“Back in the Band”

by Aelfgyfu

Gen, friendship, PG (mild language)

Missing scene between “Beachhead” and “Ex Deus Machina”

Spoilers: anything up to “Ex Deus Machina”

Author’s notes: Set just a few days before “Ex Deus Machina”; refers to my stories “Changing the Guard” and “My Dinner with Vala,” but should make sense even if you haven’t read them.

September 2, 2005

Samantha Carter finally spotted her elusive quarry. “Hey, Daniel! How are you feeling?” She called after the archaeologist as he wandered, shoulders a little slumped and hands in his pockets, down a corridor in the SGC.

Daniel Jackson stopped and turned around as Sam caught up with him. “Oh, hi, Sam. I’m fine. The bracelet’s effects have worn off completely.”

“So the distraction and poor hearing are just the usual?”

“Uh, yeah . . . I guess. . . . You said something before?” Daniel frowned, realizing that he had heard something.

“About three times. You seemed lost in thought.” Sam didn’t add that when he did that, usually he was carrying a file or an artifact, or at least walking with more purpose.

“Yeah. Thinking.” He shook his head a little.

Sam waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. She thought it odd when she couldn’t find him earlier; now she was concerned. “Heading to your lab?” She started walking. “I’ll come with you,” she said, though she was leading him.

He followed. “I’m still putting things back. I had nearly everything packed. . . .” he trailed off. His frustrated desire to join the Daedalus expedition didn’t seem important anymore.

“For your trip to the Pegasus Galaxy? I thought you unpacked all that stuff days or weeks ago.”

“Well, there was so much of it. They’d already gotten most of it into storage before Vala came, and they managed to lose four or five boxes when I tried to get them back. They just found them.” He lapsed back into silence.

“So, you miss her?”

There was a slight pause. “Yeah.”

Sam said with honest regret, “I wish I’d had more of a chance to get to know her. . . .” She had been annoyed with Vala before she even met her because of what she had heard and read in reports about her, and so she had hardly even spoken with the woman. The growing concern she’d felt for Daniel over the past couple of days made her wonder if there was more to this Vala Mal Doran than she’d realized. Daniel had been happy when Sam first came back to the base, but he had been somewhat distant since leaving the Prometheus. “What was she like?”

Daniel thought for a moment, “You know, you might have actually liked her. She was smart, and had a sense of humor, though a really annoying one. Teal’c seemed to like her.” He shrugged. “But me—she drove nuts. Absolutely stark, raving. . .” he trailed off. “She wouldn’t leave me alone,” he tried again with a note of apology in his voice. Sam smiled a little and nodded encouragingly. He threw up his hands. “I guess now I know how Jack feels. He always says I drive him nuts.” Sam fought back the urge to insist that that was different; she didn’t want to cut Daniel off when he was finally talking, however hesitantly. He laughed a little but without real humor. “I thought I couldn’t wait to get rid of her. Especially with you back; I know Jack’s gone”—he waved a hand in a direction that might have been east—“but Teal’c keeps coming back, and I thought, even with Mitchell, it could be kinda like before. A team. I didn’t want her around anymore! But to go . . . like that. And I don’t even know. . . . You really think she’s alive?” They reached his office, where there were indeed a handful of boxes on the floor.

“I told you: I think the matter stream went through the wormhole.”

“Where it may have disintegrated, or reintegrated out in space so that she died from vacuum—”

“Maybe,” said Sam with a smile, “but somehow I don’t think so. I talked to the General after he met her.”

“Oh, you heard about our fancy dinner? I was afraid we were going to get thrown out of the restaurant.” He picked up the first box, hoisted it onto the one clear spot on the nearest table, and started pulling out books.

“That’s not what I heard. He said General Landry was disappointed that it was so tame. And,” she added, “he told me how appropriate he thought it was for you to be stuck with someone who couldn’t keep her hands off things, couldn’t stop talking, and was always telling other people what to do.” Daniel froze, gaping, while Sam continued, “If she’s that much like you, she’s got to be pretty hard to kill. I mean, she has already survived a Goa’uld, the Tok’ra, her own people, and a lot of cons and double-crosses.”

