Fic! Hypomnesia Part Two
Title: Hypomnesia Part Two
Author: CatherineBruce
Rating: PG-13/R (Overall, for possible violence, language (I blame my sailor’s tongue on my parents and the Army), maybe even sexual situations, if I can ever get past typing ‘breast’ with out blushing.)
Fandom: Farscape/Stargate SG-1
Disclaimer: Farscape and Stargate are owned by their respective owners. I hold no claim! I just like to devilishly play. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Summary: From Talk Medical: Hypomnesia: Abnormally poor memory of the past.
Beta: Thanks for this round goes to Casper F. Joke and sarahjane! Without em, this part would probably suck lots. ^_^
AN: I'm so sorry it took me almost nine months to update this story! I've been decidedly non-writey the past couple months... whoops! I'll try to update more often! If its any consolation, this part is a wee bit longer than Part One! ;D
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
“Transference is complete. The fetus is stable.”
“Get your hands off of her, you horse-faced freaks!”
“Dispose of this mess.”
The heat surrounds her, drowning out the pain in her middle. She can’t breathe. There’s a face above her, shifting...reptilian, human...and back again, splashing pure heat on her face, pinching her arm, not letting her move. A man. “It’s time.” Then he’s gone and she cries for him, not knowing why. Then pain again and again. “Who’s the father?” She doesn’t know, how could she know? She’s not pregnant.
A plague. A grey girl slung over scaly shoulders. “Transfer.”
More pain, worse than the heat, then she hears her self cry out as they rip and tear, but she can’t see what they’re doing, and her cries turn more animalistic, more desperate and inhuman until she realizes that she has stopped screaming and that this cry belongs to someone else.
-
Vala gasped for breath as she jolted awake, sweat-soaked sheets clinging to her as she sat upright. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if this wasn’t the dream and what she had just witnessed had been some twisted reality. She pulled her knees toward her chest, hands covering her face as she tried to assure herself that this was real.
After a couple of seconds full of doubt and desperate attempts at composure, the red light on her nightstand caught her eye and she turned slightly to check the time. “Son of a bitch,” she spit out as she scrambled to put on her boots.
She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. In fact, Jones had had to pull her away from the unconscious man as the medics came to take him to the infirmary. Landry had asked her what had happened, and she shrugged up at the window. Dr. Lam had insisted that her patient needed privacy, and after several moments of heated debate, Sergeant Jones had finally been ordered to escort Vala back to her room while the tests were run.
She had apologized to him at her door for cursing at him and threatening to remove various parts of his anatomy with a dull serrated knife, and, as he always did, Jones forgave her with a slight smile and a ‘Yes, Ma’am.’
Vala wasn’t even sure why she had reacted the way she had toward the doctor. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been ordered away before. In fact, a part of her would have been surprised if she hadn’t been. But there was something about leaving Mitchell alone to be tested and probed this time around that set her nerves on edge.
Exiting her small cell of a room, she smiled at Jones as he fell in step behind her. “Any news on when the gate will be operational again?”
The iris had been fried in the accident, causing it to weld shut after they’d had to close it. For the past three hours, work crews had been working on getting the naqahdah alloy to budge. Vala was sure that they were still going at it, because she hadn’t received any news, and she was sure that Landry would still keep his promise to allow her to greet the wayward team.
“No, Ma’am. Nothing yet. Although, I suspect it won’t be too much longer.”
“Have you been hiding your inside sources from me, Jonesie?”
At that, the taller man grinned. “No, Ma’am. Just what’s going around through the Lower Enlisted Minion Grapevine.”
Vala grinned and the two fell into a rather comfortable silence as they made their way for the medical bay. Jones was undoubtedly her favorite of the lower ranking military minions, though perhaps for reasons other than what one would assume. After she had shown up the last time and placed under surveillance, none of the guards would speak to her, not even Sergeant Jones. Whether this had been because they had been under strict order not to, or out of fear of her, or a combination thereof, she wasn’t sure.
However, Jones had been the first one to speak to her beyond directing her to go left or right. While he had guarded his personal life from her due to regulations, he would still find neutral topics to talk about.
Then one day, with permission from his commander, he had allowed her to borrow a portable DVD player and discs containing odd, yet fascinating, movies and television programs.
“Those helped me stay sane when I was deployed in Iraq,” he had said, and at the time that had been all she knew about him.
That, and the first, and last, time she had seriously propositioned him, his reply had been that he was very and happily married. Normally, that wouldn’t have stopped her advances, although, while she still made the occasional flirtatious pass at him, he had been one of the only people on this small, backwater planet to actually treat her with a modicum of respect, and more than an alien to be feared.
