Title: Being Found
Author: Milena D.
Rating: M
Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure, etc. Daniel/Vala all the way! ;)
SPOILERS: Up to Memento Mori.

Summary: What if Daniel and Vala had been reunited soon after Prometheus Unbound, before any of Season 9 happened? How would their lives have unfolded then?

Author’s Note #1: Sorry, again, I’m a few hours late of my self-appointed deadline but I was under a lot of pressure to make this chapter great since the last one experienced a huge drop in reviews. Hopefully this one is more worthy!

Author’s Note #2: I just wanted to clear something up. I think I might have scared a lot of readers away when I wrote that I would be following the seasons from now on. I’m not actually going episode-by-episode, script-by-script, the last chapter was just a necessary fluke to get to where I needed D/V to go. I’m going to pick certain key events but otherwise it’s a totally different story than what you saw on tv, I promise!

Author’s Note #3: Unending thanks to Susan for her completely honest beta-ing that brought you the quality you’re reading today!

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Chapter 20: I’m Sorry
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“Let go of me!” Those weren’t the words he wanted to hear.

“Get your hands off me!” She demanded as her figure emerged from the crowd, two strong men holding an arm each, dragging her protesting body into the circle.

“Vala!”

Vala’s head snapped up when she heard his voice and she stopped struggling for a half second before starting again with renewed vigour while the Administrator droned on in the background.

“Daniel!” She yelled for him, trying to wrench her arm from the thug on her right while kicking the one on her left. Daniel forced himself to calm down and not lung forward and have at the men manhandling Vala into the arra.

“What happened?” He asked her over the Administrator’s pontification. The sooner he could apologize to whoever she’d wronged, the sooner they’d take their hands off her and the less people he’d have to maim. Before she had a chance to reply, the men holding Vala forced her roughly to her knees on the rough concrete and lifted metal shackles to her wrists.

“Hey!” Daniel cried out at them. He darted forward to help her but two pairs of arms wrapped themselves around him and pulled him back into the crowd. “What are you doing?” Daniel struggled against them as a burning hot fear spread through his body.

“Harrid,” the cold and monotone voice of the Administrator called to him, “stand back. Salis has been overcome.”

“What? No! She hasn’t! If you’d just let me explain!” The man didn’t pay him any mind as he returned to his sermon.

“Listen to me!” Daniel pleaded before an arm slid around his neck to pull him back, effectively quieting him against his will.

The Administrator watched him be taken away with dispassionate eyes before turning back to Vala, chained to the altar as the village watched from the outer rim. Daniel tried to beat down the swelling terror he felt but it wasn’t happening.

“Fear not,” the preacher said, “for the Ori see all,” he turned to the villagers to make sure his message was heard, “outside and within. If your heart is pure and your devotion unwavering, they will protect you.”

Vala scoffed and rolled her eyes but even from his distance, she knew Daniel would be able to see the fear she tried to disguise with insolence. She had fought against her captors every inch of the way but the moment the cold manacles had snapped together around her wrists, she had felt a familiar numbness overcome her. She could see Daniel struggling to reach her but it didn’t register, neither did the preacher’s chanting. Her mind was taking over completely to protect her like it had learned to. It stamped out any feelings of anxiety and dulled her senses to keep her from the impending pain, whatever form it might take this time.

It wasn’t working as well as she had expected though, her mind was still screaming muted things at her as if urging her to react. From somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, she could hear herself talking to Carolyn.

“Look, torture isn’t exactly a rarity in my life. The first time, I broke down, the second time too. The third time? Not so much. Now I’ve lost count but I’ve learned that I can’t waste time crying over my troubles or my life will be reduced to pain and its aftermath with no time for anything else.”

Exactly. This was just another notch on her belt of pain, there was nothing special about it. So why wasn’t her mind calming as it should?

“They will cleanse your being and you will be taken to be with them forever.” The Administrator proclaimed.

