AN: Here's the next part.
Thanks to everyone that came back to this after so long, was afraid that no one would want to pick the story up again after so long. This hasn't been checked by anyone but myself so all the mistakes are my own and there's probably a lot more of them than normal, so I'm apologising in advance.
Reading it back I think this chapter came out a little bit like 'The Wizard of Oz' only in reverse.
Please let me know what you think, I was a little disappointed to hear from so few of you on the last chapter.
***
Vala moaned as the early morning light filtered through a window and onto her face and she dragged herself unwillingly from the depths of sleep. Another moan escaped her as she turned over and buried her head into her soft pillow and stretched out her legs. Her brow wrinkled when her foot hit against something hard and she felt a hand clasp around it.
Someone was sitting on the end of her bed.
"Time to wake up, princess." A man's voice called to her and although it wasn't the voice she was expecting. She opened her eyes to look at its owner.
"Cameron?" she asked squinting through bleary eyes, "Where's Daniel?"
The blurry figure gave her a confused look, "Elena, do I want to know why my 16 year old daughter is asking for not one but two strange men to be at her bedside in the morning?"
Vala sat up in her bed, shock and confusion running wild on her face, "Father?" she asked tentatively as the last traces of sleep fled from her mind and her vision cleared.
The older man chuckled, "Do not sound so surprised Elena, you missed breakfast and your mother sent me to see if you are alright. You slept late." He admonished her slightly.
Vala rubbed her head, "I had such a strange dream father," her hand drifted to the back of her neck but instead of the scar she was expecting all she felt was smooth skin, "Such a strange and terrible dream."
Her father moved from his seat at the end of her bed and sat back down beside her, gathering her into a tight hug, "It was a dream and nothing more, put it from your mind." He kissed her temple and pulled away from her, "Now get up you lazy girl! It is gone nine o'clock and you are late for your lessons." He smiled at her as he got up and left the room.
Vala shook her head a few times before rising from her bed and dressing to start the day, Hirgon would not be best pleased if she was late for his lessons.
As she sat some hours later in the stuffy classroom listening to the old scholar drone on about the founding of their world Vala thought she caught the dark shape of a man standing on the edge of her vision but when she turned her head he vanished.
***
Vala smiled widely as her father spun her around the floor of the grand ballroom feeling every bit the princess that she was. Tonight was her 18th birthday and her father had thrown a ball for her in celebration. All night she had been spun around the floor by her father and brothers as well as, what seemed to her, an endless line of potential suitors.
She knew that this was an unavoidable part of the evening but she had made sure before the ball had started that both her brothers knew the signal for when she had tired of the man in front of her and wanted someone to come and save her. However as the next 'suitor' approached her she knew that no intervention by her brothers would be needed, in fact if they tried to interrupt her dance with this man she might just have to take drastic measures.
His sandy blond hair and shy smile instantly appealed to her and when he silently offered his hand to her with a deep bow she knew she could happily spend her life in his arms. When he rose from his bow to take her into his arms she startled for a brief moment when his eyes, instead of the ocean blue she had unexpectedly been waiting for, where a sparkling green. She recovered quickly however and for the rest of the night the room was filled with not only her electric smile but her joyous laughter as well.
No one noticed the blonde woman in the corner who silently faded from sight, a deep frown on her face.
***
Vala woke with the sounds of screaming in her mind.
However over the years she had become accustom to this and instead of the paralyzing fear she once felt after one of her strange nightmares now there was only a slight tremor shaking her body. She sat up in her bed and hugged her knees to her chest in an attempt to make it stop and took a deep breath. Beside her there was a rustling of blankets as her husband woke and brought his arm around her shoulders.
"Another bad dream Elena?" He asked gently, the past year of marriage giving him plenty of experience with his wives nightmares.
Vala turned her body into the warm chest of her husband and clung to him as her trembling subsided. "There's always so much pain." She whispered, her voice catching in her throat.