Then, when it was decided that she wouldn’t make off with the Stargate in the middle of the night, not that the opportunity hadn’t been tempting, the guards had become more lenient around her. Jones had immediately shown her a small photograph of his young wife and their two-year-old son.
She turned toward him now as they walked. “So, how are Mrs. Jonesie and the kid?”
The sergeant flashed a small, but proud, smile, and had his skin been a little lighter, she knew she would have seen a blush. “They’re both great. And so is the little one on the way.”
“Congratulations! If it’s a girl, you’ll name her Vala, right?” She nudged at his shoulder playfully.
He chuckled slightly. “I’ll try to sneak it on the list.”
They reached the medical bay, then, just as Dr. Lam was about to give her father the diagnosis of her patient. Vala hopped onto the empty bed beside the unconscious man, ignoring the slightly annoyed glance that the general shot her way. Sergeant Jones blended perfectly into the background, and if she hadn’t known he was there, she doubted she would have even noticed him.
“His vitals are steady, for the most part. However, I did find some anomalous readings at the base of his cerebellum, and elevated brain activity where there’s usually very little.” Dr. Lam flipped through the results of the tests she and her team had run, a slight perplexed look on her face. “Also, physically, he’s built slightly different.”
General Landry regarded his daughter curiously. “Built differently? How?”
Dr. Lam was a professional, always sure to keep opinions that weren’t specifically related to her diagnosis to herself. So when she flushed slightly, she covered it the best she could by clearing her throat. “He has slightly more muscle mass in his upper torso, and he’s leaner in the legs.”
“The man’s built like a house.”
Dr. Lam and General Landry turned to Vala with raised eyebrows. She knew better than to comment on how much they resembled each other in that moment, aware of the tensions that still hung around father and daughter. Instead, she clarified her statement.
“When someone collapses full-bodied onto you, you tend to notice these things.” When the general turned back towards his daughter, Vala mimed at the young doctor just how built, and just how yummy it was.
Dr. Lam tried to hide another flush by continuing with the evaluation of her patient. “So, while he is Cameron Mitchell, there is nothing to suggest that he is our Cameron Mitchell.”
“Our Mitchell?” Curiosity fully piqued, Vala leaned forward on the bed, eyes gleaming mischievously. “You mean there’s more than one?”
“Ah yes, I keep forgetting that you weren’t here.”
She wondered how a man could suggest so loudly that he hadn’t forgotten that she had been gone, and that he longed for those times again, all with just the slightest inflection of his voice.
“There was an incident a few weeks back where several SG-1 teams from multiple timelines came through the gate. It’s a rather long story with a rather boring end.”
She snorted and leaned back. “I don’t know, General. Any time there’s more than one Daniel or Mitchell in one room seems a bit not boring to me.” She gave a wink to the doctor, wondering what it would take to loosen up the rigid woman.
Dr. Lam gave a terse smile before returning to her prognosis. “He’s in a coma at the moment, and although we can’t pinpoint the reason, we assume it has something to do with the heightened brain activity overloading the other parts of his brain.” She pulled out some scans that they had taken and held it out so they could see through the light.
“General?” All three turned towards the private who stood at the door, holding a phone to her lapels. “The gateroom reports that the Stargate is now operational. SG-1 is due back in five minutes.”
General Landry nodded. “Thank you, airman.” He started for the door, nodding at his daughter as he left.
Vala cast one last glance at the unconscious man, wondering what it was that prevented him from waking up. As far as Lam knew, there was no real reason why he hadn’t regained consciousness. So why hadn’t he? She sighed softly, and reached out to smooth back the hair from his forehead, thumb lightly tracing over the scar she hadn’t noticed until then. It was so faint, yet she suspected that it probably held significance to him.
Why was she so concerned for the well being of a man she had apparently known for only a few short seconds? She had barely known Cameron Mitchell before she left, and the only interest she’d had in him had lain in the fact that he slightly resembled her favorite archeologist. Something had told her that Mitchell should have been so much more than what he had appeared to be, that there was a vibrancy that he had been missing. He was too docile when he should have been aggressive, too naïve where he should have been jaded. It had been like looking at a picture that had sat in a window and faded over time.
But this man, this alternate version of Cameron Mitchell, was almost overly saturated with color, even in this forced sleep. His features were sharp and crisp, where the Mitchell she knew was almost blurry around the edges, and somehow Vala know that if she got to close to this one, the sharp edges could cut, could make her bleed.
After one last moment, she pulled her hand away and flashed the doctor a polite smile before chasing after the General.
-
It took closer to fifteen minutes before SG-1 finally stepped through the Stargate and back into the gateroom, slightly dirty and overall disheveled.
