CHAPTER SIXTEEN
When a knock came on Vala's door at nine a.m. the next morning, she opened it to find Daniel on the other side.
"Hello, Daniel. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I want to talk to you about something."
Vala hesitated slightly before letting him in, hoping that he wasn't going to bring up the subject of what happened to her.
"What is this about?" she asked.
Daniel searched her eyes. "I think you know, Vala."
Now wishing that she hadn't let him in, she turned and walked away a couple of paces. "I told you that I was fine, Daniel."
"I know you did, and I also know that can't be true. You may want it to be true. You may even be telling yourself that it is true, but someone isn't going to go through something like that and have no aftereffects at all. I do understand what you must be feeling, Vala."
A sudden spark of anger lit within the woman, and she spun around to face him. The anger came out in her words. "People say that all the time, that they understand, that they know how someone is feeling, but they usually have no idea at all because they have never gone through the same thing. So don't insult me, Daniel, by saying that you understand how I feel."
Daniel's gaze fell away from hers. He walked over to the nightstand and stared with unseeing eyes at what was upon it, his hands now buried deep in his pockets. He had been hoping that he would be able to get through this without having to tell Vala about his own experience, but he now knew that wouldn't be possible, not if he wanted her to open up to him.
"I do understand, Vala," he said at last in a very quiet voice, "all too well." He drew in a deep breath. "A few months after the Stargate Program fully got going, two archeologists found an Egyptian sarcophagus in a Mayan ruin. While examining it, they accidentally opened it up and awoke the Goa'uld inside. That Goa'uld was Hathor."
Daniel heard Vala make a small sound, but he didn't turn to her. "She was able to sense the presence of the Stargate and came here. We still knew so little about the Goa'uld back then. We knew nothing at all about Goa'uld queens. I wish to God that we had. When she claimed to be Hathor, we all thought that she was a little nuts. By the time it became clear that she was telling the truth, it was far too late. She took control of every human male on the base, made us do whatever she pleased. Her plan was to spawn and take over Earth by repopulating it with Goa'uld loyal to her." He paused for several seconds. "She chose me to . . . help." The gasp he heard from Vala told Daniel that she understood what he was saying. "I tried to resist her, but it was useless. Afterwards, I felt so ashamed and . . . and dirty that I couldn't look at myself in the mirror without feeling like I was going to throw up. What made it even worse was that I felt like I had betrayed my wife."
"Oh, Daniel," Vala whispered in distress.
The archeologist continued. "It took a long time for me to completely get past what happened, and it would have taken even longer if my friends hadn't been there for me." Finally, he looked at Vala. "So, you see, I do understand how you must be feeling, Vala. What happened to me wasn't exactly like what happened to you, but I know that some of the emotions I suffered back then are the same as what you are feeling now."
In the next moment, Vala had closed the distance between them and was in Daniel's arms.
"I'm so sorry, Daniel," the woman said. "I had no idea."
"You would have had no way of knowing. What Hathor did to me was kept out of the reports and all other official records. The only people who ever knew were my teammates, General Hammond, and the Chief Medical Officer, Janet Fraiser." Daniel looked intently into Vala's eyes. "I know that you don't want to talk about what happened, Vala, or about how it makes you feel. I didn't either. It took a lot of coaxing and patience for the others to get me to open up. But after I did talk about it, I started to heal. It won't be easy. In fact, it might be one of the hardest things you've ever done. But talking about it will make it better in the end. I promise."
Vala separated from Daniel and sat on the bed. "I did talk a little with Cameron."
"That's good. I'm glad to hear that."
Vala gazed into Daniel's eyes, seeing his compassion and genuine desire to help. Now that she was aware of what had happened to him, she knew that he really was someone who could understand how she felt. Even so, she still didn't feel up to revealing all the things that she had been feeling and thinking. The part of her that had always hidden her deepest pain wouldn't let her, at least not yet.
"I know that you want to help, Daniel, but I don't think I'm ready to talk about it with you, not yet."
Daniel nodded, knowing that Vala had to do this at her own pace. "Okay. But when you are ready, I want you to know that I'll be here to listen."
Deeply touched and so very grateful to have a friend like Daniel, Vala rose to her feet and hugged him again.
