Five conversations Teal'c never had.
1. He never talked to Cameron Mitchell about the complexities of coming back to SG-1. Mitchell was so eager, so excited about reuniting Carter, Jackson, and Teal’c, but they have never discussed how this new amalgamation would work. Militarily, SG-1’s current form makes little sense. Carter and Mitchell are of equal rank. Jackson is a civilian. Teal’c has no title. The original core of SG-1 had a practiced routine under the leadership of O’Neill for a decade. Mitchell is not unwelcome or disliked, but he is different.
It takes a while for Teal’c to assess Mitchell; to decide that he is actually welcome and worthy. He has to watch how the man thinks, how he interacts with Carter and Jackson, how he changes the relationship dynamics among the team. Then, of course, Vala arrives, and a whole new beast is born.
They don’t talk about this, because apparently humans just don’t talk about this.
Sometimes, though, he watches the way Mitchell squints at Sam as she uses multi-syllabic words Teal’c has long since stopped bothering to mentally translate, or stares at Daniel when he’s making first contact with armed and irritable natives after they’ve stepped out of the gate, and glowers at Vala and Daniel when they have their daily verbal showdowns.
And then he thinks Mitchell would have liked to talk about it, too.
2. Teal’c never talks to anyone about Sam and Jack. Because, again, this is apparently a topic that humans do not verbalize.
Over the years, he comes to understand matters such a fraternization regulations, their respective intervening romantic entanglements, and the other complexities. He’s never quite clear if Carter and O’Neill have even spoken to one another. Daniel occasionally makes violent motions with his eyebrows at Teal’c during moments which are allegedly romantically significant, but that’s the only real sign anyone else is aware of the situation.
After O’Neill leaves the SGC, things changed somewhat.
“Hey, Teal’c,” Jackson said, dropping by the gym during Teal’c’s cardio session. “Want to come baby-sit Cassie with me tonight?”
“Baby-sit?” Teal’c echoed. “She has declared she is too old for that activity.”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. “But she’s not too old to order pizza, kill things on the X-Box, and eat a gigantic box of chocolates with her two favorite uncles.”
Then Jackson hefted the enormous red heart-shaped box. Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “Nurses,” Jackson said, making a face.
“Dirty whores.” Vala announced her presence from the mat in the corner of the gym. Jackson flinched, but didn’t whirl around to face her.
“I will sit the baby with you, Daniel,” Vala volunteered. “I enjoy killing and chocolate.”
Jackson looked pleadingly at Teal’c. “Do not make me spend Valentine’s Day weekend alone with her,” he hissed.
Teal’c hesitated and Daniel expression slowly became horrified.
“I will accompany you, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said, finally.
“Thank you,” Jackson said, his voice infused with relief. Then he pointedly rolled his eyes at Vala and left the room.
“Where is Carter?” Vala asked from across the room.
“Washington,” Teal’c answered. “Visiting her Valentine.”
Vala’s eyebrows went up curiously, and Teal’c immediately knew he couldn’t talk about it with her or Carter would be deeply unhappy. He returned to his workout, mentally anticipating a weekend of X-Box with Cassie while Daniel and Vala argued incessantly. Perhaps he could lock them in another room, and maybe he and Cassie could have a conversation. Not about Sam and Jack, since even he knew that’d be inappropriate, but about Daniel and Vala.
3. Even though it’s one of the rare human cases where conversations are conventional, and overt menacing is encouraged, Teal’c doesn’t talk to Vala about her intentions with Daniel.
He thinks he gets the message across non-verbally, though.
The opportunity arose at one of the weekly Saturday team waffle breakfasts. Sam had stayed in the car, and the moment Cameron noticed Vala was lounging naked in Daniel’s TV chair, he averted his eyes and starting whistling a vaguely familiar and very lengthy melody. Thus, it was left to Teal’c to deal with the situation.
“Coming,” Daniel called from his bedroom. “I can’t find my shoes.”
“Under the bed,” Vala hollered back. She looked at Teal’c and smiled. Cameron continued whistling and examining the ceiling. Belatedly, she grabbed Daniel’s plaid throw and curled up beneath it.