Mitchell was the first to get over his silent joy at being home, and after taking in the familiar concrete surroundings of the room, he turned to the General, who was waiting for the team at the bottom of the ramp. “Sir, not that I’m complaining or anything, but is there a reason why we had to hide out in the mud for an extra four hours?”
Landry raised an eyebrow. “Welcome back, you four. I’ll explain everything we know after you’ve had the chance to get yourselves cleaned up.” There was a pause, then a slight cough from behind him. “And also, after your little reunion.” He stepped aside to reveal an innocent looking Vala.
She brought up one hand and wiggled her fingers at the group. “Hello. Miss me?”
The look on their faces, that collective dropping of jaws (or raising of eyebrows, in the case of the Jaffa), was most definitely worth the trip.
And so too was the way Daniel briefly squeezed her back when she rushed him for a hug she knew he wouldn’t like, before almost immediately pulling away in protest.
“All right, you four. Go get cleaned up, and meet me in the briefing room in half an hour.”
After a quick shower for each of the wayward SG team, they gathered around the oval table. They had a few minutes left before Landry came in, and Vala perched in the chair beside Daniel, just easing back to listen to what they’ve been up to since her disappearance. The archaeologist turned to her when he was done talking to Sam, and after a moment of somewhat uncomfortable silence and awkward greeting, he nodded at the bruise.
“Who’d you piss off?” His voice was stiff, concerned, and if Vala wasn’t mistaken, concerned.
“Well, apparently I’m not the most… easy person to live with. My last bunkmate got a little too angry a couple times.”
At his slightly startled look, she gave a wink. “You should see him, though. Apparently he didn’t know any better than to double-cross the wrong people.”
Jackson snorted and rifled through the folder in front of him. “Good to see you can take care of yourself.”
Vala gasped and punched his arm, keeping her tone light and playful. “Careful, Daniel, the others may begin to think you actually like me.”
His lips quirked upward in a tight and amused smile. “We wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”
“Never. And speaking of…” She leaned forward onto the table, face framed against her hand. “Where is my scarf?”
Before he could tell her the whereabouts of her beloved piece of knittery, General Landry chose that moment to walk in. Mitchell called out ‘at ease,’ and after seeing that his little officers gave the proper amount of respect, the general graciously allowed them to take their seats once more.
As he took his seat, the general passed around the debrief folders. Vala peered over Daniel’s shoulder. “Now, what can you tell me about the planet?”
“A lot more than we care too, Sir.” Mitchell groused as he opened the folder. More loudly, he spoke up. “There were no rumors of Ori involvement on Debri. No one talking about Priors making with the miracle cures, or horrifying plagues.” Frustrated, the Colonel plopped the folder down on the table and leaned back into the dangerously comfortable chair. “Hell, there’s not even crop circles.”
“So the Ori have been quiet for some time. This should be a good thing, but why does it worry me?”
“It’s almost as though they’re planning something. They’ve been quiet since the Supergate was destroyed.” A slight clearing of the throat, and Daniel corrected himself. “Excuse me, since Vala destroyed the Supergate.” He turned and flashed her a conciliatory grin.
“I guess it would be too much to hope that they just gave up?” Vala knew the answer to that, even before she brought it up. “No, that’s militaristically unsound; they wouldn’t have spent so much effort in moving troops over here if they were just going to abandon the war after one flopped battle.”
The others stared at her for a moment before Sam chimed in. “Vala’s right. So the question isn’t only what they’re planning, but when they plan on following through?”
None of them could come up with anything that the god-like aliens could possibly be planning.
Eventually, though, Mitchell’s curiosity ate at him enough. “So, what caused the malfunction that fried the Stargate?”
General Landry gave the colonel a wry grin. “Well, it seems that you have a doppelganger.” He seemed to be satisfied with Mitchell’s blank look. “It seems that an actual wormhole interrupted the Stargate, and a man bearing a striking resemblance to you fell through, Colonel. Dr. Lam even ran some tests, and the similarities are pretty damn astounding. If he isn’t you from an alternate timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t damn close.”
“So, there’s a guy who looks just like me walking around here?”
“Well, not exactly. He’s still unconscious.” Vala bit her lip and smirked. “And I wouldn’t say he looks exactly like you. He’s better looking.”
Satisfied with the personal zing, and the expression on the Colonel’s face, Vala sat back in her chair and listened as Sam and Daniel argued over the possibilities of an unstable wormhole.
-
The slight weight of the device rested heavily in the palm of her hand. There had been a time, once, when a creature would force her body to use a similar device to inflict pain on lesser mortals. She hadn’t used that device since she’d been freed, but she had used this healing one on more than one occasion.
