Vala screamed, arching her back as pain racked her from the inside. Daniel gripped her shoulders and pulled her up against him and sat beside her, giving her comfort.
"Almost there, Vala. A few more good pushes like that one, and your baby will be here. How are you doing? Can Mitchell get you anything?" Lam asked kindly.
"Why him?" Daniel barked harshly. "Why not me?"
"He's the one that brought her here, he can be the one that fetches everything she needs while you stay and take the verbal abuse." Lam shot back, moving to gently rub her friend's shoulders as Vala stayed against Daniel.
"He did it to protect my son, my little Dacodah." Vala whimpered from somewhere in Daniel's chest. He cupped the back of her head as her body began tightening, Lam noticed and nodded once. "Ready? Push!" She ordered firmly. Vala sucked in a deep breath and bore down, spots appearing in the middle of her vision at the intensity she harbored.
"It hurts!" She grunted out as tears leaked from her eyes. She could dimly hear Daniel counting for her, his voice excited. Ten. She had to get to ten. She could rest then.
When the magical number finally hit her ears, she let herself fall back, exhausted.
Thirty-nine hours of labor, and counting.
"I can see the head, I think just one more push and your baby's going to be here, Vala." Lam smiled, pulling away. Vala barely had time to nod as another contraction hit her, nearly doubling her over with the intensity. Letting out a scream, she bore down against the pain, felt something tear inside her and then after several seconds of pure, white hot agony, her body was strangely empty. It felt…different. She was so used to sharing her body with the small being inside her that she had forgotten what it was to be alone again. She felt that with Adria, once, many long and unhappy years ago.
Forcing the thought of the Ori's Messiah from her, Vala suddenly realized Daniel wasn't happy. No glad shouts at his son's birth. The baby, it wasn't crying. A stunned silence had come over them all, and that blasted darkness was trying to come for her again. She felt the pillow give way beneath her head as she collapsed into it, exhausted and shaking, forcing herself to stay awake as the darkness swirled into her vision. "What's wrong with my baby? Someone, Daniel, answer me!" She pleaded, her voice hoarse from the screaming. Carolyn tore herself away from Daniel, going back to Vala and beginning the post birth exam. "Tell me!" Vala pleaded, her voice cracking as tears spilled down her face.
"Vala, I'm sorry. The cord was around the baby's neck, and it got stuck during the labor. The placenta tore away from the uterus when the baby came, I need to do surgery to stop the bleeding." Carolyn explained gently.
"The baby, let me see him, please, I need to hold him!" Vala begged, struggling weakly against her friend. She could see a tiny foot over Daniel's arm, lying against his skin limp and blue.
And he was…it looked like he was…
Before she could figure things out further, Carolyn glanced back to see what held her eyes. She pulled the curtain to shield Vala from the sight before it caused her any undue stress. Moving swiftly to Daniel's side, she reached up to take the infant from him. "Dr. Jackson, it's okay. Give the baby to me." She urged.
"Jackson, let it go." Cam echoed an order gently.
But it wasn't their baby.
With his free hand, Daniel shoved Carolyn away from the still infant, turned his back on Mitchell. Infant CPR was something he had learned with Jack, on the sly, hoping it would never be needed, but now he was more than grateful the older man had firmly 'suggested' it. As if Jack knew, somehow, what would happen. When Cam entered his line of vision again, Daniel delivered a swift kick to the man's family jewels, nothing would get between him and the infant he cradled so tenderly. Over the last few months he had watched Vala nearly double in size, felt the kicking of his baby under her skin. Had even talked about names. Now that his child was a reality, something tangible, he felt completed on a level of himself that he never knew existed. As he breathed into the baby again, he felt it shudder under his grip and drew back to see the little eyes flutter open a second before it let out a wail of protest at it's undignified entrance into this strange place. Vala gasped, leaning forward and he drew closer to her, stepping over Cam's moaning form on the ground to get to her.
"Let me hold my baby," Vala pleaded weakly. He set the baby in her arms as a tech approached with a pair of scissors and a clamp to cut the umbilical cord.