Not so very long ago, holding him like this, having his body so close to hers, would have been like a dream come true and made her want way more than just a hug. But, now, all she felt was the warmth of friendship.
They drew apart and smiled at each other.
"Well, I'll let you get back to whatever it is that you were doing," Daniel said. He went to the door. Before going, through, Vala called to him.
"Thank you," she said. "And thank you for trusting me with the story of what happened to you. It means a lot to me. I will never tell anyone, Daniel. I swear."
Giving her a nod, Daniel slipped out the door, knowing that she would never break that promise.
It was two days later that Vala came to Daniel's office. The look in her eyes told him why she was there. Without a word, he got up, and the two of them went to her quarters.
The first thing Vala did was tell Daniel what she had revealed to Cam about Qetesh and Ba'al, knowing that he needed to be aware of it. The news horrified Daniel, especially since it made him think of Sha're and what she must have felt when Amaunet used her body to have sex with Apophis.
In the two hours that followed, Vala opened up to Daniel as much as she could, revealing things that she would never tell Cam because she knew that it would upset him too much and because Daniel would understand in a way that the pilot never could. He listened to it all quietly, giving her encouragement when it became hard for her to continue.
At the end of the two hours, Vala felt emotionally drained, but she also felt better. Sharing her pain had made the burden easier to bear, just as Daniel had said it would.
As for Daniel, he had seen a side of Vala that he'd only glimpsed before, the deeper, vulnerable side of a woman who had suffered a lot of pain in her life. Everything he had learned gave him a far greater insight into the psyche of someone who, in the beginning, he had believed was just a shallow, self-serving con woman.
"Are you going to talk to Mitchell about this?" he asked.
"Some of it, but I can't tell him everything. He became very upset when I told him about what Qetesh did to me."
Daniel gazed at her closely. "He cares about you a great deal."
"I know. I care about him, too."
The statement made Daniel wonder if it was possible that Vala might actually be falling for the pilot.
"You need to tell him as much as you feel like you can, Vala. I know he must be worried about you, and knowing that you're at the point where you're able to talk about it will ease his mind."
Vala nodded. She got to her feet, Daniel doing likewise.
"You . . . won't tell anyone about that stuff with Qetesh, will you?" she asked.
"I won't say a word, Vala, not even to Sam."
The dark-haired woman relaxed. "Thank you, and thank you for this, too."
Daniel gave her a brief hug. "It'll take a while, but there will be a day when you'll be able to put all of this behind you."
"Like you did?"
"Yeah. I'll never forget what happened, and neither will you, but I can think about it now and not let it bother me . . . at least not very much. The thing you have to remember is that none of it was your fault." He gave her a gentle smile. "If you feel like talking some more, just let me know."
"I will."
The next day was Cam's day off, and he decided that he was going to bring Vala home with him, regardless of the questions that might be asked. Of course, he didn't actually tell anyone that Vala would be coming home with him. Instead, he mentioned that he was going to take her out for some fun to forget about things for a while. As it turned out, that's exactly what they did. Cameron committed himself to the goal of making Vala forget about what happened. In the morning, they went for a walk. After lunch, they went to the movie theater, getting there an hour before their movie was to begin so that they could play in the theater's small arcade. After the movie, they got hot fudge sundaes. Their day out ended with another walk, then dinner.
"This was lovely, Cameron," Vala said back at his apartment. "I had fun. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Cam studied her. "How are you feeling?"
"Better." Vala thought about her conversation with Daniel and what he said about talking to people. "May I see you tomorrow?"
"I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. We're really taking a chance as it is spending all day today together."
"How about if we go to the top of the mountain, to that little clearing?"
Cam thought about it. "Okay. That would work." His gaze intensified. "What's this about?"
"I . . . wanted to talk to you about something."
"Oh. Um, all right. Will ten o'clock be good?"
"Yes, that will be fine."
At ten o'clock the following morning, Cam and Vala met atop Cheyenne Mountain and found a secluded spot to talk. It was there that Vala opened up to the pilot and talked to him about both last week's attack and more about what happened to her at the hands of Qetesh and Ba'al. Throughout it all, Cam experienced an array of emotions, mostly anger and sorrow. He spent a great deal of time hugging Vala, though there were times when she didn't want to be touched.
