Right, so I hadn't planned on writing this second part, but it kinda hit me out of the blue (not unlike the first part), so I just went with it. This part is quite a bit longer and from Vala's POV (sorry Daniel fans!) and relatively unedited, so I apologize for how ridiculously bad it is.

This is set directly after 10x01 "Flesh and Blood" and is sort of the root of where a couple of things both Daniel and Vala say in 10x02 "Morpheus" - at least in my head. :D

Also, I don't own Stargate or its wonderful characters that I so greatly enjoy playing with.

Let me know what you think!

Vala Mal Doran knocked on the wall next to the open door of the office. "Daniel?" she asked hesitantly, poking her head into the room.

Daniel Jackson looked up from his books and smiled briefly. "Hey, Dr. Lam check you out?"

She nodded and stepped into the room, forcing herself to grin broadly. "Yep. She says that they'll take the bandages off in a day or two, but there's no reason I need to be cooped up in that awful infirmary." She sat down on the empty stool across the table, unconsciously putting her hand over the spot when she felt a faint twinge of pain where it was still a bit sore.

"Good, good," he said with muted enthusiasm, his head bobbing up and down. "You okay otherwise? Do you want me to take you to the guest quarters so you can get some rest?" he asked in the sort of way that made her feel like she was made of glass and that he was afraid of breaking her.

She hated that feeling.

Although she certainly felt as though she could break at any moment.

But the idea of being alone… no, too much had happened, and sitting around would likely drown her in emotions she didn't want to handle yet. Or ever.

Vala shook her head emphatically. "No, I'd rather not…" she trailed off, refusing to look Daniel in the eye.

"...be alone?" he finished for her.

She nodded. "If you don't mind," she added uncertainly.

"Of course not," he replied with a shrug.

An awkward silence fell between the two, during which Vala bit her lip. She wasn't quite sure what to say. Sure, she could find something… anything to talk about, but for once she just didn't want to talk about something mindless in order to annoy Daniel.

It was Daniel who finally broke the silence. "You didn't have to do that, you know," he said, referring to her injury.

Vala scoffed. "Well I couldn't very well let Tomin kill you, could I?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Tomin entered Adria's quarters, shoving Daniel into the center of the room with his weaponed aimed at her… friend's?... back. Tomin's face was stony, though his eyes flashed with anger and, worst of all, betrayal. It was the sort of expression she'd seen aimed at her thousand times before, though that didn't make it hurt any less.

"They were conspiring against you!" Tomin shouted, addressing Adria.

"Yes, I know," Adria said, golden eyes flashing as she crossed her arms. "Kill him."

"No!" Vala cried, stepping forward so that she stood between Tomin and Daniel. "Wait! We want to talk to you."

Tomin clenched his jaw and the anger in his eyes gave in to something else, something colder. "Move!"

"I said, kill him!" Adria commanded, the words sounding authoritative despite the fact that it was a young girl who was saying them.

Vala saw Tomin shift as he started to fire, and she reacted without thought. "No!" She turned to push Daniel back and heard a sizzle of electricity just before a blast hit her in the abdomen. She fell to the ground, the air smelling of burned fabric and flesh and Vala's every nerve was on fire.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Besides, I knew Adria would heal me," Vala said with mock confidence. It was a half-truth that he probably saw right through, but thankfully he didn't call her out on it.

"Still," Daniel said softly. "I owe you one. We owe you one, for what you did, shutting down the first supergate. You saved a lot of lives that day." His expression was open, honest, perhaps even… grateful?

Vala blinked, surprised. Her instinct was to brush it off, or make some flippant remark, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She looked down at her hands, which were fidgeting in her lap. "I suppose I owe you one as well. You got me off that ship when you could've grabbed Adria."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Mother!" Adria cried, rushing to Vala's side.

Tomin dropped his weapon and did the same, immediately reaching for his wife. "Vala?" he asked in a slightly panicked voice as he turned her onto her back.

Vala groaned as the wound seemed to burn hotter, though through the pain she managed to recognize that Adria's hand was on her stomach, healing her. Then there was a flash of blue light and suddenly she wasn't, and the girl toppled over, unconscious. Another flash of blue and Tomin was knocked backwards, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

"You couldn't have waited until she'd finished healing me?" Vala exclaimed as Daniel leaned down to help her.

"Well, she was distracted," Daniel grumbled, his grip tight and reassuring on Vala's shoulders as he began pulling her upright.

Vala grunted in pain as she moved, her mind racing with possible escape plans, only one of which seemed most likely to succeed. "Leave me, grab her."

"Oh yeah, like that's going to happen," he retorted, holding onto her until she got her balance.

Seconds later, when it seemed like a Prior was about to kill them both, his arms wrapped around her and the world turned white as the Odyssey beamed them up to safety.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Daniel smirked. "Well, I couldn't very well leave you behind, could I?" he said, mimicking the tone from her earlier comment.