Vala placed the rest of the miscellaneous technology back in the case and slipped the healing device into the pocket of her jacket. She wasn’t sure what she hoped to accomplish by doing what it was she planned on doing. The odds of her waking the strange man from his coma were slim to none, but something in her would not allow her to sit idly by while he seemed to slip farther away.
She slipped out of the arms room. Normally, it was well guarded, but the private on duty had needed to go to the bathroom, practically prancing at his post, and as Vala had sat there while the young man went to relieve himself, the opportunity to take a look around was too great. When she’d come across the sleek black case, which seemed to open of its own volition, she immediately thought of the man in the infirmary. The private came back, looking much more relieved, and Vala left with a slight smile.
She entered the infirmary, and flashed a brighter smile at the orderly on duty. “Hello! How’s everything?”
Not really used to late night visitors, the young nurse gave a slight pause before answering. “Everything’s fine, thanks.”
Vala nodded. “That’s good. Say, I came in with the guy who looks like Mitchell earlier today. I just want to check up on him, see how he’s doing?”
The orderly bit her lip for a second. “I’m not sure, I’m supposed to keep him comfortable and check his vitals, but there was nothing about visitors.”
“Right, so that means that it’s not wrong or anything. Besides, the man has no one else to hold his hand and mop his brow and all that other stuff, right? Who better to do so than me, right?” Flashing another smile, she abruptly turned to the still sleeping man.
Vala stood there for a second as the nurse stood, uncertain, just looking at him. His sleeping face was peaceful; worry lines all but gone as his breath fluttered in and out through slightly parted lips. As before, her hand found its way to his forehead, to that same scar as before.
“Who are you?” she asked to no one in particular.
Through the corner of her eye, she saw that the orderly finally gave up on whatever mental battle he had waged with himself, and seemed to be satisfied that she wouldn’t try to take advantage of an unconscious human as he went off to sit at his desk and read the latest issue of Newsweek.
Not sure when he would get bored with the magazine, Vala brought the Goa’uld healing device from her pocket. She fit it securely to her palm and held it over the same place she had been tracing earlier, recalling the charts that Lam had shown them earlier, and concentrating on the device’s activation. It wasn’t an exact science, and there was more usage of instinct than one would assume, and she watched as her hand traveled from hovering just above his eyebrow, to just below his jaw, then down towards his chest. It took a long while before she could feel anything happening, and she almost gave up when she could just feel something in him begin to mend.
The device shut off, and for a moment she was disoriented as a wave rolled through her, starting from the outside and ended in a tiny tingling mass at the center of her gut. It was an unusual sensation, certainly not one that usually happened when healing. Neither was the feeling of inertia that swept over her, and she had to catch herself from falling by bracing against the man’s arm.
As soon as she touched him, though, there was a deep, almost sleepy groan as he shifted. Startled, she turned to face him, and was greeted by a pair of very groggy and very blue eyes. He blinked slowly, and then tried to focus on her. When he was finally able to, he looked at her with something close to awe and apprehension for several seconds.
“Am I dreaming?”
Caught unaware, she wasn’t sure how to answer, and nearly jumped as his hand once again brushed against her cheek. He seemed to be forcing his mind to focus solely on her, and his eyes focused into a sharp, piercing stare that almost made her uncomfortable.
“Are you really here?”
She cleared her throat and pulled away, bringing her own hand to clutch at his, moving it away from her and closer towards him. His hand settled against his chest, his fingers refusing to let go of hers.
“No, you’re not dreaming.”
“I’ve been looking, for so many cycles. I searched for you.” The odd word made her stare at him, but his eyes were losing the clarity that they’d had moments before. “I’ve missed you, so much.”
I love you, so much.
Vala shook her head sharply to clear the haze that had started to settle. She noticed that he was struggling to stay awake, and she worried that the exertion wasn’t good for him. She leaned forward and smiled softly at him, and she was relieved to see that it did have the calming effect that she had been aiming for. “Hush now, go to sleep. You need to rest.” She smoothed her thumb in light circles against his temples, and her grin broadened as he seemed almost unable to resist her request.
He wasn’t quite ready to give up consciousness that easily, though. When he appeared to be seconds away from sleep, his head gave a sharp shake as he forced his eyes open to give her that same look as before. “Will you be here when I wake up?”
She paused for a moment before she answered, not sure if she should lie. “I’ll be around. Just call for me.”
This seemed to placate him, because he kept her hand clutched to his chest before sighing deeply as his eyes fluttered closed.
Before she left, she told the orderly that she thought that he might be waking up soon, because she thought she had felt his fingers twitch.
Later, a private was going through the arms room when he noticed that a healing device had been left out of its case. Rolling his eyes, he grumbled at the laziness of officers and placed it back in its proper container.