"They are just dreams Elena," He told her as he planted a kiss to her bare shoulder, "Just tricks of the mind that mean nothing."
They lay back down together and Vala moulded herself to his side, "But they seem so real, how can my mind create such things." She looked up into his eyes and, even after all this time, was surprised for a moment that they where not the blue she was expecting. "I don't understand."
"Neither do I my love, neither do I" He stroked he hair gently as he drifted back into sleep.
As Vala closed her eyes to follow him she was sure she caught sight of the dark figure of a man in the corner of the room, his eyes catching the moonlight and sparkling ocean blue.
***
"Don't run so far away!" Vala called out to the two children as they ran further down the sandy shore of the beach.
"They'll be fine Elena." Her husband told her, leaning over to kiss her before turning his attention back to the third child in his lap. "We can still see them."
"I don't like them being that far away." She replied, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, "Anything could happen to them."
From his lap the toddler babbled and nodded his head as if in agreement with his mother, he chuckled, "Do you think your mothers right?" He asked the child.
"His mother is always right," Vala shot back, falling back into their usual banter without thinking, her worries momentarily forgotten.
Her husband continued on talking while keeping an eye on the older children who had gone in search of seashells but Vala's attention was held by the tall man who stood on the crest of a sand dune a little way away. A deep frown wrinkled his already serious face and his dark brown eyes seemed to twist something deep in Vala's heart. The sun glinted off the gold emblem embossed on his head and despite the warm sun Vala shivered.
A cry from down the beach broke her concentration and in the moment she looked away to comfort the now crying child that was running towards her the man disappeared.
***
"Mother, it's time." the solemn voice behind her called as Vala stared out the window.
Vala pushed her greying hair back from her face and gave her eyes one last wipe as she turned round to face her daughter and, with a watery smile, she picked up the black veil from her dresser and draped it over her head before placing a circlet of silver on top of it.
She didn't speak a word she exited her rooms and her son took her arm to guide her to the funeral, her daughters and grandchildren following behind them. She didn't speak throughout the service as her husbands body was laid to rest or at the wake when people offered her their hollow condolences and empty platitudes.
She didn't speak a word until that evening when her youngest grandson tugged gently at her skirts and held his hands out to be lifted onto her lap. The little boy wrapped his small arms around his grandmother and buried his head into her body.
"When's grandpa coming home?" He asked her quietly, unable to understand anything but the fact that his grandmother was upset and his grandpa wasn't their to make her smile again.
"He's not darling," Vala told him gently as she rubbed his back and her tears began to fall again.
***
With great effort Vala opened her eyes and took in a sharp, painful, breath that rattled in her chest when she saw the four people standing at the foot of her bed. Her eyes managed to focus on the cold blue eyes of the man that had haunted her dreams for the past 80 years.
"Daniel?" It came out as more of a question than a statement. "They told me you weren't real."
"And you believed them?" Daniel asked, disappointment lacing his words.
"Coward." The blonde woman stated with no emotion in her voice.
"Deserter." A southern accent accused her.
"Traitor." Intoned the deep baritone voice of the Jaffa.
"Please stop," Vala begged weakly, "I'm dying."
"You're not supposed to die Vala, not here." Daniel told her, anger creeping into his tone.
"I don't understand."
"You let them lull you to sleep Vala, trade in your true mission for creature comforts." The anger crept up another notch.
"There was no mission Daniel, no war or aliens. It was all just dreams." Vala tried desperately to explain as the gaze of the rooms other occupants never wavered from her. "I'm so tired, Daniel, I need to sleep."
"No Vala, you need to get up." He told her sternly, "You must get up and fight, this isn't your world Vala. Get up and fight the fight. Get up."
"I can't." She told him, her voice so faint the words were barely spoken at all.
"Yes you can, Vala. Wake up!"
Vala let out a deep breath, closed her eyes, and woke up.