The way he said it, so similar to the way he'd said "Oh yeah, like that's going to happen" on the ship - like it was the most obvious thing in the world secretly made Vala want to smile. It was almost like he cared.

"I guess we'll have to call it even then," Vala compromised.

It was Daniel's turn to look surprised. "You're not still mad that I grabbed you and left her? Or that I tried to kill her? Your daughter?"

Vala wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. Her emotions were just one big jumbled mess at the moment. Perhaps she was angry that he'd tried to kill her daughter, but it wasn't like she could blame him. Adria was hardly her daughter, no matter how much Vala wanted to believe that their relationship might be the key to stopping her.

And perhaps she was mad that Daniel saved her rather than taken the chance, no matter how small it might have been, to kidnap Adria and turn her against the Ori and possibly save the galaxy. But on the other hand, he had chosen to save her.

No one had chosen Vala over something else before. Especially not with so much at stake.

But guilt and sadness seemed to overwhelm any anger that she might feel. Guilt that three days ago she had literally just given birth to the most evil thing to scour the galaxy and was hell bent on total domination over it.

The sadness that weighed heavily on her also confused her to no end. It came from a sense of loss - which wasn't unfounded - for months she'd had a husband who loved her, who loved her baby. It had been impossible, despite all of the anxiety and sense of impending doom that hung over her time in the Ori galaxy, for a part of her to fall in love with Tomin, with her baby, and with the idea of having a family, a home. All of which was gone now.

Something else was bubbled to the surface, the one emotion Vala welcomed wholeheartedly.

"Right now, I'm just relieved. I've been trying to get home for so long-" she started.

"Home?" Daniel asked, eyebrows raised.

Vala's stomach sank. Of course. What had she been thinking? Earth wasn't her home. It just happened to be the last place she'd been before getting sucked into the Ori galaxy and the nightmare that followed. It had been the last place that she felt safe.

She didn't have a home. She hadn't for a long time.

Suddenly she felt like a lost little girl again, all alone in the world with no one to rely on but herself.

"Home to this galaxy, of course," she corrected, hoping that she recovered in time.

"Ah," Daniel replied, though he didn't seem to believe her.

Another silence filled the room, and Vala's stomach churned uncomfortably. She wasn't wanted. After everything, she still wasn't wanted. Daniel didn't trust her any more than he had the day they met - probably even less. She'd thought, perhaps even hoped, that they would want her to help fight the Ori - fight Adria - but she'd been mistaken. Again.

And it hurt.

And it hurt even more because she was already hurting.

"Well," Vala said, clapping her hands and jumping off of the stool, hiding a wince as she landed. "I'm going to go back to the guest quarters, maybe even get a something to eat on the way," she said cheerfully, though even to her ears it sounded fake. "Tell General Landry that I'll be out of your hair in a day or two, once Dr. Lam says so."

She turned to go, and then felt a hand close around her wrist. "Wait," Daniel murmured.

She looked back to him, curious as to what he could possibly say. His eyes met hers, blue into blue. His mouth opened, but he couldn't seem to find the right words, so they stood like that for several moments, until Daniel finally huffed and dropped her arm. He turned toward his desk and Vala's heart sunk to her toes. Blinking back tears, she made her way to the exit, hoping that she could make it back to her quarters without breaking down.

"Here," Daniel said softly, halting Vala in her tracks.

Slowly, haltingly, she turned to look at him - at what he was holding out to her. She frowned, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she stared at the white piece of fabric dangling from his fingers. It took her a moment, but eventually she recognized it; her scarf. The one she'd been wearing the day she was sucked into the Ori galaxy.

Daniel had taken it from her for some stupid reason or another, but she hadn't thought about it since.

But apparently, Daniel had kept it.

Vala smiled. "You kept it," she said softly.

His cheeks flushed slightly, but he nodded. "As a reminder."

She raised an eyebrow. "Of me?"

He blushed harder. "No, I mean, yes… but it's also a reminder of second chances. To believe in people, no matter their past. And that we were going to find you… bring you ho- back."

Bring you home, he'd nearly said. His correction was more for her sake than for his, she thought, and it made all the difference in the galaxy.

Daniel had found her, saved her and brought her back to Earth. And now he was standing in front of her offering something that was much, much more than just a scarf.

A second chance.

A home.

Because he believed in her, even if he hadn't said it out loud.

The smile that formed on Vala's lips was a gradual one, widening as her heart lifted with joy. She pulled the scarf from his fingers and wrapped it around her neck with satisfaction. "Thank you," she said sincerely, and was rewarded with a genuine smile from Daniel.

"Come on," he said, nudging her with his hip. "Let's go get some food. With any luck, there'll be cake…"

At that, Vala followed, a new bounce in her step that she hadn't had in a long time.