Thanks for waiting! Sorry, I've had a lot to do this time of year, lol. Anyway, here's your next chapter. Enjoy; can't wait to hear from you! :) thanks!

Chapter 9

She and Daniel had already agreed when they first discussed the plan that once he had the blood samples, they should wait longer than usual to meet again to give it time to work, and avoid suspicion. That was why Vala wasn't to go back to his house until three weeks later.

It wasn't until the day she was supposed to go that it happened.

She'd been anxious for most of the time—for more than one reason—but she knew she was dreading the moment when the news would arrive at the SGC that Daniel's remains had finally been found after almost a year and a half. What form would the news take? How would the others react at first? Were they really doing the right thing…?

Vala woke up that day wondering why it hadn't happened yet, and if she should even go to the house today. She had no way to contact Daniel to ask. She was out of bed early, dressed and pacing her room, waiting until she could leave just after noon.

What's going on, Daniel?

A knock on her door seemed to answer the silent question.

It was Sam. "Hey…I was just letting you know that General Landry wants SG-1 in his office in half an hour."

Vala glanced at the clock. It was 9:30. "His office?" she asked suspiciously.

Sam hesitated. "Yeah, I…I think something's up. He looked a little distracted when he asked me to tell the rest of you…"

She swallowed. "Oh, right, well…I'll be there. Thanks." Sam nodded, and she quickly shut the door and leaned heavily on it. It had to be today?

Daniel left the house in Forks early that morning, when no one was paying attention. They were working or absorbed in their spouses. It was easy for him to slip out unnoticed in the hours before dawn. Those who weren't already out hunting were usually otherwise occupied.

He went up the mountain into the crisper air, to clear his head. Granted, his faculties themselves were not muddled in the slightest—not with the brain he had now—but his emotions needed reining in.

The plan Carlisle had concocted had been much more detailed and believable than what Daniel had in mind. It was much cleaner, much better. His friends wouldn't be able to argue with the information they would receive…would receive today. Carlisle had even been able to pinpoint that.

It was almost perfect, but of course nothing could be. Still, it all involved so much more than Daniel had realized, and Carlisle had covered it all. Through his contacts and friends the doctor had been able to compile an entire of folder of documents to have sent to the SGC, allegedly through the Air Force and originally from the local law enforcement agencies of where his 'remains' were supposedly found.

There were falsified reports, medical examiners' documents, and even a certificate of death. The final punch came with his glasses, which Daniel had given to Carlisle to have sent back to his friends with the news. They wouldn't have much reason to question anything anymore, once it all got to them. They could finally bury him—in their minds and in a grave—even if the coffin was empty.

He was doing the right thing. He knew he was. It would for them, at first, but in the long run it would help them. The unanswered questions would be much fewer, the larger question answered.

But Daniel still felt horrible, and half of it…half of it had nothing to do with the rest of his friends who would soon believe him dead.

Teal'c's instincts clearly told him that whatever General Landry meant to tell SG-1 when they gathered in his office must be quite serious, and quite possibly bad news. Unfortunately, here was only one specific bit of bad news that he could fathom the SGC might receive that would be relevant only to SG-1.

He was the first to arrive, and he was not surprised when Cameron Mitchell, Samantha Carter, and Vala MalDoran all appeared as apprehensive as he felt when they arrived. Cameron and Samantha came first, not long after Teal'c himself, and Vala was last, seeming reluctant.

General Landry was not waiting in the office for them, but two of the chairs from the briefing room had been pulled into the office to make room for all for of them to sit across from the desk. Even so, they waited for the general on their feet, and Teal'c could feel the uneasiness radiating from his friends in waves.

At precisely 10 am General Landry came in through the side door of his office and stopped behind his desk, looking no better than the rest of them did. He was quiet, impassive, but as long as they had worked for them they all recognized the signs of hidden strain. He motioned for them to sit, and Vala immediately dropped into one of the stationary chairs, farthest from the desk. If anything, she was the most tense of any of them.

Teal'c quietly sat in the identical chair beside her, allowing Cameron and Samantha to sit in the more comfortable chairs from the briefing room.

Landry didn't sit. Instead he glanced at the doors as if making sure they were closed, and sighed. It was almost a vulnerable sound, something they didn't hear from him often.

"Sir?" Carter piped up almost immediately.

"There's no good way to say this," he answered. He looked at them for a moment, then down at the desk for another, hand resting on a thick folder that sat there, before he faced them again. "I'm afraid we finally have some news…on Daniel. It's not good."

Samantha draw in a quick breath, and Vala's eyes suddenly clenched tightly shut, as if steeling herself against what might come next.

"Not good how?" Mitchell asked tightly.

Teal'c said nothing. He did not want to hear the rest any more than the rest of them did…but he knew it was necessary.

Landry waited again, not long, but long enough that they understood he hated being the bearer of the news he was about to give. "It's not any different than we feared, in the broad sense," he said quietly. "His body was found last week."

Mitchell cursed quietly, and Samantha flinched as if physically struck. Vala didn't move, and her eyes remained shut. The only indication she had heard at all was the tightening of her grip on the arms of the chair she sat in.

Teal'c lowered his head slowly, gravely, in honor of his friend. Daniel Jackson…Suddenly he felt a sick feeling he had not experienced in some time.

As much as part of him wanted to leave now, to sequester himself in his room and meditate, to sooth the sudden pain, he made himself listen to the rest of the report, given quietly and quickly by the general before the shock of him human friends could dissolve into sorrow.

"A man on vacation, fishing in one of the smaller lakes near where he disappeared, pulled up a waterlogged P-90 two weeks ago, and of course an investigation followed into which the lake was dragged." Landry sighed.