By the time Vala finished, Cameron was even more in love with her. In learning more about that dreadful experience in her past, he'd seen deeper into her heart and what made her the kind of person she was, just as Daniel had.
"You have no idea how much I wish that I could go back in time and change what happened," he said. He put his arm around her shoulder. "I'm glad that you were able to talk to me about it. It couldn't have been easy for you." He looked at her. "I know that you don't really want to talk to a professional about this, Vala, but maybe you should reconsider. We have psychologists attached to the Stargate program."
Vala shook her head emphatically. "No. I do not want to talk to some stranger about this. And my experiences with psychologists have not been pleasant. The psyche evaluation I had to undergo to determine if I was fit to work here was horrid."
"It wouldn't be like that one was, Vala."
"Nevertheless, I don't want to talk to a psychologist about this."
Cam knew that it was pointless to push anymore. "All right." He tightened his arm around her shoulders. "But any time that you want to talk to me some more, all you have to do is call."
Vala gave him a soft kiss. "I know." She got to her feet, as did Cam. "I want to stay out here by myself for a little while."
"Okay." Cam pulled her into a hug. "Everything will be fine, Vala."
"Yes, it will." She gave him a smile. "I am Vala Mal Doran, after all."
Cam chuckled quietly. "Yes, you most definitely are."
Cameron left Vala and went back inside, certain that she was going to be just fine.
When the day before SG-1's next mission arrived, Vala was strongly insisting that she was perfectly okay and would have no problem on the mission. Though Cam knew that she probably wasn't as all right as she was pretending to be, he trusted that she would be okay on the mission and told Landry that there was no need to postpone it further.
Fortunately, the mission turned out to be routine. In fact, it was downright boring. After they returned and took care of the post-mission exams and the debriefing, the five teammates went to the commissary.
"Well, that was a nice change of pace," Daniel remarked. "It can be a relief to have a boring mission every now and then."
Cam nodded. "Just as long as there aren't too many of them."
"With our track record, that's not likely to ever be a problem."
"You can say that again," Sam muttered.
"When is our next mission?" Vala asked.
"It's scheduled for a week from tomorrow," Daniel replied.
"Could we make it sooner?"
Every other member of the team focused their gaze upon her.
"Why would you want to make it sooner?" Cam asked.
Vala shrugged in an offhand manner. "It was just nice to be away for a while."
The others all exchanged a glance, wondering if this had to do with what happened to Vala.
"I'm not sure about bumping that one forward," Cam responded, an idea forming in his mind. "The area is inhabited, so we don't know what might happen, and I think that we'd probably all prefer not to get into any altercations. But I suppose I could ask if there is another easy mission on the schedule that we could take."
Vala's smile told him that she liked that idea.
After leaving the commissary, Cameron went to see General Landry.
"Sir, I wanted to talk to you about the mission that SG-16 is scheduled to go on the day after tomorrow, the one to the planet with the ruins on the sea cliff. I was wondering if SG-1 could take the mission instead." He paused. "I was also wondering if we could extend it to two days."
Landry stared at him. "Is there some reason for this, Colonel?"
"Well, the past several days have been kind of rough, sir. I would ask for some leave, but we wouldn't be able to do that until after the mission to P8F-081 next week. I just thought that the team might benefit from a couple of relaxing days someplace nice."
It was obvious to Landry that this had something to do with Vala's recent experience, but he chose not to say so. He gave a nod instead.
"All right, Colonel. Request granted."
"Thank you, sir."
Vala was delighted about the mission, and so was Daniel, who was intrigued by the ancient dwellings.
As SG-1 stepped out of the Stargate on Friday, more than one person's breath was taken away by the sight before them. The Stargate was just a few yards away from the edge of a sheer cliff that overlooked a vast expanse of ocean that was blue-violet in color. Tall spires of rock arose from the body of water like jagged fingers pointing to the cobalt blue sky. The lazily floating clouds had a slightly pinkish cast even though it was well past sunrise.