Daniel came out to the living room, one shoe in hand, the other where it actually was supposed to be worn.
“Sorry,” he apologized. “Are you coming, Vala?”
“No.” Vala pointed at the television screen. “I want to see the showcases.”
Cameron stopped whistling and moved his eyes from the ceiling to the television. “Is that The Price is Right?”
Vala nodded, grinning enormously.
“I didn’t know that was on Saturdays,” Cameron said.
“It’s not,” Daniel said, bending down to shove his shoe on. “She tapes them all week. It’s her favorite show.”
“I want to go on,” Vala said. “I would win.” She glared at the screen, then. “Well maybe not this wheel-spinny part. It’s stupid.”
“But Plinko is brilliant,” Daniel dead-panned.
Vala ignored him. “I would get a car. And a hot tub. Sometimes they have golfcarts.”
Daniel grabbed his jacket. “Ready to go?”
Cameron and Daniel departed, leaving Teal’c to shut the door on his way out. Before he pulled it shut, he caught Vala’s eye and tried to communicate everything he could possibly say about what would happen if she harmed Daniel Jackson. She looked back at him, then winked.
Message sufficiently accomplished, he dropped her gaze and jerked the door closed.
“Robot vacuum, lamp, then toaster,” he heard her announce to the empty apartment. Seconds later, the television buzzed and the audience moaned. “Idiot,” said Vala.
4. Despite his promise to O’Neill, Teal’c never makes the call to Washington to report the loss of a teammate.
“I want you to do it,” O’Neill had said, over beers one night before he left. “If it has to be done at all.” When Teal’c inquired why, O’Neill took a big drink. “I won’t want to kill you,” he said.
After the klaxons, after the emergency medical team swarmed the gateroom, after getting kicked out of the infirmary, as Teal’c waits in the cafeteria for the outcome, that request from O’Neill replays over and over in his head.
Vala sits next to him, staring off into space. The cafeteria is empty, but she’s sitting so close to him on the bench that he can feel her body heat against his leg. She’s whiter than usual, even though her hands are still covered in grime and blood and she keeps touching her face.
“We’re supposed to call,” she says, suddenly and urgently, after nearly half an hour of utter, nervous silence. “Call someone,” she repeats, looking at him for confirmation.
Teal’c only nods, but the eye contact calms her. She puts her damp, gritty hand on his arm and stares back at the point on the door, as if she too is reliving something playing out in her mind.
After an hour, Vala gets up, clearly intending to sneak back to the infirmary. Teal’c follows, because sitting alone in the cafeteria with Vala’s bloody handprint on his arm is impossible.
They find Cameron at the infirmary entrance, evidently heading off to find them. He’s wobbling on crutches - stolen crutches, probably, since it doesn’t look like anyone’s even examined his leg yet. Teal’c takes one look at Cameron’s reddened eyes and blotchy face, and he knows. Vala knows, too, because she blows past him so fast she actually knocks Cameron over.
Teal’c moves swiftly to grab him before he hits the ground, as the crutches clatter aside. He’s gripping Cameron in the doorway when he hears Vala’s unmistakable cry of relief. He looks up and sees nurses hauling her off Daniel, who’s simultaneously holding her tightly - and then he knows for real.
The medical staff moves in to take care of Cameron. Before they lift him away, Cameron grabs on to Teal’c’s shirt and holds tight.
“I already told him about her,” he gets out between gritted teeth. “I made the call, okay?”
He’s wrestled free, dumped on a gurney, and wheeled away before Teal’c can reply. Crossing the room to Daniel and Vala, Teal’c finds himself enveloped by Vala on one side while Daniel’s hand seizes his other arm.
“I need a phone,” Daniel says hoarsely.
Teal’c shakes his head.
5. Many people have asked him, but Teal’c doesn’t owe an explanation to anyone but his son. If Rya’c ever wanted a conversation about why his father has devoted most of Rya’c’s life to the service of a people who are not Jaffa and who have only intermittently had interest in the well-being of the Jaffa nation, Teal’c would have it.
But Rya’c never asks.