“But she got sucked through a wormhole into a distant galaxy!” He spread his arms and seemed surprised to realize there were still books in his hands.

“And you were in a Replicator ship that disintegrated in open space.”

“But I had help! Oma’s busy now, and Vala’s not the kind of person she would help anyway. The Others certainly aren’t going to lift a finger.” He paused. “Or a tendril.”

“Did the Others send you back? You’re always kind of vague on that part.”

“I don’t remember that part very well.” Daniel frowned and put books back on the shelves, one at a time. “I don’t know how Orlin did it. I can’t be here and human and everything and have all that Ancient knowledge in my head. It’s just gone again.” He waved his now empty hands around his head. “If it weren’t for Replicar—that Replicator—I never would have had access to those memories of being ascended at all. And then I remember the diner, but I don’t remember what happened after that.”

“The diner, yes.” Sam grinned, cleared off a little space on Daniel’s desk, and leaned on the edge. “The Waffle House at the end of the Universe.”

Daniel turned towards her. “I told you what happened, and you all just make fun of me! See. . . .” Daniel sighed. He went back to the box for more books. “I can hardly complain that you don’t listen to me when my last words to Vala were ‘shut up!’ over and over. God! If I’d just listened. . . .”

“You could have said goodbye? You could have gone with her?”

“We could have been faster! We could have beamed her out! We could have sent—” he broke off and let the books slide back into the box.

“Sent someone else? Who? I saw what she did. Vala’s a great pilot. How many people on the Prometheus could have done that? Maybe one or two? If they’d had time for her to explain what they were supposed to do? Daniel, by the time she’d finished arguing with us about what she planned to do, it probably would have been too late to prevent that last piece from getting in even if she went herself!”

“We didn’t need to argue! We just needed to listen! Vala saved us when we stole the cargo ship from the Lucian Alliance. Kaius didn’t even tell her what ‘modifications’ he had made, but she figured it out and used them to get us out of there. I knew that. She knows her stuff. I did to her exactly what I used to say Jack did to me. Only I never ended up dead, or beamed into another galaxy, because of it.”

Sam almost replied but thought better of it. She could mention how Jack once pulled apart a phone to keep Daniel from calling again during his fishing trip, which put Daniel, Janet, and herself in danger; or how they nearly blew up Daniel on the Gadmeer ship after he’d insisted there was another way. But the last thing she wanted to do now was reopen old wounds. Daniel, however, saw her hesitation as agreement. “It’s my fault! Again! The Jackson curse: come too close, and you’ll end up captured, snaked, or dead! Or all three!”

Sam cut his rant short. “You didn’t do anything to Vala. She kidnapped you, once on the Prometheus and once with the bracelets. She lied to you over and over, used you in her own cons—”

“What? But—no!” Daniel searched frantically for a response but couldn’t come up with anything more and began fumbling more books out of the box. He walked away as Sam answered.

“No? Which part? She did kidnap you, she lied so much we still don’t know what has really happened to her and what hasn’t, she used you. . . .”

“And we used her! I said she couldn’t have her share of the treasure at Avalon after she brought us what we needed to find it!” He put the books into place forcefully.

“And you did all the translation, and you and Cam—Colonel Mitchell—did all the puzzles! What did she contribute? I mean besides interfering with the rest of you?”

Daniel did not give in but came back to the table to stand near her. “I got her burned to death—”

“Almost!”

“—almost burned to death twice playing around with that Ancient communications device. . . .”

“Did she really want to try that device any less than you did? And didn’t she get herself in trouble on that planet?”

To Sam’s surprise, Daniel started to giggle. He looked down, then back at Sam. “She throught she could bluff her way through it, but when she couldn’t, she told the Administrator’s wife to ‘procreate with herself’.” He laughed outright, and Sam joined in. “I wish I could have seen their faces.”

