Season 9 – Episode 4: The Ties That Bind

Episode summary: Vala removes the Goa'uld bond bracelets from herself and Daniel, and goes on her way. However, she and Daniel become sick, and she is forced to return. The bracelets' affect has remained even though they have been removed. They go to Dr Lee, who is stumped. They go to the technology expert Vala stole the bracelets from, who agrees to help them, if they return his mother's necklace that Vala also stole. They go through a chain of trade deals to try and get this back, only to discover that the technology expert cannot sever the bond between Daniel and Vala, but he theorises it will wear off on its own in time. Meanwhile, the chairman of the appropriations committee is choking off 70% of the SGC's funding, and Teal'c, Daniel, Vala and Landry go to try and convince him not to. They fail. To save their funding, they have to accept an IOA civilian taking a position of power in the SGC's day-to-day decision making.

Author's note: This tag is set during the episode, before the meeting with the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

"Thor! Buddy! Great timing!" Jack exclaimed, very pleased that the Asgard had managed to – for once – transport them up to the ship exactly when they were ready for it, rather than – to take a recent example – at 5am the morning after his wedding night before he'd even woken up. Their bags had been packed, and they were dressed in their BDUs, ready to go.

"Did you enjoy your holiday?" Thor asked.

"It was great. Thank you." Jack said sincerely, hooking an arm around Sam's waist.

"We really appreciate your help Thor. We won't forget it." Sam added with a wide, happy smile.

Thor nodded. "Please stand ready. We will reach your solar system in a moment."

"Gotta love those Asgard hyper-drives." Jack muttered, and Sam agreed vehemently.

He turned to his wife – and he still hadn't gotten used to thinking of her in those terms – and pulled her into a loose hold against his chest, kissing her lightly.

"Ready to get back to reality?" He asked.

"I guess." She sighed.

He'd been impressed with her, in the last couple of weeks. He had worried that Sam never-take-a-vacation Carter would go a little stir-crazy with fifteen days of relaxation on the quiet little backwater planet of P5R 881. But, to his amusement, she had put as much effort and determination into relaxing and enjoying their honeymoon as she would usually put into saving the world.

Sam looked up at him with her big, blue eyes, and he groaned and kissed her again. Going back to his empty house in DC was going to suck.

"I'm going to miss you." She whispered, reading his mind.

"Me too." He grumbled.

"We're going to have to do a lot more weekends together."

"Yup." He agreed with the sentiment, although he had doubts about the likelihood of the execution of that plan. Stuff happened, extra work got dumped on their desks, plans got cancelled … they were both very busy people. They'd just have to do the best they could, which is what they had been doing before they had gotten married.

"We have arrived." Thor said, blinking at them from his console.

"Just give us one more minute, would you please, Thor?" Jack asked.

He put his hands on either side of Sam's jaw, and kissed her, thoroughly and passionately. She moaned into his mouth a little and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing against him.

He pulled back, and kissed her forehead lightly. "Ok. Reality time."

She withdrew her arms, and took a step back from him, and then another. She picked up one bag, and he picked up the other. They smiled ruefully at each other over a distance of three feet.

"Ok Thor. We're ready." He said resignedly.

"Thank you again." Sam added to the little alien.

"You are most welcome Colonel Carter." Thor said warmly. "I hope I will see you both again soon."

There was a flash, and suddenly they were in the briefing room, the airman on duty relaxing out of his startled weapon-draw at their sudden appearance.

"Oh General!" Jack called in a 'Honey I'm home' tone, causing Sam to wince at the informality.

Landry appeared in his office doorway. "Jack! Colonel Carter! Welcome back."

"Thank you Hank. I trust we didn't miss any massive intergalactic crises?"

He'd meant it as a flippant, off-hand remark, expecting a jovial reassurance that the world hadn't stopped functioning without them, but Landry's expression darkened. Crap.

"Funny you should ask. Let's step into my office, you both should hear this."

A few hours later, Sam stepped out of General Landry's office with Jack, in a horrified daze.

"Two weeks. We were gone two weeks, and Daniel got us a new evil all-powerful intergalactic enemy." She said in an awed whisper.

"Got to hand it to him, when he screws up, he screws up big."

"We're never going on vacation again." She declared. Jack looked at her askance, clearly trying to figure out if she was serious. She almost was. Two goddamn weeks without a crisis. That's all she'd wanted.

"Let's go find him." Jack said, and she nodded and followed. A short walk and an elevator ride later, they cornered the man himself in his office.

"Hey!" Daniel exclaimed, and got up from his desk to hug Sam tightly, slapping Jack on the arm. "How was the … 'Asgard advisory mission'?"

"It was great. Really great." Sam answered with a grin.

"Yes, lots of advising. Excellent advising. In fact, I really wish we could go back and advise some more, but Carter says we're never going 'advising' again after the rabbit you managed to pull out of your hat in our absence." Jack said.

Daniel winced. "You heard about that, huh?"

"Oh yes. Something about the Ancients' evil siblings launching a holy crusade against our entire galaxy?" Jack asked.

"More or less, yeah." Daniel agreed.

"I can't believe Dr Lee let you turn that communications device on without knowing what it would do." Sam said, shaking her head.

"We knew it was a communications device. We couldn't have known that the people we would communicate with would be so …"

"Evil? Fanatical? Nuts?" Jack offered.

Daniel canted his head in acknowledgement.

"For the moment, they haven't caused any actual harm here in the Milky Way." Daniel said. "They're just trying to convert people by word of mouth."

"But that's going to change at some point, right?" Jack surmised.

"Probably."

"We just got through beating the Goa'uld and the Replicators." Sam said tiredly.

