On a planet in the Ori galaxy, Daniel, without his glasses, and Vala, both in clothes similar to those of the locals, sat in a bustling tavern. As Daniel awaited the arrival of Tomin with someone who could help them, and the Archaeologist trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Vala leaned over to him and hissed, smiling at someone who looked at them in passing, "If he refers to me as his wife one more time, I'm going to kill him."

He looked at her, remarking quietly as he looked sceptical, "Well, you haven't really given him cause to believe otherwise now have you?"

She looked at him, indignant. "So it's my fault?"

He rolled his eyes, and she said, her voice a little louder but not much, "No Daniel. I've told him. I've tried to let him down gently."

He smiled slightly at her and patted her forearm. "Tell him later."

She nodded, and he continued with a shrug, "I can see why you would want to let him down gently though... he's clearly in love with you."

She groaned and then looked at him entreatingly. "Don't make it any harder."

His smile returned. "It's refreshing to be reminded once in a while that you do care about people." He cocked his head briefly as she looked mildly offended for a moment. He then said, "Try to lay off the violence for the time being. You can't change how he feels."

She shrugged as she looked out at the various patrons of the establishment who were drinking, talking and laughing. "I don't want Cameron to be hurt ei..." She suddenly looked at Daniel, noticing that he wasn't paying any attention to her, distracted as he was by something on the other side of the tavern from where he sat. She frowned slightly in concern and he asked, realising eventually that she was looking at him,

"You see that?"

"What?"

She looked in the direction that he had indicated and asked in bemusement, seeing what appeared to be an old man with white 'James Brown' hair, seated on the other side of the tavern with his ale, "That old man? What about him?"

Daniel frowned at where the old man was seated, a few moments previously seeing Merlin there. Coming to a realisation about what he surmised to be another vision, he said, distracted, "Nothing."

"Glad we had this chat. You okay?"

He replied, still looking distracted as he continued to consider the appearance of the apparition, "Yeah, I'm fine. In fact, I get the feeling we're on the right track."

She continued to look at Daniel in concern, occasionally glancing back at the old man just in case he suddenly became interesting. Moments later, Tomin appeared with a stocky man with longish curly brown hair and sideburns. They sat down at Vala and Daniel's table, and Tomin said, introducing the members of SG-1 to the man and vice versa,

"This is Hertis. Hertis, this is Daniel. Vala, my wife."

Vala gulped and no-one else saw Daniel inconspicuously extract a primed zat from her hand. Noticing her reaction to the introduction, but not seeing what Daniel had done, Tomin said, looking at her matter-of-factly, "We are still married."

Vala fought with herself not to make a scene as she glanced from Hertis to Tomin, and then she said softly to Tomin as a nonchalant Daniel slowly and inconspicuously extracted a beretta from her trembling and white-knuckled grip beneath the table, "We'll talk about that later."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

As Hertis stared down at the view of his planet from a window of the Odyssey, the ship currently in orbit of the planet, Vala looked at Cam. The Colonel stared back at her, and she nodded slightly with a small smile, silently communicating with him. Cam returned the smile as Tomin, looking disturbed and uneasy at the scene, turned to look out of the window. Daniel, still in disguise as was Vala, turned away, attempting to remove his contact lenses so he could put his more comfortable glasses on.

Sam, spotting the trouble that he was having, got up from where she had been seated at a large black table with Cam, Teal'c leaning against a chair in between the two Colonels. The Astrophysicist made her way to where Daniel was and touched his waist. He looked at her, his hands dropping, and she said quietly,

"Look at me Daniel."

He smiled slightly and then looked at her as she quickly extracted them. He reached into a pocket for a small container containing some cleaning fluid and put the lenses away. She asked, squeezing his upper arm as he nodded at her in thanks, his smile returning,

"You ok?"

He held her right hand for a moment, glancing down at it before saying with a soft smile, "Yeah. I think we're on the right track."

She smiled too. "Good." Glancing at Hertis and Tomin, and knowing that they all had to be professional for the duration of the mission – how ever long it turned out to be – she reached into her BDU jacket pocket and handed Daniel his glasses before returning to her seat as Teal'c looked amused for the briefest of moments, while Cam silently brooded.