“Vala put it that delicately?”

“Only when she told me in the public square! I’m sure the wording was a bit different the first time.” Daniel shrugged. He went back to unpacking; Sam couldn’t see his face. “She was so . . . curious! I don’t understand how the same person who really wanted to try the Ancient communication device, and wanted to explore Earth, and really cared about the people on P8X-412 and what would happen if the Ori came, would just waste her life on a bunch of lousy swindles and stupid games!” He paused. “But then she didn’t, did she? In the end, she used her life to save us. Everyone in this galaxy. God knows what the Ori could have done with that Supergate.”

“Yes,” said Sam, “she did save us all—and herself. So if we can find her, when we find her, we’ll do everything we can to help her.”

“But it shouldn’t have come to this! She should have beamed back, not out of the galaxy!” Daniel shouted. “We should have gotten her back!” He dropped a couple of books and bent to pick them up. His hands were shaking a little. He didn’t want Sam to notice. “We shouldn’t have waited for her to ring off! We could have gotten her!

Sam hesitated. “Yes . . . but that’s not your fault. We all made mistakes. And she knew the risks. Just like you knew when you jumped into that room on Kelowna that. . . .” she couldn’t bring herself to say more.

“I knew that was a one-way trip! Vala thought she could make it back! I let her down! She shouldn’t have had to give up her life! If I had listened—“

”And if we had listened to what was really going on on Kelowna, do you think you would have been watching a naquadria experiment while we played tourist?” Sam pushed off the desk and stood up straight. “Daniel, we’re military. You should have been touring the city while the Colonel and I told the Kelownans what a terrible mistake they were making!” Daniel stood still, staring at her, as she caught her breath and got back on track. “Colonel Mitchell saw what she did with that modified cargo ship. And we should have both realized that Vala’s a pilot with more and wider experience than we’ll ever get, and I’m the scientist, the one who should have figured out how to disrupt the ’gate they were building.”

“But . . . but . . . no! You hardly knew Vala!” He turned away from her, back to the shelves, and he continued quietly, but then his voice rose in volume. “I think I’ve gotten to know Vala pretty well over the last several weeks—whether I wanted to or not—and there I was, shoving her aside, saying something about ‘thinking outside the box’—stupidest thing I ever said—while I shouted down the person who does it best! Vala should be with us now!”

“Yes!” Sam agreed vehemently. “And we’ll get her back.”

Daniel sighed, letting his forehead rest on a shelf. “If she even survived, the Ori must have her by now. Who knows what they’ll do to her? How can you think we’ll get her back?”

“Too much time with General O’Neill,” Sam answered. “Or maybe enough time. He wouldn’t mourn you after Kelowna, you know. And after the Replicator took you, and after the Replicators were all destroyed . . . he wouldn’t hold a memorial service.” Daniel turned back to Sam with a look of surprise. “He wouldn’t even let me talk about it. I wanted one, I needed one, but he cut me off every time. Teal’c said Vala will be mourned, but we haven’t held a memorial for her. And we’re not going to. Because you and she are a lot more alike than you’ll admit, and you’re damned hard to kill, Doctor Jackson.”

Daniel smiled again, a faint smile, but a genuine one. “And it would serve me right if she came back and gave me a really hard time. She will never let me forget this. Right?” He emptied the first box and moved it out of the way. “And this time I’ll let her talk.” He put the next box on the table, opened it, and removed a layer of padding. “So do you think in one of these alternate universes I’m a con man?”

“Are you kidding? You’re a con man in this one!”

“What?”

“Come on! You’ve bluffed System Lords, Jaffa, natives on more planets than I can count, colonels, generals—“

“Can’t bluff Landry.” He shook his head. He gently pulled out the first of the small objects wrapped carefully in bubble wrap. “I wondered where these had gone! These artifacts came from worlds we visited. I couldn’t believe they lost this box!” Sam was glad to hear the excitement in his voice at finding the objects again, but then he looked back at Sam guiltily.