Outside the altar, Daniel’s body had acquired several new bruises and his throat burned from his struggle with the villagers so he calmed for a moment to try to find another way out. He looked into the arra and was struck with disbelief. Vala was just sitting there! She seemed to only be half-listening to what the Administrator was saying but she wasn’t exactly using the rest of her concentration on any visible struggle. She wasn’t pulling on the chains, she wasn’t picking the locks, she wasn’t searching her surroundings for something with which to fight back. She looked...resigned, as if this was routine for her.

All-consuming dread pierced through his very last defenses as he realized that it was. It filled his every limb until he was almost glad the brutish villagers were holding onto him because his legs might not support him. He had seen her mangled body when they rescued her from Plitis, had helped heal her wounds, her scars, but he wasn’t prepared for this, he never could be.

“If not, let the fire burn you down to the ground and lay you in the dust.” Oh God. Please let that be a metaphor, please let that be a metaphor.

“Fire?” Vala echoed uncertainly, her mind reawakening after its failed entrance into dormancy.

The Administrator motioned to a man near the other end of the structure and a basin of oil was lit from the torch he carried. Vala’s eyes went wide and Daniel grew cold as the flames licked the tops of the basin and grew proudly higher.

“Hallowed are the Ori.” The heartless man pronounced, ending his sermon.

The basin was tipped over and the burning oil was delivered into the maze-like crevices of the arra, followed by the eyes of everyone in attendance. Something buckled inside of Daniel and cleanly snapped under the pressure of his mounting fear. He let his instincts take over and smashed his fist into the face of the man on his right, head-butted the one on his left before turning and kicking away the man who had held his throat. The millisecond he was free, he was at a dead-run for the altar.

“Vala!” The hoarse shout was ripped from his lips but succeeded in diverting her attention away from the approaching flames

“Daniel.” She all but mumbled back, still at war with her defense mechanisms. Luckily, her turmoil turned to clarity the moment his face cleared in front of her. His eyes were mad with fear, his light brown hair was messed from his fight with the villagers and his strong jaw was clenched in suppressed anger. He was the reason she couldn’t just submerge her consciousness like usual and accept her fate. She couldn’t accept it, she didn’t want to die. She had people - friends - now, she had...she had her Daniel. And her Daniel was currently crouched down beside her, frantically trying to pull apart the manacles.

“Check the other one.” He ordered her brusquely, throwing a worried glance sideways to the nearing flames. He should have been looking behind him though because his previous captors were hot on his heels with reinforcements and the pack swooped down on Daniel before he could he even noticed their presence.

“Daniel!” she yelled, instinctively reaching out to help him. She caught his free hand and held on for dear life, both of them fearing what would happen should they let go. Eventually though, five villagers were no match for Vala and their hands were ripped apart.

“Val-oomph” Daniel’s voice was muffled by a firm hand across his mouth and a fist in the stomach. Despite the physical oppressions against him, Daniel could see the fire getting ever closer to Vala, so close that the smoke was partially obscuring her from his view. He needed to tell her to fight the restraints, to get out of there.

Thankfully, though Daniel didn’t know it, Vala had already come to this conclusion and she’d been pulling at the chains since he’d been taken away, kicking the cement altar they were anchored to, and had spit on her wrists to try to slip them through the narrow holes. It was all for naught, she was anchored to the rapidly burning arra and now the panic was setting in.

She couldn’t die, not now. She hadn’t survive unspeakable horrors for life to lead her to her first real family only to die a few months later. She refused! She tried the chains again, she tried to break her hand to fit it through but the manacles were taking most of the force of impact against the altar. She frantically searched her limited surroundings, doggedly ignoring the encroaching flames before her eyes unwittingly landed on Daniel.

It was almost painful to watch. He was completely strapped down by the villagers, she doubted he could even breathe with one of their hands partially covering his mouth and nose, but he was still fighting back, his eyes desperate as they locked onto hers. She wanted so much to promise him it would be alright, that she’d be fine and they’d leave this horrible place together. That they’d go home, make love and go to sleep together. That tomorrow would be a new day and they’d eventually forget this ever happened.

...but as the burning oil crossed the final threshold and she had to leap over the altar to avoid it, she knew that that tomorrow would never exist for them. She’d never see his face again, would never kiss him or hold him again. And selfishly, she was glad she was the one dying because she knew she’d never survive watching him be burned alive.

