AN: Ok so once again I didn't do what I was going to and got distracted by new shiny fic.

This SO isn't what I would normally write coz it's not D/V but give it a chance. I wrote this whole fic in one go (took like 16 hours) so you should get the rest of it pretty soon.

Let me know what you think.

***

She first came to him on what turned out to be a Thursday night.

He had been reading an updated report on Ori troop movement for the last few hours and hadn't gotten past the third sentence, and he didn't like them very much. A migraine was forming in the back of his head and she was knocking his door for the second time when he heard her.

He had left the common room a few hours earlier when the tension had gotten too much and he could no longer bear to stare out into the vastness of space, the fact that the ship's environmental controls were acting up because of damage to the ship had helped also. He remembered seeing her on his way out, a wisp in a blue shirt that was the colour of the sky when he flew so high that he seemed to be the only living thing. She had been running towards Daniel's office with a stack of notes and books.

And now she was here.

She stood against his open door which he hadn't bothered to lock. He was just too tired to remember. They were all too tired these days.

"Vala," He said as she looked back at him, her face pale with the cold that now permeated the ship, "What are you doing here?"

She handed him a folder with more papers in it, "Daniel wanted you to have these."

He took the folder from her and for the first time realised she was wearing gloves, looking up from her hand he noticed that she was bundled up in a huge overcoat as well. Where she had gotten it from he didn't know, but the fact she had it didn't surprise him. Vala didn't do well in the cold, everyone knew that. In the heat she seemed to glow while they sweated and her hair would curl when others would frizz, but in the cold she was the first one to turn into a human icicle.

"He forgot to give them to you earlier." She said between slightly chattering teeth.

"Thanks."

She gave him a smile that in no way resembled her usual grin. There were dark circles under her eyes that even her makeup couldn't cover, and she looked too tired to make it back to either her own quarters or to Daniel's office.

"You want to come in and warm up for a minute, Princess?" He had been one of the lucky few to snatch up a portable heater for his quarters.

Vala looked like she was going to refuse for a moment then she just nodded and stepped inside, "I wasn't quick enough to get a heater and now I can't even beg, borrow or steal one."

"So Daniel sent you out to run errands for him?" he asked as he cranked up the heater another notch, it never failed to annoy Cam how much Daniel seemed to be leaning on Vala these days.

"You know Daniel." She said vaguely as she looked around his quarters. There wasn't much to see, the only personal item in the whole room apart from his clothing was a small CD player and speakers.

"You want something hot to drink?" He was actually happy to spend time with just her, usually the only time he saw her was when they were on a mission or with the rest of the team. But he had always admired Vala and the way she seemed to go wherever life took her, knowing it might be dangerous but going ahead anyway and leaving a Vala-shaped hole in her wake.

She hit the play button on the CD player and her shock was clear on her face when Vivaldi sounded out instead of the country music she was expecting.

Looking across the room she spotted the muddle of papers on his bed she spoke again, "You're trying to work, Cameron. I should go." Her eyes looked greyer and duller than he could ever remember and he was sure it wasn't just the bright blue of her shirt that was causing the effect.

"No, really, it's fine." He scrubbed his hand over his face as his own tiredness began to take over, "I could do with a break."

"Sure?" She asked, her fore head wrinkling with a small frown.

"Yeah, tea?" He knew even though Daniel consumed coffee by the gallon Vala had never embraced it.

"Thank you." She said with a sigh as she sank down onto the small corner of his bed that wasn't overrun with papers.

As he poured the drink for her the CD changed from Vivaldi to a cello piece he could never remember the name of.

"I've never heard this before." She told him as she removed her gloves to accept the mug and shrugged at his confused look, "Daniel isn't really into music." She offered by way of explanation.

They sat in silence for awhile, something Cam didn't think she was capable of, and he could see her gently tapping her fingers against her mug along to the rhythm. He had to blink to make sure that it was really Vala he was looking at, he had never seen her like this before, so calm and collected but if it was simply exhaustion that was causing it, he couldn't say.

"My grandma use to listen to this," He told her unexpectedly, "I used to stay with her Saturday nights and on Sunday mornings she would play some classic station on the radio before we went to church." He didn't know why he was telling her this.

Her teeth started chattering again and Cam went and grabbed a jumper from his kit bag. "Here, put this on."

She smiled weakly in thanks as she pulled it over her head, the thing swamped her small frame and as she lifted her arms he caught a glimpse of her pale stomach and decided not to comment on the shadows he caught of her ribs. She looked so young sitting there that he felt ancient beside her, only her eyes told the same story as his.

"How's the report?" She asked.

"It's… informative." He didn't want to tell her that he hadn't started reading it because her face would do that crinkle thing again and she would go back out into the coldness of the ship before he could stop her. It surprised him that he didn't want her to leave any time soon.

"Well how about I sit here and heat up while you finish that and then you can tell me how deep in it we really are."

He chuckled slightly. She was obviously feeling a bit better if she could crack a joke however dark it turned out to be. He moved his stuff to one side and allowed her to lean back against the headboard beside him. He heard her breath even out beside him as he read through the pages and when he looked over her head had fallen back and the small wrinkles round her eyes had softened in her sleep. Grabbing the blanket from the bottom of the bed he pulled it over her before switching off the main lights and went back to his reading.

"Cam?" Her voice was laced with sleep and made him think of honeycombs, "What time is it?"

"Late, Princess, go back to sleep."

She gave a half sigh, half groan as she kicked off her shoes and curled up under the blanket and within a few pages she had drifted back off. When he finally finished his report he didn't bother to turn off the light, just shut his eyes and within moments he too was asleep.

He was brushing his teeth when she woke the next morning.

She sat up in his bed, all sensuous lines and warm colours, her hair wild from sleep and his jumper swimming around her.

"Sleep okay?" He asked once he had rinsed his mouth out.

"Very well," She said with much more than a hint of a smile as she crossed the room towards him, "Thank you, Cam."

He looked away from her, not used to seeing this side of her and not knowing what to make of it, "Yeah well, couldn't have you freezing your ass of, Daniel would have a fit."

She cocked her head to the side as if contemplating what Daniel's reaction would be to losing her, "And then where would the world be without Daniel Jackson coming to the rescue?" There was a little more bite to her words than he had ever heard in her voice when she talked about Daniel.

Cam brushed it off, "You want a shower or something?" She shook her head no in response, "Sure? I've got clean towels and everything."

She laughed that deep throaty laugh that she usually saved for Daniel, "You certainly know the way to win a woman's heart, don't you, Cameron"

But in all the years he'd known her and on every planet across the galaxy, he'd never seen anyone that could truly win hers. He suspected not even Daniel had managed that task yet.

"Cam?"

"Yeah?"

She pointed to his jaw and he wiped a finger across it, finding some toothpaste still there, "Better?"

She came closer to him and ran her finger over the same spot. There was nothing sexual in the gesture but her gentleness sent a shiver down his spine.

"Where would the world be without you, Cameron?" She asked rhetorically as she used the towel around his neck to wipe off the rest of the mark

The world would be where it always had been, he thought darkly, with her still obsessed with a man that sent her out in the cold on his errands while he, almost positively, sat and worked beside a heater. He wasn't sure where the thought came from, but it startled him when he realised how angry he was with Daniel for always taking advantage of her.

"Thanks." He said, rather than voicing his thoughts.

And then she was gone, still wearing his oversized jumper.