissed him on the cheek. "Come on Daniel... get some sleep."

He looked at her as she straddled the section of the ruins that he was sitting on. "I don't want to... there's just so much to think about and..."

She rolled her eyes, knowing his other main reason for not wanting to sleep. "We only brought five tents so General Landry would be happy when he sees them in the morning MALP transmission. He knows that we'll be sharing... he just doesn't want all the stress with the IOA poking their noses in." As he cradled her jaw in his hand, gazing at her tenderly, she remarked with a grin,

"And Cam and Vala are bunking together."

He remarked dryly, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"So much for our professional CO, huh? Well, to give them both credit, they started out in separate tents but then Vala had a nightmare about Adria."

Daniel frowned in worry again, about to get up as he remembered Vala coming to talk to him on base during his long nocturnal work spells to confide in him about nightmares and such. "Is she ok?"

Sam replied as she stood too, "Yeah, she's fine... her and Cam are talking in his tent." She looked away from him, back to SG-1's camp site in the middle distance, and he, troubled at the tense tone of her voice, said,

"Sam."

She looked back at him, and he said, gazing at her in the starlight, "Sam... she is only a friend."

She nodded, looking a little less tense but a bit more embarrassed. "I know... I don't like being jealous sometimes, but I guess it's a natural reaction... like when you see me in the Commissary with Cam and Teal'c."

"I'll admit that I get jealous sometimes... but they're like brothers to both of us. Well, in Teal'c's case, he's a much older brother."

They laughed. Her laughter faded as she said, gazing at him in worry. "It's just that you're so close to her... I shouldn't be like that, I know, because we're far closer... and the team is really close too."

He threaded his fingers through her hair, smoothing it gently. "Sam... come on, don't do this to yourself." He remembered how he had at one point during their relationship thought that she had had feelings for Jack and immediately felt guilty that she was apologising. "If it helps, when Jack dropped in before we went to meet Thor, I was sorely tempted to punch his lights out even though we'd resolved all that... I knew that you two had had a history that, ok, wasn't quite a history, but you know what I mean..." He stroked her cheek. "I overcame that... and I think you will too... because in reality, it's all nothing."

She hugged him, her arms around his waist as she rested her head against his chest. She smiled. "It is nothing. I guess I'm just PMS'ing."

He chuckled as he gazed down at her, playing with her hair. "Should I hide everything that could be converted into a missile?"

"I think I'm past that."

"Ah, weepy then." He kissed her hair, feeling little better about himself and what they were going to do before he winced when she punched him in the arm. "Come on, let's go... more digging tomorrow, Colonel-Doctor."

She chuckled as she let him go, reaching for his hand as they began to walk back to the camp site, negotiating the rubble and remnants of the surrounding site being blown up by Adria many months ago. "Oh, joy."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Vala looked up at the roof of the tent on hearing footsteps in the gravel bed outside, and Cam, lying next to her, his hands under his head, said on seeing her get his P-90 out, "Relax. It's just T." He called, "Hey T, is Jackson ok?"

Vala, looking a little on edge, put the P-90 back on hearing Teal'c reply, his shadow visible through the tent against the camp fire in the centre of the encampment, "He is indeed, ColonelMitchell."

"Cool." He called past Vala, through the wall of his tent. "Hey Sam, you wanna check on Jackson? He'll be more likely to actually come back with you." He muttered under his breath, glaring in the middle distance. "No wonder O'Neill went grey early."

He squeezed Vala's hand, seeing her still look worried as Sam called back, Cam and Vala hearing her tent unzip, "I was on my way anyway... see ya later." They heard her trudge noisily through the gravel, away from their tent, and Cam called to Teal'c,

"T, it's not too late to get some shut-eye."

Teal'c replied, the sound of his voice coming from the vague direction of the fire, "It has already been settled, ColonelMitchell – I will have first watch."

"You can change your mind though."

"That will not be necessary... but thank you for your concern."

"A'right."

Cam finally settled down next to Vala again and remarked, gazing at her, "Stubborn as ever, huh?"

She smiled and rested her head on his chest with a sigh, her smile gone. His smile instantly vanished as he became even more worried about his fiancée. He threaded his fingers through her thick dark hair, holding some of it up to the dim lantern light, waiting for her to speak. She eventually did, quickly turning her head over so she was looking up at him as he let go of her hair.

"What if Adria comes here? We're not prepared."

"Hey, that's quitter talk. She's all Ascended... she won't give a shit about what we could find. And if your ex's boss shows up, we've got the anti-Prior device. We're gonna be fine." They kissed and he asked, looking at her in worry as he resumed playing with her hair,

"You feeling better?"

She nodded. "Still on edge but..." she shrugged. "I don't like not knowing whether Adria's all right... but then I know that the next time we cross paths, she's more likely to blow me up than be reasoned with. She almost poisoned Daniel with engine coolant last time."

"Baby, let's face it, she's just evil. The part of her that wanted your acceptance is long gone."

She nodded, tears pricking her eyes as her voice trembled slightly. "I know. It still hurts, Cameron. You wouldn't understand – you're not a mother. A part of me is always going to hope that she stops what she's doing and sees what she's done for what it is. I mean, I did that... I had a Goa'uld inside of me..." her face hardened with anger as she remembered being subjugated by Qetesh in her own body many years previously, committing unspeakable acts of carnage and malevolence... and then, after being freed, being on the run until she had come back to the SGC after giving birth on an Ori ship, "... I did things... terrible things..."

"This is different from that..."

"I know, I know... she's all evil... My point is that when I came to the SGC, after everything that had happened... being on the run... stealing things... coming to Earth to see Daniel... and being stranded on Ver Isca... I changed. I became a better person... I saw the error of my ways. I changed." She began to cry softly, and he, hurt at not only her pain but also that he couldn't help her as much as he would like, whispered as he kissed her,

"Vala... you're different. You're a good person. Adria was born into evil... there's nothing you could have done to save her."

"That's what hurts the most, Cameron. I'm her mother."

He wrapped his arms around her as her crying subsided, and he held her close, whispering, "I'm sorry, Vala... I can't help you... I don't know what to do or to say or..." She silenced him with a kiss, and as she gazed down at him, this time with a smile, she replied,

"You're helping me, Cameron... a lot, just by being here." She kissed him again, her fiancé participating this time and rolling them over as she began to laugh as they both paused briefly to check that they hadn't been heard. "Thank you."