-End Part Two
Author: CatherineBruce
Rating: PG-13/R (Overall, for possible violence, language (I blame my sailor’s tongue on my parents and the Army), maybe even sexual situations, if I can ever get past typing ‘breast’ with out blushing.)
Fandom: Farscape/Stargate SG-1
Disclaimer: Farscape and Stargate are owned by their respective owners. I hold no claim! I just like to devilishly play. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Summary: From Talk Medical: Hypomnesia: Abnormally poor memory of the past.
Beta: Thanks for this round goes to Casper F. Joke and sarahjane! Without em, this part would probably suck lots. ^_^
AN: I'm so sorry it took me almost nine months to update this story! I've been decidedly non-writey the past couple months... whoops! I'll try to update more often! If its any consolation, this part is a wee bit longer than Part One! ;D
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
“Transference is complete. The fetus is stable.”
“Get your hands off of her, you horse-faced freaks!”
“Dispose of this mess.”
The heat surrounds her, drowning out the pain in her middle. She can’t breathe. There’s a face above her, shifting...reptilian, human...and back again, splashing pure heat on her face, pinching her arm, not letting her move. A man. “It’s time.” Then he’s gone and she cries for him, not knowing why. Then pain again and again. “Who’s the father?” She doesn’t know, how could she know? She’s not pregnant.
A plague. A grey girl slung over scaly shoulders. “Transfer.”
More pain, worse than the heat, then she hears her self cry out as they rip and tear, but she can’t see what they’re doing, and her cries turn more animalistic, more desperate and inhuman until she realizes that she has stopped screaming and that this cry belongs to someone else.
-
Vala gasped for breath as she jolted awake, sweat-soaked sheets clinging to her as she sat upright. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if this wasn’t the dream and what she had just witnessed had been some twisted reality. She pulled her knees toward her chest, hands covering her face as she tried to assure herself that this was real.
After a couple of seconds full of doubt and desperate attempts at composure, the red light on her nightstand caught her eye and she turned slightly to check the time. “Son of a bitch,” she spit out as she scrambled to put on her boots.
She hadn’t meant to fall asleep. In fact, Jones had had to pull her away from the unconscious man as the medics came to take him to the infirmary. Landry had asked her what had happened, and she shrugged up at the window. Dr. Lam had insisted that her patient needed privacy, and after several moments of heated debate, Sergeant Jones had finally been ordered to escort Vala back to her room while the tests were run.
She had apologized to him at her door for cursing at him and threatening to remove various parts of his anatomy with a dull serrated knife, and, as he always did, Jones forgave her with a slight smile and a ‘Yes, Ma’am.’
Vala wasn’t even sure why she had reacted the way she had toward the doctor. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been ordered away before. In fact, a part of her would have been surprised if she hadn’t been. But there was something about leaving Mitchell alone to be tested and probed this time around that set her nerves on edge.
Exiting her small cell of a room, she smiled at Jones as he fell in step behind her. “Any news on when the gate will be operational again?”
The iris had been fried in the accident, causing it to weld shut after they’d had to close it. For the past three hours, work crews had been working on getting the naqahdah alloy to budge. Vala was sure that they were still going at it, because she hadn’t received any news, and she was sure that Landry would still keep his promise to allow her to greet the wayward team.
“No, Ma’am. Nothing yet. Although, I suspect it won’t be too much longer.”
“Have you been hiding your inside sources from me, Jonesie?”
At that, the taller man grinned. “No, Ma’am. Just what’s going around through the Lower Enlisted Minion Grapevine.”
Vala grinned and the two fell into a rather comfortable silence as they made their way for the medical bay. Jones was undoubtedly her favorite of the lower ranking military minions, though perhaps for reasons other than what one would assume. After she had shown up the last time and placed under surveillance, none of the guards would speak to her, not even Sergeant Jones. Whether this had been because they had been under strict order not to, or out of fear of her, or a combination thereof, she wasn’t sure.
However, Jones had been the first one to speak to her beyond directing her to go left or right. While he had guarded his personal life from her due to regulations, he would still find neutral topics to talk about.
Then one day, with permission from his commander, he had allowed her to borrow a portable DVD player and discs containing odd, yet fascinating, movies and television programs.
“Those helped me stay sane when I was deployed in Iraq,” he had said, and at the time that had been all she knew about him.
That, and the first, and last, time she had seriously propositioned him, his reply had been that he was very and happily married. Normally, that wouldn’t have stopped her advances, although, while she still made the occasional flirtatious pass at him, he had been one of the only people on this small, backwater planet to actually treat her with a modicum of respect, and more than an alien to be feared.