A strangled half-moan, half-scream escaped Daniel as the flames she’d skirted around finally caught the hem of her dress. She hissed in pain and tried to shoo the fire off but she knew it was futile, there was nowhere to run. Vala looked up at Daniel one last time, tears almost completely obscuring the last thing she would ever see. Irrationally, she wished he wasn’t crying. More than anything else, she wanted to see him smile at her just one last time, that smile that was reserved only for her. She didn’t want to see him cry now.

Vala gasped with pain and was forced to her knees as the flames attacked her flesh.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered before the pain became too excruciating to form coherent words. She knew there was no way Daniel had heard her but she’d needed to say it.

Daniel had stopped believing in any higher powers other than the Ancients years ago but that didn’t stop him from appealing to anyone who might be listening. Please, God. Don’t do this, don’t take her from me. Please! Don’t take her from me!

And then, in one horrific moment, the flames shot up and engulfed her screaming form in a pillar of white hot fire. Daniel clamped his eyes shut and shook his head. This wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening. She was still screaming, he could hear her. If she was still screaming than she was still alive. This wasn’t happening.

But then, the screaming stopped. It was so sudden that Daniel’s head shot up, desperate to believe that someone or something had intervened and saved them.

“No.” He moaned thickly through the hand on his mouth, hot tears pouring steadily out of his eyes. All he could focus on was the deafening roar of the flames still attacking Vala. That, and her silence. He couldn’t breathe, he was hyperventilating. His heart was pounding in his ears and he willed it to stop completely, to end this pain.

She wasn’t gone. She wasn’t dead. It wasn’t possible. Why make him fall in love with her just to take her away

ooooooooooooooooooo

“She’s in v-fib! Code Blue!” Carolyn cried suddenly as the readings on Vala’s monitor spike dramatically. Her nurses knew the drill and the crash cart was at Vala’s side in a moment. “Charging to 200.”

Cam couldn’t believe this was happening. He should be the one laying there, this should have been his mission. He pulled out his weapon and cocked it, aiming it at the device that had their friends trapped against their will.

“Mitchell?” Jack questioned cautiously.

“Woah! No, no! Don’t shoot!” Bill cried, shielding the device with his body. Cam tried to aim around him but the little man followed his weapon.

“Get out of the way!” He ordered him harshly. He could feel the General and Teal’c standing behind him, whether out of support or to hold him back in case he did something stupid, he didn’t really care.

“You can’t, you don’t know what will happen!” Bill yelled back.

“It’s killing her! Move!”

“You might cause a surge, you could kill them both!” Bill argued, trying to appeal to the Colonel’s rational side. “You could detonate the power source and kill all of us, now, come on!”

“Clear!” Carolyn shouted and they all turned to see Vala chest surge up with the force of the paddles. The monitor showed no improvement.

“Charge to 250!” Carolyn ordered. “Clear!”

Again there was no change in Vala but Daniel’s monitor was spiking in a very troubling way as well.

“Charge to 300! Clear!”

Daniel’s eyes were moving rapidly and his whole body seemed to silently scream at them to wake him up, to rescue him from whatever horror he was experiencing on the other side.

“Charge to 360! Clear!”

The steady whine of Vala’s heart rate monitor drew his attention away from Daniel.

“Shouldn’t she be responding by now?” Cam asked his superior. General O’Neill didn’t answer him and he knew that spoke volumes.

“Still in V-Fib, charging again.” Carolyn said loudly, her eyes betraying her anxiety. “Clear!” She pressed the recharged paddles to Vala’s chest and let the electric charge course through her again. The monitor didn’t change. Carolyn grit her teeth together and ordered the nurse to charge again. And again. And again.

This was the scene General Landry arrived upon. He could see his daughter working furiously over her the body of her friend, the rest of the room’s occupants looking on in horror at the loss of the vibrant woman they’d come to care for.

“Dr. Lam.” He voiced sadly into the intercom of the observation room. The doctor paused for a moment but ignored him and ordered the paddles to be recharged.

“Clear!”