"Wow," Sam murmured. She followed her teammates as they walked up to the cliff's edge and looked down. Off to the left, built inside a massive cave, was the ruins of what looked like a large village. No one failed to see the expression of excitement in Daniel's eyes.
Sam smiled at him. "Something tells me that you're eager to go down there."
He smiled back at her. "Oh, just a bit."
"Well, then let's go," Cam responded.
They trekked the distance to where a steep staircase carved into the rock led down to the ruins. The staircase was only wide enough to accommodate a single person and had no railing, so the descent was a bit nerve-wracking. The further down they went, the wetter the stairs became due to moisture from the sea.
"Why is it that none of these ancient people ever thought of railings?" Cam complained after his foot slipped and he had to catch his balance.
Daniel would have answered, but they reached the ruins just a few steps later, and all of his attention was turned to them. He walked up to the wall of a structure, which had been constructed from cut stones mortared together.
"How in the world did they get all these stones down here?" Cam wondered aloud.
Daniel looked about. "They didn't. Look at the cave walls. The stones were cut out of them."
"I wonder why they chose to build this in such an inaccessible place instead of up top," Sam said.
"My guess would be to protect themselves from some kind of danger, perhaps an enemy. The staircase is narrow enough that no enemy could effectively attack them."
Teal'c nodded. "Indeed. A small number of well-armed men, if properly shielded, could hold off an army for a great length of time."
Cam frowned. "But the people in the village would be cut off from supplies."
Daniel shook his head. "They'd get enough drinking water from the fog and ocean mist, if they had a way to catch it, and I'm betting that there's a way down to the ocean somewhere around here, which means that they could have caught fish and other sea life. They probably could have held out for weeks, even months."
The team began exploring the ruins. When Daniel found some pictographs on one of the cave walls, his attention became focused upon them. Seeing that he wasn't going to be budging for a while, the others left him there and resumed looking about. At one point, Cameron and Sam were alone together. The pilot glanced at the astrophysicist.
"So I suppose that Jackson told you about what's going on with me, my feelings for Vala."
Sam considered pretending that she didn't know what he was talking about, but she knew that he wouldn't buy it.
"Um . . . yes, he did."
"And you're thinking that I'm even crazier than I was when I chose to get involved with her."
"We can't control the way we feel, Cam. When I fell in love with Jack, I knew it was not a good thing, but I couldn't help feeling that way." She drew closer to him. "I'm just worried about you. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I know, Sam, and I appreciate that. I really don't know where this is all going to lead. I only know that what I feel for Vala is stronger than anything I've ever felt for any other woman."
With an understanding smile, she gave his arm a little rub, then returned her attention to the ruins.
It took an effort to drag Daniel away from the ruins, but the others finally managed it, and all of them returned to the top of the cliff. They found a place to set up camp. Afterwards, Daniel and Sam chose to go for a walk, calling it "recon" with a smile on their faces.
"It's so beautiful here," Sam remarked after they'd been walking for several minutes.
"Yes, it is," Daniel agreed.
Sam glanced at him. "I'm surprised that you didn't request that we get assigned to this mission right from the start."
"Oh, I would have, but Don Carver beat me to the punch."
"The archeologist on SG-16?"
"Uh huh. He took one look at the videos from the UAV and started salivating. He's probably not very happy that the mission was reassigned to us. I'll have to take lots of videos for him tomorrow."
"Where do you think the people who built that place came from?"
"I haven't found anything yet that would definitively link them to an Earth culture, although cliff dwellings were common among some of the ancient native tribes of the Southwestern United States. For all we know, this was an alien race, though they were obviously humanoid, based upon some of the pictographs. They haven't been gone for very long, no more than a couple hundred years, I'd say. The pictographs are in too good a condition for it to be much longer than that, what with the dampness of the environment."
"I wonder what happened to them."
"They might have moved from the area. We found no remains of bodies, so they weren't wiped out by war or disease, unless the bodies were disposed of or buried."
"You mean that their descendants might still be on the planet somewhere?"
"It's possible, although the UAV didn't find any other signs of habitation in the area."
"Even so, we'll want to keep watch tonight."
Daniel smiled. "Speaking of tonight, though we set up all five tents, I saw Vala putting her stuff in Mitchell's tent, although I don't think he noticed."