She relaxed against the desk again.. “Have you tried? Bluffing Landry, I mean?”

Daniel considered. “Not really. Not yet.”

Sam looked around and glanced out into the hallway before she said in a low voice, “Bet you $50 you get away with it before this year is out.”

Daniel frowned. “So to win, I have to fail to bluff Landry before the year is out?” He unwrapped a small, delicately painted dish and set it carefully on a shelf. “Jack kept calling this an ashtray! Can you believe it?”

Sam sighed. “You’re right. That’s a bad bet.”

“This is so screwed up!” Sam started at the sudden shout. Daniel wadded up the bit of empty bubble wrap and flung it beside the box, but it fell quite tamely and landed with an unsatisfyingly soft sound, first on the table and then on the floor. “Jack’s missing everything! I mean, he should be here placing bets. He bets on the weirdest things. He should be dealing with Vala, and helping to find her, and he should be . . . here! Sam, I think he only agreed to leave the SGC because we were all leaving! I was off to Pegasus, Teal’c was on Dakara, and you were at Area 51. Now we’re here again, at least you and I are, and he’s off in Washington”—Daniel flung his arms wide—“pushing paper!”

“And having knee surgery.”

“What?”

“Knee surgery next week. Even after more than a year spent mostly at a desk, they’re still getting worse.”

Daniel fumed, “He didn’t tell me about it. I just talked to him yesterday!”

Sam laughed. “Guy thing. He has to look macho. He only told me because he can’t schedule anything ‘fun,’ as he put it, for a while. He’s going to be laid up a couple of days and then on crutches for a while. We were supposed to take a look at some of the new ships we’re building, but he doesn’t want to be seen hobbling around them. Think about him on crutches.”

Daniel made a face. “It doesn’t take much thinking. I’ve seen it.”

“Yeah, and it’s a nightmare.” They both chuckled at the memories of weeks of an especially bad-tempered Jack O’Neill. “He seems happier than I thought he would. I’ve seen him a few times, you know.” Daniel nodded. “People around here had gotten used to him. I think he enjoys shaking up the people at the Pentagon.” She grinned. “He said, and I quote, ‘They’re a bunch of stiffs around here.’”

Daniel looked relieved. “He did seem to be doing okay when we were in Washington.” He set to excavating the next heavily wrapped item from the box but then paused and turned his head. “What about you? Do you like your work at Area 51?” Daniel asked, setting aside the object and leaning against the table.

“It was pretty . . . pretty good. They get all our best discoveries, you know,” she added, but she didn’t really feel like talking about them here. It seemed to her that she had left the best part of her work behind when she left the Mountain. “But it got kind of old . . . kind of fast.”

“So are you just going to give it up?” Daniel asked, picking up on her use of the past tense.

“I think I’ll have to. The SGC needs a scientist they can send into the field if the Ori are going to be pulling tricks like the Supergate on us.”

“And Bill Lee doesn’t want to go back in the field.” Daniel grinned.

“Uh, no. Can you blame him, with his record? And everyone else who is good in the field is already on a team.”

“And none are as good as you.”

Sam snorted. “I haven’t been doing so hot lately.”

“Are you kidding? Jack thinks you’ve been working miracles at Area 51, and you’ve really got the ship production in gear.” He looked at her closely. “How’s Cassie going to take the news?”

“Actually, I’ve already told her that I’m probably coming back here. I think she’s ready. It was all too much, dealing with Janet’s death and then going away to college, but I think the time off that she’s had with me has been enough.”

“Yeah. Taking a term away from college was a good idea.”

Sam laughed.

“What?”

“Did you ever take any time away from school until you joined the Stargate Program?”

“That’s different!” Daniel started to bristle, but then he made his tone more gentle. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go until I joined the Stargate Program.”

Sam sobered. “Cassie has us. I forget sometimes how you . . . didn’t have anybody . . . for such a long time.” She looked Daniel in the eye. “And Cassie’s awfully glad that losing Vala didn’t kill you.” She paused. “We all are. We don’t say this often, but you scared the hell out of us on the Prometheus. And I know that you’re upset that Vala went, but at least for once it wasn’t you.”