Still no change.

As Carolyn called for a recharge, she was startled out of her zone by the sound of Col. Mitchell’s boot connecting despondently with the cupboard on the other side of the room. She also saw General O’Neill half-slumped on Dr. Jackson’s bed and Teal’c hovering over him with clenched fists. Their obvious despair disturbed her focus but she ignored them too and turned back to her friend-her patient.

“Clear!”

Still no change.

“Carolyn.” Her father’s sympathetic voice filled the room, pausing her mid-shout for another charge. “Carolyn, call it.”

His personal address broke through her professionalism and shook her to the core with the realization that her friend had died, that she’d let her die. She let herself be overwhelmed for all for barely ten seconds before closing her eyes and pushing everything out of her mind. When she opened her eyes again it was with a forced calmness. She robotically reached down and pressed her fingers to Vala’s wrist pulse-point, desperately hoping that the diagnostic equipment was wrong and that she was still alive and well.

“I’ve got no pulse.” She heard herself say. “She’s gone into asystole.” That meant her heart had no electrical activity so its muscles couldn’t contract which meant that no oxygenated blood would reach her tissues and...and...why couldn’t she remember the next step in the sequence?

“She’s dead?” Cam exclaimed, denial thick in his voice.

She looked up at him from across their mutual friend and squared her jaw. She swallowed back her own pain and it took her a moment before she could find her voice again.

“I’m sorry.” Carolyn whispered, her voice barely reaching the others over the loud beeping of Daniel’s monitor. Cameron stood in front of her now, blocking her way, his eyes blazing, refusing to believe she was truly gone.

“I have to check on Daniel.” Carolyn said eventually, her voice soften to relay her understanding of his reaction.

Cameron seemed to finally realize the scope of the situation and at once his face morphed into contrite and he quickly stepped aside to let the doctor pass.

Jack and Teal’c left Daniel’s bed as it became the nurses’ new hotspot and joined the sorrowful Colonel next to Vala’s bed. Jack knew Cam had lost a lot of good people under his command but he wondered if he’d ever spent a month getting to know them personally before they died. Vala wasn’t just a fellow soldier who fell in battle. She was their friend, their close friend. She was the outsider that helped glue the rest of the team together with their new leader. She was the woman who revitalized Daniel, she was Sam’s girlfriend, she was a sister to Cam, a fellow victim of the Goa’uld to Teal’c, and a fellow survivor to Jack. And now she was gone.

Teal’c bowed his head deeply towards Vala to pay his respects and Jack’s hand came down on Cam’s shoulder in support. For long moments they didn’t budge from their places, didn’t break the silence around her bed until finally Cam let out a shaky sigh.

“We have to tell Sam.” He realized, desolately picturing the blonde’s reaction.

Jack nodded but looked over to his best friend’s bed.

“We’re going to have to tell Daniel.” He replied lowly.

Cam knew the story but he hadn’t been there when Daniel had lost Sha’re, hadn’t seen the man break apart and slowly disappear. A small part of Jack almost hoped that Daniel didn’t wake up from this, only to keep him from the anguish that would be waiting for him once he awoke.

ooooooooooooooooooo

Daniel didn’t know how long he’d been staring blankly into space, his entire being stalling in shock. His last feeling had been an ugly one, his next was painful. An amazingly forceful gust of wind hit them and jolted Daniel back into the present scene. The arms that had been restraining - and supporting - him disappeared and Daniel fell limply to the ground with them. The villagers were kneeling towards a robed man but Daniel bestowed them all of three seconds before realizing that he was no longer a captive.

Daniel pushed himself off the ground and stood shakily before half-stumbling towards what remained of Vala. The few villagers who dared lift their eyes could see Harrid stagger towards Salis’s charred and desiccated body but he didn’t seem to notice the wreckage as he collapsed in front of her, streams of tears running unheeded down his cheeks.