"No, I doubt that he did."
Daniel glanced at Sam. "I would not object to you moving your stuff to my tent."
"We're supposed to be on a mission, you know."
"Yes, I am aware of that, although I got the impression that Mitchell is looking at it more like a couple of days for all of us to relax."
Sam smiled. "Yes, I got that impression as well." She thought about the question. "I suppose that if Cam doesn't boot Vala out of his tent, you and I can double up as well. It's not like we'd be doing anything but sleep."
Daniel grinned and put an arm around her waist. "So, no sharing a sleeping bag tonight?"
Sam came to a stop and turned to him. "Well, I didn't say that," she replied before pulling his mouth down to hers.
They resumed walking. After a few minutes, Sam glanced at Daniel's profile and saw that he appeared to be deep in thought.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"I was wondering how your father would feel about the two of us being together."
Sam began to think about it herself. "I think he'd be happy about it," she finally said. "I know that he wanted me to have someone in my life. I also know that he had a great deal of respect for you. He made that clear in some of the things he said to me." Just then, a memory jumped into Sam's mind, one that made her come to an abrupt halt. "Oh my God."
"What?"
"I just remembered something. At the time, I didn't think about the significance of what he said, but now. . . . It was after we rescued him from Netu, while he was healing in the infirmary. The Tok'ra had learned about Amaunet's death, and he asked me how you were doing. I told him that you were coping. He said that, though Sha're's death was a tragedy and he wished that you could have saved her, it was better that you hadn't had to continue suffering for years through the anguish of her being a host, that you could now move on. He then said something that surprised me. He told me that you were a good man, someone he would be proud to have as a son."
Daniel was shocked. "He did?"
"Yes. When he said that, he was looking straight at me. Now that I look back on it, what I think Dad really wanted to say was that he'd have been proud to have you as a son-in-law."
Daniel gaped at her. "But . . . but he didn't know me all that well back then. The two of us hadn't talked all the much. I think our biggest conversation was after the incident with Seth. He asked me about my schooling and some things about my past. I guess he was impressed by how quickly I found out where Seth was, although I don't know why. All I did was an Internet search."
"Actually, he knew a lot more about you than you realize, Daniel. He asked me a lot of questions about you. He could tell by what I said that I cared about you a great deal and really admired and respected you." Sam shook her head. "Thinking back on it all now, on other things he asked and said, I believe that Dad was trying all along to steer me in your direction, right up to the end. When my Replicator double kidnapped you and I was so afraid that you died when we activated the weapon on Dakara, Dad told me that I shouldn't give up hope. He said that you had an unnerving tendency to survive things that shouldn't be survivable. He was certain that you were still alive. The last thing he said in the conversation was that, if it turned out you had ascended again, I was to tell you that you weren't allowed to stay away for a year this time, that you belonged on this plane of existence with me and all the rest of us. The thing is that he paused for a second or two right after saying that you belonged here with me, as if the rest of the sentence was just tacked on."
"You're saying that, all that time, your father wanted us to be together?"
Sam nodded. "I think he saw in you someone who could make me happy." She shook her head again. "I can't believe I didn't see this before." An expression of sorrow came to her face. "I wish he was still alive so that he could see he was right."
Daniel pulled her into a hug. "I know that my parents would be happy about us, too."
"I wish I could have met them."
"So do I, although, if they hadn't died, I probably would never have met you. I doubt that I'd have gone public with my most radical theories since I'd have known that the fallout would affect them. And since it was those theories that drew Catherine's attention to me, she wouldn't have looked at me twice if I'd never published them."
"Actually, that's not true."
Surprised, Daniel stared at her. "It's not?"
"Catherine told me that she'd been following your career for years, ever since you published your research in cross pollination of ancient cultures. She said that it was brilliant work and didn't deserve the ridicule it got. She also said that the research showed how extraordinarily open-minded you are and that you aren't afraid to pursue theories others would scoff at."
Daniel's gaze drifted off to the vast expanse of ocean. "That was the first time I dared to publish a theory that I knew would not be accepted by the archeological community. It wasn't nearly as radical as some of my later ones, but it was radical enough that I was the target of some pretty harsh criticism. I had no clue that Catherine had been keeping her eye on me since way back then. She never told me."