Daniel looked away. “But I’m all right now,” he said quietly, looking embarrassed. “I’m glad it wasn’t you either,” he said hesitantly, turning his head so that he could barely see her through his glasses.

“Right!” Sam said with cheer that was only a little forced. “You need me to figure out where she went and how to get her back!” Daniel smiled again. “What do you want to bet the Ori are getting an earful even as we speak?”

“There you go again!” Daniel huffed. “See, now I’d have to bet that they aren’t getting an earful. We can’t bet if we always agree. Maybe you need some more time with Jack.”

“But didn’t he usually lose bets with you?”

Daniel grinned wickedly. “Oh, yeah.” There. That was the Daniel she knew and had missed. Somehow, even though the scientists in Nevada understood what she was saying better than her old team did, talking to them was just not as much . . . fun. She missed Teal’c’s quirked eyebrow, and Jack O’Neill’s pithy remarks, even if they were sometimes at her expense. Cam was, if anything, too respectful. She missed being challenged. “So, you think Col. Mitchell’s a gambler?”

“Are you kidding?” Daniel started counting off on his fingers. “He’s Air Force. He’s a pilot. He asked to head SG-1. He’s probably worse than Jack.”

“Did I hear my name?” Cam Mitchell stuck his head into the office. Sam jumped. Daniel glared.

“Eavesdropping?” He folded his arms across his chest.

“Naw, just checking up on how the moving back is going.” He stepped in slowly, as if waiting for an invitation to intrude. Sam relaxed again.

“Well, I’m almost done.” Daniel indicated his office with a wave of his arms. “But Sam’s hardly started!” He gave Sam a grin that she knew hid something. “And Dr. Lam wants me on light duties for a while yet, so I guess she’ll need somebody else to help.”

“Light duties? I thought you were off that.” Mitchell cocked his head, evidently uncertain how to read the famed Dr. Jackson yet.

Sam looked back at Daniel, who replied while looking at her, “Oh, I wouldn’t bet on it.” She held in a snicker. Daniel looked innocently back at Mitchell as he rested an arm on the box he’d just put on the table. “Besides, you don’t look like you’re busy. . . .”

“Are you kidding me, Jackson? Have you seen my paperwork?”

“Jack never had paperwork!” Daniel said almost simultaneously with Sam’s “When General O’Neill was Colonel—”

They both gave Mitchell the same appealing smile. They were almost mirror images, one leaning against a desk, the other against a table, both with arms crossed now, facing him. “Were you two separated at birth or something?” Mitchell threw his arms up in surrender. “Where do we start?”

“Well, I’m still clearing out what used to be my lab so that I can move back in. I’ll be along in a minute!” Sam continued smiling but didn’t move. Mitchell shrugged and left the office as they both looked after him.

“Good thing we didn’t bet on bluffing him.” Daniel laughed.

Sam left her perch on the table and gave Daniel a quick hug.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“It’s good to be back,” she said. “Now if we can just get Teal’c. . . .” She thought about Teal’c’s frequent visits, his warm greeting when he saw her again, and the clear signs of frustration on his usually stoic face whenever he spoke of Dakara. Cam was right. The band was back.

Many thanks to Redbyrd, who read a draft, asked great questions, gave me some good ideas, and reminded me of a few things I’d forgotten. Thanks as always to my husband, who read multiple iterations and helped me get this online.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to Showtime, Gekko, MGM-UA, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions, Stargate SG-1 Prod. Ltd. Partnership, and probably some other person or entity whom I’ve forgotten. No copyright infringement is intended. In fact, this story makes no sense if you haven’t seen the show, so I encourage you to watch! And buy all the DVDs! Just like I did! The dialogue and plot (such as it is) are my own.

Please send feedback to: Aelfgyfu (at) gmail (dot) com




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