Spoilers for "The Quest Part II", "Line in the Sand"
His children don't ask Vala right away. It's not the first time that Daniel has stayed late working on a translation while she came home to take care of the children. She is, after all, less important than he is.
Then she cries over the spaghetti-os, and half of the story is already told for her.
Will wraps his arms around her middle, and says, "Daddy's in the infirmary?"
"He's missing," she corrects softly.
"They're looking for him?" Drew asks.
"We are, honey. He's not just missing, he was kidnapped, by my daughter, actually," Vala says, with guilt suddenly crashing in on her.
"Well, that's OK, then; Adria isn't going to hurt him," Drew says cheerfully, and with complete confidence.
"I'm not so sure about that," Vala says, finding herself being far more honest that she wants to be.
"She's your daughter," Will says, scrunching up his forehead.
"I know, but she isn't my daughter like you are your daddy's son, baby. I never lived with her. I never got the chance to teach her right from wrong. She came out fully-formed, and already doing all kinds of bad things."
"She wouldn't kill him, would she?" Drew asks, horrified.
"Hopefully the Air Force is going to find him before she has a chance to do anything," Vala says, giving them a little smile, before heading back to the spaghetti-os, which are much the worse for her distraction.
The Next Day
Cassie bursts into the house like a hurricane with three children, a thousand bags, and a goat in tow. "Why didn't someone call me right away?"
Vala's stomach sinks. Daniel had made sure that she knew he wanted his eldest daughter included in everything. She just hadn't really thought he meant the disasters as well as the good times. She hadn't wanted to worry the young woman, because she was still trying to convince herself that it was nothing.
"I was hoping that he'd be found by now," Vala tells the frantic girl before her.
"I should have been here last night. They shouldn't have had to go through being without their father alone!" she says roughly.
"We weren't alone, Vala was here," Olivia says, getting between her angry sister and the women who she has come to think of like a mother.
"I mean family. When their father is missing in action, they really need to have some family around," Cassie amends, having the decency to look a little bit bashful.
"Vala is family; don't you remember the ceremony?" Drew asks.
"It wasn't a wedding, so she isn't family," Cassie says, "Now, I brought everything to have the kids stay here for a couple of days."
"Including a goat?" Vala asks.
"Take the goat outside, Keish," Cassie commands, without taking her eyes off the women in front of her.
"Look, honey, I really appreciate the gesture, but you have three kids to take care of. If you take care of them, too, than it would be six."
"I could handle it."
"I'm sure you could, but you don't have to. I've got this, Cassie."
"I'm pretty sure that Dad would want me to take care of them," Cassie insists.
"Honey," Vala says softly, "Can I speak to you in the other room?"
Cassie shakes her head.
Vala closes her eyes for a couple seconds, and then takes a deep breath. "Right before the not-a-marriage, your father and I signed some papers. If anything would ever happen to him, death, missing in action, whatever, I am the children's legal guardians until he returns."
Cassie takes a step back in horror, "He choose you over me?"
"No, honey, it wasn't like that," Vala gives Olivia a glance that causes the girl to take all of the children out of the room. "Cass, the reason he didn't want you to take them was because he still thinks of you as a child."
"I have children. I've raised his children, when he was too out of it to do it himself," Cassie says, spitting the words out of her mouth.
"I know that, sweetie. Your dad knows that. He just didn't want you to have to do that ever again. He even asked me to include you in the kids. He wanted to make sure that I knew you were supposed to be mine, too; not legally, of course. It's too late for that; you are, as you said, grown up. Still, he wanted to make sure that you would always have a family to come home to. He loves you, Cassie."
"I'm a good mother," Cassie sobs out of the blue.
Vala pulls her into her arms, "Of course you are, honey! You're an amazing mother! Aaliyah has made more progress in the last couple of months than she has in years before. Those little girls are so lucky to have you in their lives! Your siblings are lucky to have you too. They need a big sister; they are really going to need a big sister if your father dies. They just don't need you to be their mother."
"You're not their mother, either," Cassie says with whatever venom is left in her voice.
"No, I'm not. I might not have the parenting skills your father has, or even the ones you have. I love them, and I would do anything for them. Maybe that's not enough. Maybe that's not fair, but it's a whole hell of a lot more than I got when I was a kid."
"You're a good step-mom," Cassie says grudgingly. It's the best that she can offer Vala right now. "They are lucky to have you."
"I'm not going to say no to a little bit of help right now. Even a lot of help. I just don't want you disrupting the lives of your little ones for the sake of these kids. They are going to be fine."
"What about Dad?" Cassie asks, terrified of the answer.
Vala shakes her head, "Don't give up on your father, at least not yet. He's just kidnapped."
"Can we stay for dinner?" Cassie asks.
"You and your kids always have a place at this table, you don't even have to ask."
A Week Later
Tomin. She never thought that she would see him again. What was she supposed to say to him? I only married you because it was better than death? The fact that you murder innocent people is a real turn-off for me?
She knows that she probably won't have to say anything at all. Tomin comes from a culture where losing your good name is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. He was born without a good name, because he had a stupid limp. Then, just when he was starting to get a little bit of street cred, his wife goes and leaves him. There could be no greater dishonor that that.