"She thought very highly of you, Daniel." A sudden smile came to Sam's lips, followed by a little laugh. "You know what? I think that Dad wasn't the only person who was nudging me toward you. Catherine did it even more subtly than he did, but there were a few things she said that I now realize were hints that you and I would make a good couple."
Daniel grew a matching smile. "I think she gave me a few of those hints, too, but I wasn't paying attention. Ironically, the hints stopped coming after I descended, which is when I started becoming aware of my feelings for you."
"Do you think she saw that?"
"I don't know. Maybe. You know that get-together we all had when she came here to visit me after I descended? I was still a little confused about what I felt when you talked to me on Vis Uban, and I spent quite a bit of time watching you. I caught Catherine looking at me a couple of times with this funny little smile on her face. I had assumed that it was just because she was happy I was back, but I have to wonder now if it was because she'd noticed the way I was looking at you."
Sam put her arm around Daniel's waist. "So, for all those years, two people, who were obviously far wiser than we are, were trying to make us see what we could have together, but we were too dumb and blind to see it."
"Yep. That about covers it."
Sam laughed again and shook her head. "And they call us geniuses."
Daniel gave her a kiss. "Well, even geniuses can be idiots about some things."
The couple walked for a few more minutes, then returned to camp. The day had grown quite warm, and everyone was glad that they'd picked a shady spot for the camp.
"I would love to go for a swim," Vala remarked.
"I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible," Daniel responded. "Even if there is a trail down to the water from the cliff dwellings, it would take too long. You'd never be able to get down there and back before it got too dark to safely traverse that staircase."
"Could we go tomorrow?"
"A dip in the ocean does sound good," Cam replied, "but I didn't bring a bathing suit."
Vala grinned broadly. "Who needs a bathing suit?"
"We do," everyone else replied, all except for Teal'c, who remained silent. Vala pouted.
Cam thought about it for a bit. "I suppose boxers aren't all that different from swim trunks."
Sam chipped in. "And a bra and panties don't reveal any more than a bikini does, a whole lot less than some."
"I do not wear boxer shorts," Teal'c intoned. Every other pair of eyes immediately turned to him.
"Really?" Vala said with a great deal of interest. "So what do you wear?"
Cam got in on the fun. "Teal'c. I never would have pegged you for the tighty whitie sort."
Teal'c frowned. "I do not wear . . . tighty whities either."
Daniel's eyes got a little bigger. "Uhhh . . . Teal'c, are you saying that you're, um. . . ."
Vala's face was all but splitting in half. "Going commando? That is the term, isn't it?"
The Jaffa's eyes turned to her. "I am not. I am, in fact, wearing an article of clothing called boxer briefs."
Vala pouted again. "Oh. What a shame." That remark earned her a little punch in the shoulder from Cameron, as well as a glare. She turned to him and said. "Oh, not that I wouldn't much rather have you going commando, Cameron, but, since I have already seen your . . . assets many times, I am just cur—" The rest of her sentence was muffled by Cam's hand on her mouth. The pilot was now looking more than a little embarrassed.
Sam, who was embarrassed for Cam's sake, cleared her throat. "Going swimming in boxer briefs would be fine, Teal'c."
"All this is academic if we can't find a safe path down to the water," Daniel said, not sure if he wanted to even be in the same zip code as Vala while wearing nothing but soaking wet boxers.
"I guess we'll just have to see if we can find one," Cam said in response.
The conversation around the campfire that evening was relaxed and casual, that is until Cameron asked Sam and Daniel a particular question.
"I understand from Landry that you told him about your relationship. How did he take it?"
"Not well at first," Sam replied, "which is understandable. I guess you could say that we're on probation now. If all goes well and we don't let our relationship affect missions, he'll let us both stay on SG-1." She paused. "So how much longer are you going to put off telling him about you and Vala? He's going to have to be told eventually."
Cam and Vala glanced at each other.
"Uh, we haven't decided yet," the pilot replied. "It's been a while since we talked about it."
"Well, just don't take too long. He'll be even more angry if he finds out another way."
