***I do not own anything here, all characters belong to MGM, I just play with them now and again.*****

*******A/N—this takes place approximately a year after Unending….Vala had said in The Powers That Be (season 9) that she had been free from Qetesh for 4 years at that point.

Chapter 6

Daniel couldn't look Mitchell in the eye, the man was laughing like a fool. "damn Mitchell would you stop that braying?" Daniel felt his headache get stronger. This would require more than more coffee to stop it. How was he going to solve this, falling in love with Vala and trying to decide if she was serious about him? He wondered if the universe was laughing at him.

"Well Jackson, you need to get things straightened out with her, she is confused…." Cam stopped at the look on Daniel's face.

"Where in hell is she? Have you been talking to her?" Daniel stood facing Cam. Cam wasn't sure if Daniel was thinking of taking a shot at him.

"Calm down big boy! Your girl spent last night talking to my mother, and YOU were the topic of interest." Cam decided that teasing Jackson wasn't a good idea with Jackson in this mood. "Mom was worried that you were going hurt Vala." Cam waited to see how Daniel would respond.

"I would never hurt her…..wait a minute, your mom talked to her last night?" The pieces began to fall into place with Daniel. He grabbed Cam by the shoulders. "Where is she? She is on the base isn't she?"

"Whoa Jackson, I have no inside information." Cam decided to let Daniel find Vala for himself. "You get to play Sherlock alone." Cam quickly exited Daniel's office. Daniel sat down and tried to figure out where Vala was hiding.

Meanwhile…..Vala had her iPod turned on as she lay in the dark on Sam's laboratory couch trying to snooze. Her life had been completely out of her control since Jasec had brought home that viper, Adria, to be her "new mother". Vala had been still mourning the loss of her beloved mother and felt very betrayed by Jasec's quick remarriage. Adria had not liked the reminder of Jasec's first wife and had made Vala's life impossible until she had literally sold Vala to Qetesh. The one satisfaction Vala received from that transaction was watching Qetesh kill Adria; Qetesh disliked feeling indebted to anyone. During her time as a host there had been no control in Vala's life. Qetesh had used her body, her friends, and her life as she chose. In the past six years of her freedom, Vala had maintained rigid control over every aspect of her life, until the Ori impregnated her with the Orici. Once again her life was out of her control. Vala did not want to lose control again.

Daniel, oh Daniel…. He would never purposely hurt her, but still, she wanted to know that the choices she made were hers, not the whim of another. When Daniel acted as he had over the past few weeks, Vala seemed to lose all backbone. If he wanted to kiss her, she let him. If he wanted a platonic trip to New Orleans, she didn't try to seduce him. What in hell was wrong with her? She should have put on that sexy red lace negligee she packed and waltz right into his room. Even if she had ended up alone that night, she would have gotten back her confidence. That was the whole problem in fact. With Daniel behaving this way, she didn't want to do anything to "ruin" his mood. Wendy had advised her to "be yourself, don't worry about losing him, if he doesn't love you the way you are, then he doesn't love the real you." She really envied Cam his mom. Wendy reminded her of her own mother, kind, caring, full of good advice, and the ability to giggle. Vala knew that Wendy was right; she just needed a bit of time away from Daniel to get used to not being with him so if he didn't like the real her she could survive.

Vala groaned and rolled over. Who in hell was she kidding? Not herself. If Daniel didn't want her, it would break her heart. She would leave Earth, maybe work at the Alpha site, she wouldn't want to see him, hear him, and not be with him everyday. Maybe she would leave the Stargate program altogether. She loved the life she had made here; the friends, the fun, the useful work, and not worrying about getting stabbed or jumped by those you worked with. There was a security here she had never found before. It was because of Daniel, but had turned into being content for a host of other reasons. She decided that if Daniel didn't want her, she would not leave Stargate Command. She had friends like Sam, Cam & his family, Muscles, Alice, Mary, Jace and Kathy, even Bill Lee. She was not going to allow someone else's actions determine where she lived and worked! If things with Daniel fell apart, she was still staying here, it was her HOME now. Having made that decision, Vala closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Daniel checked the notepad on his desk-- mumbling to himself, "Bill's Lab, the commissary, the ladies' locker (have to ask Carolyn to check), oh the infirmary…maybe she is hiding in a quarantine room, any of the gyms, the base library…." Still mumbling Daniel left his office.