Daniel lifted a hesitant hand to her burnt cheek, running his thumb softly over the scorched skin. His other hand softly fingered the heat-damaged ends of her hair, trying not to remember how this hair had teased his face a few nights ago, or how she loved it when he ran his hands through it while he kissed her. His eyes roamed over the almost unrecognizable features of her face and he choked on the lump in his throat as he accepted that she had left him. He’d been so afraid he would be without her, he’d let her bird drive him crazy with the thought of her leaving him, and now he wished that she had taken it and gone weeks ago.

As he let his grief overtake him, Daniel pulled her fire-hardened body to him. He tried to cradle her into his chest but a distinctive rattling called his attention down to her wrists. With a surge of anger, he ripped the irons off her wrists and pulled her hands under her to his chest. He had promised her months ago when she’d been delusion with a fever that he’d never let anyone chain her up again and he’d failed her.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered brokenly into her unhearing ear. “I’m so sorry.”

Distantly, his mind told him footsteps were approaching them but he didn’t turn around. He tightened his hold around Vala’s body, rocking her back and forth, and closed his eyes. He would have to be dead to be separated from her again. The footsteps grew louder and stopped very close to them, and in an instant Daniel’s grief turned into explosive anger as he turned on the stranger.

“Get away from her!” Daniel snarled at the priest, shielding Vala behind his crouched body. “She’s dead! Leave her alone!”

If the priest was at all perturbed by his passionate plea, the rage in his eyes or the tears on his cheeks, he didn’t show it. The pale man, lowered his staff and it began to glow brightly.

Daniel turned from the light quickly and buried his face in Vala’s hair, holding her possessively and bracing for the pain to come. Ironically, he was thankful for the priest’s fanaticism if it meant he wouldn’t be apart from her much longer.

Tense moments passed painlessly and Daniel hazarded opening his eyes. From his vantage point, he could see a faint blue glow on Vala face so the priest was still there but what was he doing? Daniel’s hands shifted around Vala to turn around and look at the man but he froze instantly when his fingers brushed against soft hair. Slowly, almost fearfully, he slid his gaze over her back and saw that her luscious black strands were growing past his hand, down her back to their original length.

His heart stopping in his chest, he held his breath and gently pushed her back to see that her face was losing its damaged appearance and becoming as flawless as it had been hours ago. The dress she wore was also reappearing and the hands on his lap, the hand he’d kissed what seemed like years ago now, was back to its healthy pale colour. He moved to pick it up and hold it but Vala suddenly sagged, freed from her fire-hardened state, and fell into him.

Her weight, her warmth, her small movements had him nearly passing out from the war between his exhilaration and his doubt. Daniel pushed her gently backwards and, had his lungs not already been full, he would have gasped at the resplendent sight of Vala’s blue gray eyes open and looking back at him, frightened. She was shaking like a leaf in his arms and her breathing was erratic but she was alive!

“Vala?” He whispered, afraid to speak any louder in part in case he startled her.

Vala had gone from experiencing her every last regret to the most intense pain she’d ever felt to this slow, painful reawakening in Daniel’s arms. She didn’t know what happened but her body held the memories of the stark fear she’d felt, the terror and panic was still flowing freshly through her veins. She couldn’t think straight, she could feel herself trembling but no matter how hard she tried, her body would not still itself. She felt endangered, cornered, trapped, and yet she burrowed deeper into Daniel’s embrace, more absolutely afraid of the world outside it than she’d ever been.

“D-Daniel?” She stuttered into his chest, clutching his shirt in her hands and cursing her voice for being so rough and fearful.

Hearing her voice was euphoria for Daniel and he was so consumed in his relief that he forgot that he was supposed to reply until she tried to lift herself off of him. He moved his arms to wrap them snugly around her shoulders and waist and held her as tightly as he dared.

“I’m right here.” He murmured softly into her hair.

That was all Vala needed. She wound her arms around back and clutched him with all her might. A sob escaped her but she hid it in his vest...just as he was doing on the material on her shoulder. She had no idea how long they stayed like that but it seemed that all too soon he was untangling them and sitting back to take her face in his rough hands.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly, his face red from exertion but forced into a calm expression.

She knew talking would only bring another round of swelling emotions so she contented herself with nodding hesitantly, taking comfort in the strong patterns Daniel’s hand was making on her back.