Then, when it was decided that she wouldn’t make off with the Stargate in the middle of the night, not that the opportunity hadn’t been tempting, the guards had become more lenient around her. Jones had immediately shown her a small photograph of his young wife and their two-year-old son.
She turned toward him now as they walked. “So, how are Mrs. Jonesie and the kid?”
The sergeant flashed a small, but proud, smile, and had his skin been a little lighter, she knew she would have seen a blush. “They’re both great. And so is the little one on the way.”
“Congratulations! If it’s a girl, you’ll name her Vala, right?” She nudged at his shoulder playfully.
He chuckled slightly. “I’ll try to sneak it on the list.”
They reached the medical bay, then, just as Dr. Lam was about to give her father the diagnosis of her patient. Vala hopped onto the empty bed beside the unconscious man, ignoring the slightly annoyed glance that the general shot her way. Sergeant Jones blended perfectly into the background, and if she hadn’t known he was there, she doubted she would have even noticed him.
“His vitals are steady, for the most part. However, I did find some anomalous readings at the base of his cerebellum, and elevated brain activity where there’s usually very little.” Dr. Lam flipped through the results of the tests she and her team had run, a slight perplexed look on her face. “Also, physically, he’s built slightly different.”
General Landry regarded his daughter curiously. “Built differently? How?”
Dr. Lam was a professional, always sure to keep opinions that weren’t specifically related to her diagnosis to herself. So when she flushed slightly, she covered it the best she could by clearing her throat. “He has slightly more muscle mass in his upper torso, and he’s leaner in the legs.”
“The man’s built like a house.”
Dr. Lam and General Landry turned to Vala with raised eyebrows. She knew better than to comment on how much they resembled each other in that moment, aware of the tensions that still hung around father and daughter. Instead, she clarified her statement.
“When someone collapses full-bodied onto you, you tend to notice these things.” When the general turned back towards his daughter, Vala mimed at the young doctor just how built, and just how yummy it was.
Dr. Lam tried to hide another flush by continuing with the evaluation of her patient. “So, while he is Cameron Mitchell, there is nothing to suggest that he is our Cameron Mitchell.”
“Our Mitchell?” Curiosity fully piqued, Vala leaned forward on the bed, eyes gleaming mischievously. “You mean there’s more than one?”
“Ah yes, I keep forgetting that you weren’t here.”
She wondered how a man could suggest so loudly that he hadn’t forgotten that she had been gone, and that he longed for those times again, all with just the slightest inflection of his voice.
“There was an incident a few weeks back where several SG-1 teams from multiple timelines came through the gate. It’s a rather long story with a rather boring end.”
She snorted and leaned back. “I don’t know, General. Any time there’s more than one Daniel or Mitchell in one room seems a bit not boring to me.” She gave a wink to the doctor, wondering what it would take to loosen up the rigid woman.
Dr. Lam gave a terse smile before returning to her prognosis. “He’s in a coma at the moment, and although we can’t pinpoint the reason, we assume it has something to do with the heightened brain activity overloading the other parts of his brain.” She pulled out some scans that they had taken and held it out so they could see through the light.
“General?” All three turned towards the private who stood at the door, holding a phone to her lapels. “The gateroom reports that the Stargate is now operational. SG-1 is due back in five minutes.”
General Landry nodded. “Thank you, airman.” He started for the door, nodding at his daughter as he left.
Vala cast one last glance at the unconscious man, wondering what it was that prevented him from waking up. As far as Lam knew, there was no real reason why he hadn’t regained consciousness. So why hadn’t he? She sighed softly, and reached out to smooth back the hair from his forehead, thumb lightly tracing over the scar she hadn’t noticed until then. It was so faint, yet she suspected that it probably held significance to him.
Why was she so concerned for the well being of a man she had apparently known for only a few short seconds? She had barely known Cameron Mitchell before she left, and the only interest she’d had in him had lain in the fact that he slightly resembled her favorite archeologist. Something had told her that Mitchell should have been so much more than what he had appeared to be, that there was a vibrancy that he had been missing. He was too docile when he should have been aggressive, too naïve where he should have been jaded. It had been like looking at a picture that had sat in a window and faded over time.
But this man, this alternate version of Cameron Mitchell, was almost overly saturated with color, even in this forced sleep. His features were sharp and crisp, where the Mitchell she knew was almost blurry around the edges, and somehow Vala know that if she got to close to this one, the sharp edges could cut, could make her bleed.
After one last moment, she pulled her hand away and flashed the doctor a polite smile before chasing after the General.
-
It took closer to fifteen minutes before SG-1 finally stepped through the Stargate and back into the gateroom, slightly dirty and overall disheveled.
