Her baby was in danger.
Jacek had given her something to temporarily wipe out her higher brain functions, keeping her sluggish and obedient to all his commands.
But her baby was in danger. Her baby needed her. At the moment, she was sitting at a table unable to move even one finger in a greasy bar where shady deals were being cemented by even shadier individuals. And never had she hated Jacek more than she did now.
If she lost her baby, she would hunt him down and kill him.
Slowly.
Torturously.
It would be the most fun she'd had in months.
A tear fell from her eye as she struggled futilely against the effects of the drug coursing through her body.
She knew she was in trouble. Her baby needed her to move, get up and leave. Walk to the Gate, call for help. But the drug held her fast, keeping her in place for Jacek.
She hated him.
She wasn't supposed to be standing, much less walking around.
Their walk from the Gate to the bar was at least three miles.
Concentrating, Vala flicked her eyes to her hand to see if it would move when she put her mental strength to it.
Nothing.
She tried again, fighting the urge to give in to tears. She needed every bit of her strength to protect herself and her baby. Had to protect her unborn son. Daniel's baby.
She had promised the baby she wouldn't allow anything to harm it, and by all that was, her son would grow up to survive anything.
The tiniest flicker of her pinky finger was enough to give her hope, she kept working to move other parts of her body while Jacek remained on the other side of the room, cementing a deal with something that had two heads. Daniel would be fascinated if he was here.
Half a galaxy away from Vala and their baby, Daniel was fighting the urge to kill the men guarding Vala's room. Sure, they had been zatted, but they had allowed someone without clearance into her room in the first place. He would have checked the face against the medical ID badge, made sure the orders came from Lam, and searched the medic, but that was just him.
He pushed away from the group finally, unable to bear the pain of losing them. Heading for the gym, he found a weight bag and began taking out his frustration, pummeling it to free his rage and hurt.
Jacek probably didn't even have the information they needed. Just another lie told by the man, and Daniel had personally vouched for him. Vala would never forgive him now. She'd probably accuse him of hiring Jacek to get rid of the baby. Daniel gave the bag an extra hard whack before gripping his head in frustration.
"Daniel." Jack guided him into a sitting position against the wall, Daniel finally pulled his hands away from his face.
"I'm losing her Jack. All over again, I'm losing everyone I care about. I'm cursed. I must be. Everyone I care about dies. Watch out, you and yours are next. The Daniel Jackson curse is headed your way." He spat angrily. Without a word, the older man slid down to sit on the floor next to him, putting an arm around his shoulders. "I just have to wonder, how much longer before it turns on me? I kill everyone I come into contact with! I killed Sha're, I killed Skaara, Kasuf, everyone on Abydos. I've gotten so many…so many people killed Jack! How can I go on without her? How can I go back to the man I was without her? I can't lose her, Jack. Not her. I can lose you, Teal'c, Sam, Mitchell, but not her. I put the baby inside her, I'm the one killing her. Yeah, I might get a baby, but then what? I'll never be able to touch her again. Never listen to her breath. Never hear another convoluted theory about what sleeplessness does to a man's sex organ…."
"What?" Jack couldn't help the laugh that came out, caught it before he could ruin things with Daniel.
"Yeah, Vala claimed there's some study out there that makes a guy impotent if he gets less than two hours of sleep. This was after she had compared the tube of cookie dough to a guys'…
"Get the picture there Daniel, no need to elaborate."
"And the whole time she's going on about this theory she's eating the dough and telling me chocolate is an aphrodisiac. I can't lose another person I love Jack, I can't. I've seen that side of me, after Sha're. I won't go there again." He thudded a fist against the mat in frustration. Jack patted his shoulder comfortingly and sighed. "Looks like you won't have to. It's why I came to find you." He began. Daniel's head snapped up in surprise. "Remember when SG-15 went missing two years ago, turns out they fell into a ravine off world and took us two weeks to find them?" The older man asked.
"Yeah." Daniel replied suspiciously.
"Good." Jack let the silence build, along with Jackson's curiosity.
"Now that we've established my memory goes back two years, why'd you bring it up?" He finally snapped.
"Evidently, not that good of a memory. We were all implanted with a tracking device just in case something like that happens again. Makes us easier to find in case of offworld emergency. Remember?" Jack replied. Daniel was off the floor and running for the exit before Jack had time to stand.
"Oh, for the energy of the young." Jack sighed, easing to his feet.