"I'm sorry, General, you said couple's therapy?"

This has to be a joke, Daniel thought as he and Vala stared at General Landry in disbelief. The older man had a hint of a smirk on his face as he sat at the head of the table in the briefing room. Daniel couldn't decide if General Landry or Jack was worse with their snarky command styles.

The General shrugged a bit. "Well, not couple's therapy exactly. What I'm ordering is for the two of you to get in a room with a shrink and work out whatever it is that's making you two... drive each other up the wall."

Daniel nearly rolled his eyes as he stared. "So... couple's therapy?"

"I'm in," Vala piped up.

Daniel had to admit that they had both been aggravated with each other for a while. Her response, therefore, wasn't exactly unexpected. She'd been trying to get him to talk with her, but he had his reasons for not talking right now.

Ever since that trip where Teal'c had suddenly aged fifty years, he'd been having a hard time being around Vala. Not at first - when, at least, he hadn't been experiencing more than the usual irritation - but he kept feeling, more and more over time, like something had shifted. He knew it technically wasn't because of anything that had happened in the time dilation field. There was no conceivable way that they could remember what had happened between them, if anything, and really in the grand scheme of things, nothing had actually happened.

But Vala just had to keep asking about it.

Over and over, she kept asking Teal'c what she'd done over the years. What she'd learned. Who she'd been with.

He had to ask himself. Was there a universe or timeline in which he had a shot with Vala Mal Doran?

Before long, he'd started having flashes of what it could be like if they were together. Coffee in his cramped little living room before work. Going out for a dinner that didn't end in an abduction. Her wrapping those long legs around him as he -. He stopped himself. When he'd started having those thoughts, he knew he was in trouble. Hence, the avoidance of Vala and the arguments when she tried to find out what his problem was. He sure as hell couldn't tell her.

Too late, Daniel realized that General Landry had been talking. The man was now looking at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, General. What did you say?"

The General raised an eyebrow. "I said your appointment with Dr. Reisner is Friday morning at 08:00. She'll be meeting with you in one of the isolation rooms. If by some miracle you two can sort yourselves out before then, maybe you can avoid it."

The possibility that he could avoid attempts to get him to bare his soul was a relief. Surely he could find a simple way to get Vala off his back and out of his head within the next few days.

Then Vala asked something he hadn't thought about yet. "General, what made you decide we needed this?"

Landry's eyebrows seemed to grow thicker as he assumed an even sterner look. "I have my orders."

Vala's eyes widened. "Oh. Your little president."

The General gave her a chastising look, but Daniel was more distracted by the fact that he wasn't confirming her assumption. He knew darn well that the President wasn't going to be concerned with two SG team members squabbling in the mess hall. That left very few options as to where these "orders" came from.

Jack. Of course Jack was behind it. Daniel had been keeping up with him via email ever since the General had moved to DC. Daniel's emails tended to be rather long updates about his work, the few times he would actually leave the SGC and have a life, and his co-workers. Jack's were significantly more truncated, and one of the last emails was even shorter than the rest. Four words - "Ask her out already!"

Who knew getting Jack O'Neill happily married would turn him into an old matchmaker? Daniel really ought to blame Sam for all of this.

"Anything else, General?" Daniel asked, impatient to leave the room, work out some sort of solution, and give an annoying General a call. Not necessarily in that order.

The General shook his head as he stood. "Nothing further, Dr. Jackson. You two are dismissed."

Vala popped up as Daniel stood. She was now staring at him, and he got the distinct feeling that if she were a couple decades younger she'd be sticking her tongue out at him. He couldn't avoid talking to her now.

Daniel really looked at her for a moment. While some of the angst of the past two years had left its mark on her face, she was still beautiful. Her blue eyes shone with warmth and an intelligence he didn't give her credit for often enough.

She'd been a knockout since he first met her, metaphorically and, on occasion, literally. The only trouble was that she knew it and would use it.

I wonder if she looked like this at Tomin.

Daniel mentally kicked himself for being annoyed over her previous relationship, but he was grateful for the reminder. She was used to acting with men and manipulating them to her own advantage. She'd married Tomin because she needed the protection of marriage as a pregnant woman in Ori-controlled territory. She'd kissed the living daylights out of him on Prometheus as a distraction so she could take him out. She was beautiful, and he wanted her, but he couldn't trust that she really wanted him.

"Lunch?" he asked. Better to talk somewhere with witnesses.

She nodded, and they walked out of the briefing room. Daniel was not ready for this.