Mitchell was the first to get over his silent joy at being home, and after taking in the familiar concrete surroundings of the room, he turned to the General, who was waiting for the team at the bottom of the ramp. “Sir, not that I’m complaining or anything, but is there a reason why we had to hide out in the mud for an extra four hours?”
Landry raised an eyebrow. “Welcome back, you four. I’ll explain everything we know after you’ve had the chance to get yourselves cleaned up.” There was a pause, then a slight cough from behind him. “And also, after your little reunion.” He stepped aside to reveal an innocent looking Vala.
She brought up one hand and wiggled her fingers at the group. “Hello. Miss me?”
The look on their faces, that collective dropping of jaws (or raising of eyebrows, in the case of the Jaffa), was most definitely worth the trip.
And so too was the way Daniel briefly squeezed her back when she rushed him for a hug she knew he wouldn’t like, before almost immediately pulling away in protest.
“All right, you four. Go get cleaned up, and meet me in the briefing room in half an hour.”
After a quick shower for each of the wayward SG team, they gathered around the oval table. They had a few minutes left before Landry came in, and Vala perched in the chair beside Daniel, just easing back to listen to what they’ve been up to since her disappearance. The archaeologist turned to her when he was done talking to Sam, and after a moment of somewhat uncomfortable silence and awkward greeting, he nodded at the bruise.
“Who’d you piss off?” His voice was stiff, concerned, and if Vala wasn’t mistaken, concerned.
“Well, apparently I’m not the most… easy person to live with. My last bunkmate got a little too angry a couple times.”
At his slightly startled look, she gave a wink. “You should see him, though. Apparently he didn’t know any better than to double-cross the wrong people.”
Jackson snorted and rifled through the folder in front of him. “Good to see you can take care of yourself.”
Vala gasped and punched his arm, keeping her tone light and playful. “Careful, Daniel, the others may begin to think you actually like me.”
His lips quirked upward in a tight and amused smile. “We wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”
“Never. And speaking of…” She leaned forward onto the table, face framed against her hand. “Where is my scarf?”
Before he could tell her the whereabouts of her beloved piece of knittery, General Landry chose that moment to walk in. Mitchell called out ‘at ease,’ and after seeing that his little officers gave the proper amount of respect, the general graciously allowed them to take their seats once more.
As he took his seat, the general passed around the debrief folders. Vala peered over Daniel’s shoulder. “Now, what can you tell me about the planet?”
“A lot more than we care too, Sir.” Mitchell groused as he opened the folder. More loudly, he spoke up. “There were no rumors of Ori involvement on Debri. No one talking about Priors making with the miracle cures, or horrifying plagues.” Frustrated, the Colonel plopped the folder down on the table and leaned back into the dangerously comfortable chair. “Hell, there’s not even crop circles.”
“So the Ori have been quiet for some time. This should be a good thing, but why does it worry me?”
“It’s almost as though they’re planning something. They’ve been quiet since the Supergate was destroyed.” A slight clearing of the throat, and Daniel corrected himself. “Excuse me, since Vala destroyed the Supergate.” He turned and flashed her a conciliatory grin.
“I guess it would be too much to hope that they just gave up?” Vala knew the answer to that, even before she brought it up. “No, that’s militaristically unsound; they wouldn’t have spent so much effort in moving troops over here if they were just going to abandon the war after one flopped battle.”
The others stared at her for a moment before Sam chimed in. “Vala’s right. So the question isn’t only what they’re planning, but when they plan on following through?”
None of them could come up with anything that the god-like aliens could possibly be planning.
Eventually, though, Mitchell’s curiosity ate at him enough. “So, what caused the malfunction that fried the Stargate?”
General Landry gave the colonel a wry grin. “Well, it seems that you have a doppelganger.” He seemed to be satisfied with Mitchell’s blank look. “It seems that an actual wormhole interrupted the Stargate, and a man bearing a striking resemblance to you fell through, Colonel. Dr. Lam even ran some tests, and the similarities are pretty damn astounding. If he isn’t you from an alternate timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t damn close.”
“So, there’s a guy who looks just like me walking around here?”
“Well, not exactly. He’s still unconscious.” Vala bit her lip and smirked. “And I wouldn’t say he looks exactly like you. He’s better looking.”
Satisfied with the personal zing, and the expression on the Colonel’s face, Vala sat back in her chair and listened as Sam and Daniel argued over the possibilities of an unstable wormhole.
-
The slight weight of the device rested heavily in the palm of her hand. There had been a time, once, when a creature would force her body to use a similar device to inflict pain on lesser mortals. She hadn’t used that device since she’d been freed, but she had used this healing one on more than one occasion.