"He ah…he'd been down there about as long as we've been looking for him. He probably drowned the same day he disappeared. There were tears in the clothing that suggested an animal attack, but there's no way to say positively what kind after that long under water; the rips could have widened, or multiplied from catching on plants…Either way, he was hurt. If he fell in in that condition, with all of his gear on…"

Vala groaned, head already dropped into her hands.

Samantha choked on a dry sob. "He never would have had a chance."

"Oh, god…" Mitchell gasped.

Landry tapped the folder in front of him and told them it contained the reports, and then he pulled something else out of a desk drawer. "This was all that was sent back…" In a plastic evidence bag were Jackson's glasses, one lens broken and both scratched.

That drove it home.

Then Carter's eyes weren't dry anymore, and she was bent over, crying softly, and since he was already at her side there was no risk in Cameron pulling her into his arms.

Teal'c felt his jaw clench tightly, and he stood at the same moment Vala did. Her eyes were wet as he knew his were, but it seemed as if neither of them were willing to let the tears go farther.

She went for the door, not seeing him at first. When she did see him, she stopped, and he wondered if perhaps more of his emotions were leaking to his face than he wished, for she changed course and came slowly to him, instead. He thought he saw something in her eyes, something besides the sorrow…but it was hidden when she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

Daniel heard them coming long before anyone reached him, of course. He wasn't annoyed, only a little confused that they'd gone to the trouble to look for him, a little touched.

Bella reached him first. There was no seeing her coming, because he wasn't looking. He was sitting, staring out over the forest below the cliff instead, and one moment he was alone and the next he was turning and she was behind him.

"We've been looking for you all morning," she told him, arms crossed.

"I'm sorry...but why—?"

"You disappear a lot, but you always tell us beforehand. Today you didn't."

His mouth opened a little before he realized that she was right. As much as he tried to leave unnoticed, it was never without telling them the day before that he was going to be leaving.

"Right. I'm sorry." He turned back to the vista below and swallowed. He was letting himself slip already. He couldn't afford to do that.

Bella stepped up to the edge beside him. "Is there anything particularly fascinating up here?"

In a split second he was standing too. "No, not really. I just came here to think. It's a nice place for it."

"I guess," she said skeptically, though he wasn't sure which part of it the tone applied to.

"Don't you ever just think…like maybe about what your life would have been like if you'd stayed human?"

She shrugged. "Every now and then, but it's nothing that keeps me occupied for very long, not when I have Edward and Renesmee." She looked at him then, suddenly. "Oh…but you don't have anyone…not here…"

He nodded silently and looked away again.

"You don't talk about your human life—the people in your life then. We don't know much about you beyond where you worked and what you did, vaguely."

Daniel hesitated. "It…hurts," he admitted. "To talk about them."

There was a moment of silence. "I'm the only other one in this family that remembers anyone I knew as then who's still alive. Of those, I still see my parents, the two who ever really meant anything to me. I was never that close to my human friends…" A pause. "That wasn't the case for you, was it?"

He shook his head minutely. "I was human for a lot longer than any of you. I had a lot more time to…become attached." He didn't think any of them could really understand how hard all of this was for him, leaving them. "Sometimes…" He almost laughed, just a little. "Sometimes I really wish we could cry."

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Bella give him a solemn smile. "That much I can understand."

Alice found them then, and the relief was evident on her face. "Thanks, Bella. Why don't you tell the others he's all right? I'll make sure he gets home."

Bella glanced at him, and he nodded in thanks. She nodded back and left just as quickly as she had come.

"You're not going back to Colorado anymore," Alice said once she was gone. It wasn't a question, because for her there wasn't much that was.

"No," Daniel sighed, jaw clenching. "I can't."

Alice gripped his arms gently, looking piercingly up at him. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Of course that's not what I want," he choked out. "But it's what I have to do. It's the only things that's fair to her, in the long run. It's the only choice that keeps her and the others safe…"

Her hands dropped, and she nodded slowly. "As long as you're sure."

"I have to be," he answered quietly.

Vala felt horrible about leaving the SGC all of that, but Sam and Cameron had each other, and after an hour or so Muscles seemed all right. He was tough, though she was glad she'd taken the time to hug him for a while.

She needed it almost as much as he did.

She was a little late arriving at the house, but the generator still wasn't on when she closed the cellar door over her. It wasn't too terribly cold, and she wasn't sure what was going to happen today, so she didn't bother to turn it on herself. She was too anxious to take the time to do it, regardless. Even though she was roughly sure Daniel wasn't there yet, she hurried up the stairs to the kitchen.

Just as she'd suspected, there was no one there, and she was about to cross into the living room and drop onto the couch to wait when something on the kitchen counter caught her eyes—something that hadn't been there before.

It was nothing but a small envelope, with nothing written on the outside, but it could only be meant for her, right?

Vala pick it up and pulled out a typed page, what must have been a note from Daniel. Her name wasn't on it, and neither was his signed, but she supposed that was for security, as was the fact that it came from a word processor. There was no reason to take chances.

For a brief second she was relieved, sure that he was telling her why he wasn't there, and when he would be.

I'm sorry, it began.

Vala quickly scanned the rest, looking for what she wanted to know, and froze in her place at what her eyes passed over. Slowly, deliberately, unbelievingly, she traced back to the top and read the entire letter. Every word seemed to cut her heart into smaller and smaller pieces. Gradually she sank to the floor as her breath caught in her throat and her heart seemed to stop.

She was right in her first thought—the note told her why Daniel wasn't there.

But it also told her that he wasn't coming back.