"I know. And I hate to say it, but, the Ori … they could be worse. And harder to beat."

"Fantastic." Jack said sarcastically.

They stood in a heavy silence for a moment, all wondering from where they would find the energy to fight another galactic war.

"I need to get back to the Pentagon." Jack said with a sigh. "Landry said the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee is trying to choke off the SGC's funding. I have to go put out a few fires, do some damage control."

"Call me tonight?" Sam asked. He smiled softly at her.

"You bet."

He nudged her arm companionably, raised a hand in a half-hearted wave to Daniel, and left.

Sam sighed. God, I miss him already. How pathetic is that?

"So … since you're here … any chance you could help me out with my Vala problem?" Daniel asked hopefully.

"You mean the Goa'uld bracelet thing?" Sam asked. "General Landry said Dr Lee couldn't make any progress with that so you were consulting an off-world expert?"

"Sorta. We've hit a bit of a dead end on that front. In order to get the 'expert' to help us, we have to steal a specific cargo ship from –"

"The Lucian Alliance, yeah, Landry told us." She smiled sympathetically. "It sounds like Vala's a bit of a handful."

"Oh yes. That's putting it mildly."

"Well, I'll be happy to look over Dr Lee's research, but I can't hang around too long. I have to get back to Groom Lake, I didn't exactly plan for a two week vacation so there'll be a ton of work to catch up on."

"Any time you can spare." Daniel said gratefully.

"I'll go check in with him now."

"Hey." Sam greeted Dr Bill Lee as she reached the door of his lab. He looked up, and his eyes widened comically.

"Oh thank God you're back. I tell you, the Asgard's timing couldn't have been worse, we really needed you here the last couple of weeks, what with the Ancient communications device, and those damn Goa'uld bracelets …"

"Yeah, so I hear. That's actually why I'm stopping by, Daniel asked me to take a look at the research on those."

"Of course he did." Bill muttered, a little bitterly. "You know what he said? He said asking me to look into the problem was like 'scraping the bottom of the barrel'. Since Honduras I've considered Daniel a friend, and I know he was frustrated at being still connected to Vala, but still, there's being frustrated and then there's just being rude."

Sam blinked, a little shocked. Maybe this was all affecting Daniel worse than she had thought. "I'm sorry Bill, I'll talk to him."

"Hmm, thanks. Well," he pushed a laptop towards her, "here's everything I've got on the bracelets. Have at it."

It didn't look good for there being a 'quick fix' for Daniel's bond to Vala, at least as far as Sam could see. Maybe the off-world expert would know more, or have some technology that she didn't, but she wasn't looking forward to telling Daniel that she didn't have a miracle solution.

Maybe miracle's not the best word to use, under the circumstances, she thought.

She knocked on the doorframe of Daniel's lab, and both he and a dark haired woman Sam hadn't met before, looked up.

"Hey Sam, any luck with the bracelets?" Daniel asked.

Sam winced. "I'm sorry Daniel. I agree with Dr Lee's assessment, there's really nothing we ourselves can do to sever the connection. In my opinion the bond will fade on its own in time, but … I'm sorry I can't see that there's anything I could do to help it along."

Daniel thumped his fist against his thigh. "Crap."

"Daniel, are you going to introduce me to your friend?" Vala asked sweetly.

Daniel sighed. "Sam this is Vala Mal Doran, Vala, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter."

"So you're the one Daniel kept saying would be so much better than Dr Lee." Vala said, looking her up and down appraisingly. "So much for that theory."

"Vala!" Daniel exclaimed in rebuke as Sam bristled.

"Actually, Daniel, can I have a word? In private?" Sam asked.

"Of course you can. Vala?" Daniel gave the dark haired woman a significantly look, and she sighed dramatically and headed for the door. On her way past Sam she put a hand on Sam's arm and whispered to her.

"No hard feelings darling, you're much more attractive than Dr Lee even if you can't improve on his research."

Sam's draw dropped open in shock and outrage, and she turned to watch the other woman leave. "Is she for real?" She asked Daniel after Vala had gone.

"I honestly haven't the faintest idea." Daniel said tiredly. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Sam grimaced and steeled herself. "Bill."

Daniel frowned. "What about him?"

"Apparently you made a comment about 'scraping the bottom of the barrel'?" Sam said, skewering him with a look, eyebrows raised.

"It was a joke." Daniel said defensively.

"Well, he didn't take it as one, and frankly even if it was a joke, it was rude, and he didn't deserve it. Come on, Daniel, you know better than that. And I thought you two were friends?"

Daniel had the good grace to look a little shame-faced at that. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll apologise."

"Thank you."

"It's just, this whole situation has been …"

"I know it must have been tough." Sam sympathised. "Missing the Daedalus, worrying about the Ori, being stuck connected to Vala …"

"Yeah." He sighed. "Plus I think you've spoiled me over the years. I'm used to you being able to whip out a quick genius solution to this sort of problem, and Bill has this way of seeming utterly inept even when he's not."

"I'm sorry I couldn't do better for you this time."

"Well, at least you think it might wear off. That's a little bit of good news, I guess. I don't suppose you can give me a time frame on that?"

"Not without a lot more time spent on research, which I just don't have right now. I'm sorry Daniel, I really have to get back to Area 51. Bill can follow it up though."

"Ok." Daniel got up and gave her a hug. "I'm glad you're back."

Sam chuckled mirthlessly into his shoulder. "Yeah. Never going on vacation again."

"Just, maybe stay on Earth next time. Somewhere with cell service."

"You talk like it wasn't your idea for us to go off-world."

"Technically it was Hammond's."

Sam pulled back and smiled at him. "I'll see you around."

"Bye Sam."