Turn out the Light

Chapter 1 – Borrowed Time

Rating: G, I suppose
Disclaimer: Not Mine. MGM gets to play for real, I get to play in my head.
Author's Note: This fic is based on lyrics from a song called Borrowed Time by Leahy. I haven't got the rest of the chapters (probably 4 more) written out completely but they shouldn't be too far behind this one :) - it's an Unending tag I suppose is the best way to categorize this...
and now onto the the story, which asks:

What if Teal'c wasn't the only one who remembered...

Thanks to Milena and Stef for the beta!!

Hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what you think! reviews are love after all.

--

Come and sit here by my side

For our time will soon be gone

And these tears I cannot hide…

--

The unwavering starlight filtered in, illuminating only half of Vala's face as Daniel pulled her to stand next to the window in their dark bedroom. They didn't have much time left. Several decks below them Teal'c was moving into position and Sam sat poised to press the button that would either end their lives or begin them again. He had so much he wanted to say – things he should have voiced aloud long ago. With the knowledge that he had no more time to waste bearing down on him, Daniel cleared his throat and dove in.

"Vala, I want you know, even if you are going to forget, that I wasn't with you all these years just because we were trapped on this god-awful ship," Vala chuckled softly and he paused before pushing on, "I was with you because - "

"I know." Vala interrupted him, her voice soft and filled with understanding. "And I want you to know - "

"I know" Daniel interrupted her with the same tone. "I know," He repeated quietly, nodding. He lifted a hand to stroke her cheek but she broke away, unable to stand still any longer, to remain under his scrutiny as her eyes welled up. She didn't want him to notice her tears now – not when they had so little time left. They would not be the last thing he saw, she promised herself.

Daniel moved to sit down as he watched Vala pace back and forth across the room like a caged animal. He knew it drove her mad to not be in control, to be waiting for the end like this. He would have assumed he would feel the same way but he was oddly calm, merely looking on. This impatient, frustrated Vala, suddenly full of energy, reminded Daniel of her younger self. The Vala that seemed to have been lost so long ago, as time in their tiny part of the universe carried on, as colours faded and movement slowed. The fire in her eyes when he called out to her seemed like a vision from the past, another Vala, another time, another place. A Vala that, if things went as planned, would be revived very soon. He just hoped he was smart enough to see what he was sitting right in front of him a little sooner the second time around.

"Please Vala, just come sit down with me." He reached out to her and she paused before nodding and moving slowly back across the room, settling her small body onto the couch where he sat, resting her legs across his lap, winding one arm around his back and leaning into his chest. Her head fell onto his shoulder as they curled up into the familiar position. "We all agreed on the plan," Daniel reminded her as he tried to soothe her as best he could. "It's out of our hands now." He reached up and gently removed her hair from the pigtails she had donned earlier that evening, another throwback from the past. She had stopped wearing her hair like that years ago. Daniel slowly ran his fingers through her hair as he freed it, twisting the few remaining raven locks around his fingers as they sat silent in the darkness. Waiting.

Vala stared down at the shaft of starlight that fell across her upturned palm. She closed her fist once, twice, trying to capture it between her fingers, but of course it would not be caught, could not be kept. As she continued to stare absently at the pale light, which remained so annoyingly elusive, the conversation from their earlier meeting flitted through her thoughts. If it doesn't work – then the shields will fail and you will die along with the rest of us. No matter what the outcome of Sam's plan, this was their end. The end of the life they had built over the last 50 years. It had been far from ideal, but it belonged to them and Vala tried to drink in the last few moments of it, to hold on to this memory. As more of the conversation echoed in her mind she was reminded with a sharp pain that her efforts were useless, that it was no use – they would not remember – no one but Teal'c would know about their lives, their love, their losses. Everything – our age, our memories, will be undone. She wished desperately that she could send some sort of message to herself, her younger, doubtful, confused and insecure self. If only they could find some way to hold onto it all – all the years they had had together, all the moments, happy and sad, heart warming and heart wrenching. She wanted to keep them all, trying her best to gather up each one, holding on tight, but they were as difficult to hold onto as the light that lay across her palm. The tears that Vala had been fighting finally began to fall as she felt their time slipping through her fingers as well. Never enough time.

Daniel couldn't see Vala's tears, though he felt them, cool and wet on his neck, soaking into his shirt. He said nothing, instead reaching up to stroke her hair again with one hand while the other continued to rub her back in a slow comforting motion. She hiccupped a little and shifted against his shoulder pressing a soft kiss to his neck as she worked to calm her breathing.

"There's no way we'll be able to remember this is there? Nothing we can do?" Vala whispered, raising her head from Daniel's shoulder. Her eyes pleaded with him desperately, still shining with tears.

Daniel paused for a beat and opened his mouth to answer but as he did they heard the distant thunder of multiple explosions and a bright, hot flash surrounded them. The final tightening of his embrace was the only response she would receive.

--

Vala woke with a start, her mind and heart racing. She lay in her bed on the Odyssey, curled around one of her pillows, gripping it tightly. Releasing the pillow from her grasp, and brushing her tousled raven locks away from her eyes, she reached over and flipped on the bedside lamp. They were on their way home.

With Teal'c's help they had escaped the Ori ships and were heading back to Earth as quickly as possible. After successfully making the jump to hyperspace and ensuring that they had finally thrown the Ori off their trail, SG-1 had sat down with Teal'c to try and sort out what had occurred. He had explained just enough to convince them of who he was and what had happened, but remained annoyingly quiet and Jaffa-like about the details of their apparent extended stay on the ship. After the briefing, the team had split up to try and rest while they were in the safety of hyperspace. It had been a long day for everyone – about 50 years too long from Teal'c's perspective, she thought absently – and Vala had been exhausted, barely making it back to her room and under the sheets before she fell into a deep sleep.

After turning off the lamp once more, Vala rolled over to watch the blue cascade of lights stream by the window, their glowing movement the only hint to the stars and planets that they sped past on their journey back to Earth. As she tried to fall back to sleep the details and images of her dream continued to poke and pull at her mind. They seemed much closer, more familiar than they should have. But it was just a dream of course. It had to be. After hearing Teal'c's tidbits about their long term residency on the Odyssey Vala's overactive imagination was running away with her. That was all.

Vala's eyes flitted again to the window and then the nearby couch. It felt like yesterday, not some imaginary creation. The feeling of Daniel's shirt against her face, his smell, the safety of his arms around her...but it couldn't be. Teal'c had explained the time travel business – he had remained old so that the plan could succeed, so that someone remembered. Only Teal'c. No matter how logical she tried to be Vala couldn't shove away the sense that the bed felt wider, colder, emptier than it had the night before. She plumped up her pillows knowing that that was absurd. She tried to relax, but unable to shake the feeling that something was missing, she tossed and turned the rest of the night.