Cam shared another glance with his lover, then changed the subject.
It was Teal'c who volunteered to take the first watch when the time came to retire for the night. When Cam began crawling into his tent and saw Vala's stuff there, he turned around and stared at her. She gave him a hopeful smile. For several seconds, the leader of SG-1 considered telling her that she had to sleep in her own tent, but the words went unuttered. Instead, he jerked his head at her.
"Come on, then."
Vala beamed at him and happily complied. It being a warm night, they did not get into their sleeping bags, lying on top of them instead. Vala immediately cuddled up to Cam. They were both silent for a few seconds, then. . . .
"I know that people on Earth refer to having sex on an airplane as joining the Mile High Club," Vala whispered. "What would they call having sex on an off-world mission?"
"Grounds for a court-martial," Cam answered.
"Oh, now, Cameron. Where is your adventurous spirit?"
"Not in this tent. Give it up, Vala. It is not gonna happen."
Vala's pout returned. "You are just no fun. We could be very quiet. No one will ever know."
"Teal'c is sitting just a few yards away and probably has bionic hearing. In fact, he can probably hear what we're saying right now."
"What is bionic hearing?"
"Just give it a rest, Vala. We are going to sleep, and that's all."
Vala let out a sigh. "Oh, all right. I guess I'll just have to wait until after the mission is over."
In another tent, two other members of SG-1 were also talking.
"How much do you want to bet that Vala is, at this very moment, trying to talk Mitchell into having sex?" Daniel asked the woman lying beside him.
Sam let out a little laugh. "I wouldn't bet against you on that." She snuggled closer to her lover. "I have to admit that it is tempting. Totally out of the question, of course."
Daniel looked at her. "Of course," he agreed before joining his mouth with hers. The kiss got pretty passionate before they put a halt to it.
"You know, I feel a little sorry for Teal'c," Daniel said with a smile. "He's the odd man out now."
Sam nodded. "I wonder what he feels about all of this. He hasn't said anything."
"Um, that's not exactly true."
Sam's gaze focused upon Daniel. "Oh?"
"Back when Teal'c first found out about our plan to start dating, he approached me about it. I asked him if he thought I had a chance with you."
"You did? What did he say?"
"That he believed we would have a successful relationship."
"Really? Wow. Then he was okay with it?"
"Apparently. In fact, I got the impression that he was more than just okay with it."
"Well, that's good to know. I wonder what he thinks about Cam and Vala."
"Maybe he'll let us know someday."
Back in the other tent, Vala and Cam were still talking.
"We're going to have to decide soon about telling Landry about us," the pilot said.
"I know. I'm just afraid that he will remove me from the team. He has a good reason for keeping Daniel and Samantha on SG-1, but my contribution to the team is not as obvious as theirs."
"It may not be as obvious, Vala, but it's still there. You have a lot of contacts out there that we don't, and you also have a lot of valuable knowledge and experience. The general is aware of that, and I'm sure he appreciates it."
Vala studied his expression. "Then you want to tell him?"
Cam returned her gaze, his eyes spearing into hers. "That all depends on one thing."
"What's that?"
"On whether or not you expect this relationship of ours to continue."
The sentence resulted in dead silence as Vala's eyes dropped to Cameron's chest. It took a while for her to respond.
"Do . . . you expect it to continue?"
"I want it to. I have no desire for it to end."
Vala smiled and returned her eyes to his. "Neither do I."
Cam was very happy with her answer. "Then we need to tell him."
Vala sighed in resignation. "I guess you're right."
Cam cupped her cheek. "Vala, no matter what happens, it isn't going to change things between us. I promise you that. There is also one good thing about telling him. We will no longer have to sneak behind everyone's back when we want to spend time together. We can get together as often as we want."
A smile came to the black-haired woman's face. "Yes, that is definitely a good thing." The smile faded. "So when are we going to tell him?"
"After our next mission, I think. He'll be off-duty on Monday, and I wouldn't want to spoil his relaxed mood by telling him on Tuesday." Seeing the worry in Vala's eyes, he gave her a soft kiss. "Don't worry, Vala. It'll be all right. We have to believe that."