He nodded back and pulled her face back to him to press a long kiss to her cheekbone. Vala almost glared at him but chose instead to just turn his face back to her. She saw his eyes fall to her lips and she crushed them to his before he could see how they trembled. His taste, his scent, his feel...he grounded her. It wasn’t a long kiss, nor their most passionate. It was a kiss of pure need. The need to be reassured they were okay, they were together. And when Vala felt Daniel’s hand weave into her hair to hold her close, she let her final two tears fall.

When they separated, Vala had stopped shaking and the heavy knot in Daniel’s chest loosened.

“I’ve got you.” He murmured against her lips, for her sake and for his. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

ooooooooooooooooooo

“His vitals have stabilized for the moment.” Carolyn said, her fingers at Daniel’s pulse point and her eyes on her watch. She was grateful to have a distraction at the moment.

“You can’t pry the stones off?” Cameron asked Bill as he left Vala’s bed.

“No.” The portly scientist answered regrettably.

“And you don’t want me to shoot it.” Cameron pressed him, getting close to the device that was responsible for Vala’s death.

“No!” Bill replied softly but passionately, ready to throw himself in harm’s way again to protect the alien technology.

“Then how do we unplug this thing?” He demanded. Bill sighed, throwing his hands up helplessly.

“I don’t know.”

“Brilliant.” Cameron scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Col. Carter is on her way, Mitchell.” General Landry informed him from the observation room.

“At the very least we need to find a way to get that bracelet off of Dr. Jackson.” She told Cameron as he turned to face her, the accusation in his eyes almost perfectly hidden. “They’re still linked and without Vala he’ll probab-”

Cutting Carolyn off mid-sentence, Vala’s diagnostic equipment burst to life with steady rhythmic beating and everyone present looked over and held their breaths.

“She’s got a heartbeat.” Carolyn exclaimed softly, pushing Jack out of the way and quickly reaching for Vala’s wrist to confirm. The nurses all rushed forward and moved the soldiers out of the way to take their readings and they all had smiles on their faces as they finished.

“She’s...fine.” Carolyn told them wondrously, her heart almost bursting with joy. “Her heart rate is a little fast but I’m attributing that to the stress of whatever she’s just been through. She’s back in the same sleep state as before.”

ooooooooooooooooooo

Moving as minimally from his position as possible, Daniel turned to face the priest he’d been neglecting.

“Thank you.” He said hoarsely.

“Thank the Ori.” The pale man replied as dispassionately as the Administrator before issuing his orders. “Stand. You will come with me.”

“I think he wants us to go with him.” Daniel murmured to her needlessly as she sat back up on her own. “Can you walk?”

Vala’s eyes darted around to the prostrating villagers and the altar she sat next to and nodded.

“If it means getting away from here.” She agreed, forcing herself to climb down from the peak of panic and fear that had not let go of her. She closed her eyes to ready herself and a few more traitorous tears leaked out past her lashes. Daniel used his thumb to wipe one away and his lips to capture the other on her cheek.

“I’m right here. No one is keeping me away from you again.” He promised her. Vala swallowed heavily and nodded again as Daniel stepped aside to stand up. She pushed off from the ground but her legs protested loudly and a gasp of pain was ripped from her lips. Before she could fall, Daniel’s arms were locked around her, steadying her and lifting her but only to her feet. She knew he no doubt would have preferred to carry her out on his own terms but he knew her better than that. These people had seen her scream and cry and they would see her walk away from this with her head held high with defiance...as much as she could muster, anyway.

He gave her a moment once she was on her feet and then nudged her gently forward, his arm solid around her waist, his hand gripping her hips, and her own arm across his shoulders with his hand holding hers on the other side. They slowly began catching up to the walking priest when he paused and spoke aloud.

“Hallowed are the children of the Ori.” He recited without turning around.

“Hallowed are the Ori.” Replied the villagers as one, never raising their eyes from the ground. They chanted the saying over and over and Daniel and Vala walked through them and Daniel hoped that once they cleared this place, it would be the last time he ever heard those words.

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I really hope you all liked this chapter! Please let me know!