He saves her, though. Whatever was between them, there must be a little bit of it left, because he saves her. Right before he orders the murder of innocent people. She screams for him to stop, but her opinion doesn't have an effect on him anymore, if it ever even did.
He walks into the room on the ship. He looks for a moment like the man she tried to love, the man she almost loved, all those months on the Ori planet. The man she selected to be the father of her child.
Now here she is, accidently pregnant, yet again, watching him enter the room.
Are she and her baby going to die without Daniel ever knowing about it? She'd been regretting the fact that she hadn't told him ever since he'd gone missing. Of course, it was probably for the best; after all, he was going to make her leave anyway. Then his children would have been all alone when their father went missing.
Well, they are all alone anyway, aren't they? Now that she is going to be killed by her ex-husband.
Not alone; they have Cassie and Ry'ac. Six kids is a lot, but if anyone can make it work, those crazy kids can.
A crazy thought comes into Vala's mind. Maybe she could just pretend that this child that is growing within her is the will of the Ori. Maybe she could say that the Orici needed a sister. It wasn't likely that he'd know the difference. At least not until after the kid was born, or maybe years down the road. Maybe her kid would have a father here.
No, she'd rather her kid have Daniel as a father, even if he was dead, or wanted nothing to do with it, than to have Tomin as a father.
At least Daniel never murdered anyone, or tried to take over an entire galaxy.
"Why are you still wearing the clothes of a blasphemer?" he asks in a cold and even tone.
"If I put on the dress and say, 'hallowed are the Ori', will you stop murdering innocent people?" she asks. He turns on his heels more quickly than he could have before the Ori cured whatever was wrong with him. "Tomin, wait," she calls after him.
He stops, but he refuses to turn back toward her. Her survival instinct tells her to make love speech. It wouldn't all be a lie. She had almost loved him several times during their marriage. If she hadn't met Daniel before they got married it was possible that they could really fall in love.
"Tomin, I know that you don't really have any reason to believe me. I've lied to you a lot of times. The thing is, I met someone, someone else. We're married," Vala knows that she is stretching the truth, right after she tried to convince Tomin that she wasn't lying. She just can't imagine making a man with his religious views understand her not-a-marriage with the man she loves. As time goes on she understands it less, and less herself. "His wife died before I met him, and he's got four kids. I'm actually carrying his fifth right now. He's missing in action right now, and I'm all those children have. If I don't come back…"
It's another stretch of the truth. Vala knows that Daniel's kids have a sister, as well as cousins, and aunts, and grandparents who would all be willing to take them in at a moment's notice. She even knows who they would go to in order. Still, it's not a lie that they would be better off with her. The poor things have already been through enough loss, especially the older ones.
"You could convert to the true religion," he says, "You could cause them to convert, and save their souls."
Vala is past the morning sickness part of her pregnancy, but those words make her almost lose her breakfast. She can't imagine making those sweet innocent babes bow before a false god, not her kids.
Tomin leaves the room, and Vala is left alone with nothing but the Book of Origin for entertainment.
-0-
Sam's mind springs clear for a moment. She's injured. Badly injured. She's got to get help, because if she doesn't get help soon, she's going to die
Then she remembers, there is no way that she could get help. Ok, death it is, then. "On my laptop, there is a file," she says, using up far more energy than she thought she would when she started the sentence.
"You want me to get it?" Mitchell asks helpfully.
She shakes her head no, not being willing to go through the effort of talking again just yet. "In my personal directory, letters mostly," she says.
"Sam," he says softly.
"There is one to the kids, and some other people. The password is 'fishing'."
"Ah, see," he says, coming to sit next to her, "Now you are going to have to change the password. Sam, don't you give up on me. We just lost Jackson. I'm not going to lose another member of your team. I'm not going to go home, and look your kids in the face, and explain to them that their mother isn't coming home."
"Jack will do that," she says, trying to make a joke of it. It's a morbid joke, but that sort of thing is allowed when you are about to die.
It's true, he knows. He may be a part of SG-1. He may even be the leader of the team, but he was not a part of the family that came along with the team. When Jackson went missing in action, he'd offered to go home and help break the news to the man's children. Vala had declined. He'd asked who was in charge of taking care of the kids when Daniel wasn't around. He'd even offered to help, after telling them that he'd yet to have a successful babysitting experience. Everyone had just looked at him like he was nuts. They'd all known that Vala was the caregiver, the guardian.
"The mind is a powerful thing, Sam. Sometimes belief makes all the difference in the world. You just don't give up. Tell yourself whatever you have to. Just believe that you are going to make it, Sam."
-0-
Tomin saved Vala. He put her on the rings, and whisked her away to safety. She should be more grateful than she is. The thing is, she knows it has nothing to do with her, not really. Maybe it does, because she got all mouthy, and made him question his believes. He didn't save her because he loved her. He saved her because he knew what the Ori was doing was wrong. She wasn't foolish enough to believe that it was a complete change. She didn't expect him to go around preaching religious tolerance now. He'd probably still be part of more than his share of murders.
Still, Bra'tac and Teal'c had killed a lot of people when was first prime, and that didn't undo the ones that they saved by being first prime.
She also got to live. Was it selfish to be so happy about that? Maybe she could blame it on the baby that was growing inside of her. She could pretend that the reason she was over the moon happy was her child.
It would be a lie, of course. Life had never smelt so good to her before.