"Vala, we need to talk."

Vala turned to see Daniel standing in the doorway. Joy, relief, apprehension flooded through her. She wasn't ready to see him just yet, she didn't think that she could handle him rejecting her, not again. This time she had really put herself on the line, and she knew that she just wasn't strong enough yet to handle the rejection that Daniel was going to give her. She needed more time to prepare herself, more time to pull herself together and to be able to show him that when he said the words that were going to hurt more than anything, that the words didn't matter. But not yet, she wasn't ready yet. If he told her now, she knew that he would witness the devastation and hurt on her face, that she wouldn't be strong enough to hide it from him.

Putting her hairbrush down, she turned to him. "Actually I was just on my way to the mess hall. I'm starving. You can join me if you want."

Daniel came into her room, the doors shutting behind him. Putting the cane down he went over to Vala, putting his hand on her chin, forcing her to look at him. "No. Not this time. This time I'll talk, and you'll listen."

Vala looked at him briefly, wanting to reach up and kiss him but too afraid, instead she looked away. "Daniel, if its about the kiss, don''t worry about it. We both did and said things..."

"Don't. Don't try to brush this off." Daniel reached out, turning Vala's face to look at him, seeing the fear in them, the same fear that he had felt.

"Daniel... please..."

Daniel's kiss stopped Vala in mid-sentence, knocking all thought out of her mind, his hands cupping her face, before they traveled down her back, pulling her close to him. He kissed her with even more intensity than before, all the pent up longing, frustration and love pouring out of him in that one kiss. Eventually the kissed stopped, both of the pulling apart only because their need for air was stronger.

"Dddan..."

Holding her with one arm, and running his hand down her face with the other he gave her a smile. "If I had known that the only way to shut you up was to kiss you, I would of done it sooner." Pulling away a bit more he looked at her intently. "Now are you ready to listen to me?"

Vala could only nod, her mind a mess of confusion.

"Good" Taking a deep breath Daniel went ahead, "I'm so sorry. Sorry for everything. For everything I did or said that hurt you and for all the things I should of said and did. I've spent my whole life buried in books, and that's probably not going to change overnight. But I've realized that I've been afraid. Terrified in fact. Somehow with all this dying I stopped living. And then you came along. Your rude and crude and opinionated and obnoxious and a total pain in the ass. But you also make me feel. And it was frightening. I've been scared for so long, scared of taking a chance, of letting the people I care about in. Especially you. I kept telling myself that we are so wrong for each other, that it doesn't make any sense, but the truth is somehow it does. And all I know now is that I want this. I want to live. I want us. A relationship. I want you..."

This time Vala's kiss was the one that stopped Daniel, this time he was the one filled with confusion and knocked senseless by her kiss. Before it carried on to much further, he pulled slightly away, aware that he hadn't said the words he should of said to her long ago "I love you, Vala Mal Doran"

Vala smiled and reached up a hand, running it through Daniel's hair. "I know," she said smiling, "Now shut up and kiss me."

Daniel leaned back down to continue the kiss, as Vala's arms wrapped around him.

~*~*~*~

Teal'c walked past Vala's quarters, wondering if he should go in. Pausing outside the door he heard Daniel and Vala, their voices filled with laughter and love. Giving a smile he carried on his walk, pleased that now everything was as it should be, just like it had been when they had been trapped in the time dilation field on the Odyssey. Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran were together as they were meant to be. Colonel Mitchell was no longer alone, now he had someone to share his life with also. Even O'Neill and Samantha Carter seemed closer, though he knew it hadn't gone beyond anything other than a good friendship, he had seen the looks between them, had sensed that they were once again comfortable with each other. "It it indeed as it should be" said Teal'c out loud, a contented smile on his face.

~*~*~*~