Carolyn was instantly there, placing an oxygen mask over the baby's nose and mouth, rubbing at the infant's chest to continue reviving it. "Congratulations. Both of you. Good job, Daniel. You saved your daughter's life there." She said quickly.
"A girl? Are you sure? We had a girl?" Vala asked weakly, struggling to keep herself awake, surprised by the news. "You said you thought it was a boy, the heartbeat was strong and it kicked enough, like a boy."
"You never wanted me to check for sure, remember? I was only making an educated guess at the gender, based on textbook fact. Although, you two aren't exactly textbook cases yourselves, so we should probably throw out the books when it comes to your baby. Have you two thought of a name yet?" Carolyn asked.
"We have. Dacodah Samm Jackson-Mal Doran." Daniel smiled at the thought. "But that was before we had a girl. But it works for either gender, I think."
"Actually, I want to give her a different name." Vala murmured as her arms relaxed. Daniel looked to the tech who held the birth certificate and shook his head quickly, cancelling the name. "Let's get her into surgery." Lam ordered, locking the guardrails into place and beginning to roll the medical bed into the makeshift operating room.
"Yo, Jackson, you ever go after my manhood again, all bets are off, I'm gonna' kill ya'." Mitchell grunted out as he painfully got to his feet.
"Next time will go pretty much the same as this one. I kick you, you go down." Daniel replied absently.
"Congratulations, by the way. She's beautiful. How's Vala?"
"She's going in for surgery, Carolyn's with her. Hey, what do you think of the name Michaela Chantalle?"
"I like it. For a high priced call girl from New York, maybe. Not for this little thing of beauty. Sorry about earlier, Jackson. I just figured that you were…well that maybe you needed a little help letting go of her. Before she was screaming I mean." Cam moved to look down at the baby, a smile lighting his face.
"Yeah, no harm no foul, right? I mean, you were trying to get me to accept that my baby died, I kicked you in a place sacred to men, we're good, right?" Daniel replied.
"Oh, yeah. 'course. Although, you attack the baby makers again, I'll kill ya'. Got any other ideas on what you guys are gonna' name her?"
"Jury's still out, we were thinking either Dacodah Samm or Jonathan Melbourne. Although, in retrospect it seems to lose a little in the girl department. Maybe Jennette? Zara? Tikvah?"
"Jennette is too long, Zara sounds like an actress that should be married to a billionaire, and I have no clue about Tikvah. What's it mean?"
"Yiddish for jewel. What about Zoie Jade?"
"Uh-uh, stripper name. Trust me on this, some old dude hears her name, he's gonna' wanna' stick singles in her diaper. Then again, that might help with little lady's college fund, so, not a bad idea." Cameron smirked.
"Do I even know you?" Daniel shot back
The two turned as one when Carolyn came hurrying back through the door, looking flustered.
"Vala says you're not to name the baby until she's back from surgery, on pain of death. She doesn't like any of the names you just tossed out, and if she comes back and the certificate is signed by you, with her name crappy, Vala's going to kick you in the place you kicked Cam. Just to warn you." She ordered firmly before disappearing again. Cam stared after her in silent surprise.
"Damn." He finally breathed.
"Yeah." Daniel couldn't help grinning. "We're owned by the finest women ever, and we got suckered in without a fight. I hope my little girl doesn't figure it out."
"Good luck with that one, but from here it looks like she's already got you under her spell. Listen, when Vala gets out of the operating room, we may have to make a run for the gate. If anything goes down, as I think it will, where do you want me?" Cam asked. Daniel looked up from studying his daughter's face.
"What?"
"If anything goes down when we go back through the gate, which one of them you want me guarding? Vala? Or Baby Girl Jackson?"
Daniel swallowed hard, his eyes returning to his little girl.
"Jackson-Mal Doran." He managed softly, eyes filling with tears over the decision he had to make.
"Vala would kill me if I asked you to stay with her, leaving our baby vulnerable. If you see me go down, go for the baby. Even if it means leaving Vala open." He finally spoke out. Cam nodded once and was gone.