Vala placed the rest of the miscellaneous technology back in the case and slipped the healing device into the pocket of her jacket. She wasn’t sure what she hoped to accomplish by doing what it was she planned on doing. The odds of her waking the strange man from his coma were slim to none, but something in her would not allow her to sit idly by while he seemed to slip farther away.
She slipped out of the arms room. Normally, it was well guarded, but the private on duty had needed to go to the bathroom, practically prancing at his post, and as Vala had sat there while the young man went to relieve himself, the opportunity to take a look around was too great. When she’d come across the sleek black case, which seemed to open of its own volition, she immediately thought of the man in the infirmary. The private came back, looking much more relieved, and Vala left with a slight smile.
She entered the infirmary, and flashed a brighter smile at the orderly on duty. “Hello! How’s everything?”
Not really used to late night visitors, the young nurse gave a slight pause before answering. “Everything’s fine, thanks.”
Vala nodded. “That’s good. Say, I came in with the guy who looks like Mitchell earlier today. I just want to check up on him, see how he’s doing?”
The orderly bit her lip for a second. “I’m not sure, I’m supposed to keep him comfortable and check his vitals, but there was nothing about visitors.”
“Right, so that means that it’s not wrong or anything. Besides, the man has no one else to hold his hand and mop his brow and all that other stuff, right? Who better to do so than me, right?” Flashing another smile, she abruptly turned to the still sleeping man.
Vala stood there for a second as the nurse stood, uncertain, just looking at him. His sleeping face was peaceful; worry lines all but gone as his breath fluttered in and out through slightly parted lips. As before, her hand found its way to his forehead, to that same scar as before.
“Who are you?” she asked to no one in particular.
Through the corner of her eye, she saw that the orderly finally gave up on whatever mental battle he had waged with himself, and seemed to be satisfied that she wouldn’t try to take advantage of an unconscious human as he went off to sit at his desk and read the latest issue of Newsweek.
Not sure when he would get bored with the magazine, Vala brought the Goa’uld healing device from her pocket. She fit it securely to her palm and held it over the same place she had been tracing earlier, recalling the charts that Lam had shown them earlier, and concentrating on the device’s activation. It wasn’t an exact science, and there was more usage of instinct than one would assume, and she watched as her hand traveled from hovering just above his eyebrow, to just below his jaw, then down towards his chest. It took a long while before she could feel anything happening, and she almost gave up when she could just feel something in him begin to mend.
The device shut off, and for a moment she was disoriented as a wave rolled through her, starting from the outside and ended in a tiny tingling mass at the center of her gut. It was an unusual sensation, certainly not one that usually happened when healing. Neither was the feeling of inertia that swept over her, and she had to catch herself from falling by bracing against the man’s arm.
As soon as she touched him, though, there was a deep, almost sleepy groan as he shifted. Startled, she turned to face him, and was greeted by a pair of very groggy and very blue eyes. He blinked slowly, and then tried to focus on her. When he was finally able to, he looked at her with something close to awe and apprehension for several seconds.
“Am I dreaming?”
Caught unaware, she wasn’t sure how to answer, and nearly jumped as his hand once again brushed against her cheek. He seemed to be forcing his mind to focus solely on her, and his eyes focused into a sharp, piercing stare that almost made her uncomfortable.
“Are you really here?”
She cleared her throat and pulled away, bringing her own hand to clutch at his, moving it away from her and closer towards him. His hand settled against his chest, his fingers refusing to let go of hers.
“No, you’re not dreaming.”
“I’ve been looking, for so many cycles. I searched for you.” The odd word made her stare at him, but his eyes were losing the clarity that they’d had moments before. “I’ve missed you, so much.”
I love you, so much.
Vala shook her head sharply to clear the haze that had started to settle. She noticed that he was struggling to stay awake, and she worried that the exertion wasn’t good for him. She leaned forward and smiled softly at him, and she was relieved to see that it did have the calming effect that she had been aiming for. “Hush now, go to sleep. You need to rest.” She smoothed her thumb in light circles against his temples, and her grin broadened as he seemed almost unable to resist her request.
He wasn’t quite ready to give up consciousness that easily, though. When he appeared to be seconds away from sleep, his head gave a sharp shake as he forced his eyes open to give her that same look as before. “Will you be here when I wake up?”
She paused for a moment before she answered, not sure if she should lie. “I’ll be around. Just call for me.”
This seemed to placate him, because he kept her hand clutched to his chest before sighing deeply as his eyes fluttered closed.
Before she left, she told the orderly that she thought that he might be waking up soon, because she thought she had felt his fingers twitch.
Later, a private was going through the arms room when he noticed that a healing device had been left out of its case. Rolling his eyes, he grumbled at the laziness of officers and placed it back in its proper container.
-End Part Two