As soon as all systems were determined functional and their route home was confirmed, Daniel requested Vala assist him in verifying that his temporary workstation aboard Odyssey hadn't suffered during their fight with the Ori ships.

They left the bridge of the Odyssey before Landry or the other team members questioned his flimsy excuse and then managed to wait only until the elevator doors shut behind them before falling ravenously on one another.

He speared his fingers through her jet-black hair and hungrily took her mouth while she ran her hands up and down his back. He needed to get closer and stepped forward, pushing her against the wall; his body flush to her flesh and feeling every delicious curve and valley. It was not enough to taste her; he needed to breathe her, to savor her, to lose himself inside her.

He'd almost lost her.

Worse.

He almost never knew what he had.

He couldn't think, just feel and react. He needed to prove she belonged to him.

His hands went to the front of her BDU's and opened the jacket to her waist. He pushed it off her shoulders and with a flourish, peeled the black t-shirt over her head, exposing her heated skin to his gaze before trailing warm kisses over her collar bone and then down the shadowy valley between her breasts. She leaned away, arching her back and offering herself up for anything that would bring her closer to the hot tight ball of pulsing pleasure that wanted to burst through her system.

"More," she panted. "I need more," she demanded while sliding her cool palms under his shirt. His chest was smooth and firm and oh, so hot, beneath her exploring fingers, but the shirt and jacket he still wore restricted her access.

"Off," she commanded, pulling back to help him remove the offending articles. Once he stripped to the waist, she pressed her open lips to his chest, alternating stinging nips with soothing kisses.

The lift doors opened to their selected level, but neither paid any attention and soon they closed again.

Daniel slid Vala's pants down and she kicked them loose, leaving her in a melon colored tank top and matching panties having lost her shoes some time earlier. He captured her mouth and swallowed her next cry, arching against her.

"Vala, I need you," he whispered hotly against the side of her face and slid one of his hands under her shirt to rest on her chest. He slipped his other hand beneath the hem of the bright colored tank top and dragged it off, leaving her fully open to his caresses. Vala shivered, not from exposure - her skin was too heated too feel a chill - but from the intense longing she saw in Daniel's blue eyes. He demanded everything from her, allowing her to hold back nothing.

He would possess her soul, but she would take his.

His skillful hands continued to tease and arouse while his mouth feasted on her jaw, her neck, her collar before diving to replace his hands.

Vala moved restlessly against him, her hands shaking while she tried to undo his belt buckle. He brushed her hands aside and she whimpered in agony before realizing he was attending to the chore himself. She tugged and pulled the belt away and he pushed and stepped out of his pants and boxers in one act. Proof of his desire was fiercely evident.

"Daniel," she moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Now, please. I need you now." He swooped in for a hard kiss before sliding his thumbs under the edges of her panties and sweeping away the last remaining barrier. He griped her hips and hiked her further up the wall until she could wrap her legs around his waist. He groaned low and deep and she started keening softly in his ear.

"Mine," he growled against her neck.

She twined her legs more forcefully around his waist, trying to draw him even closer, deeper. She sought physical affirmation of what her soul cried out.

They were one.

Her heart pounded and his hammered back against her chest. Their mingled breath came in pants, their lips meeting in an insatiable kiss. He wound her tresses tightly between his fingers, binding their mouths together just as securely as their joined flesh.

He felt the tension in Vala wind tighter and tighter, spurring along his excitement. His mouth covered hers, silencing her moans and drinking her ecstatic cries as lighting shot up his spine and ecstasy claimed them both.

Minutes passed. Their pulses calmed. His knees turned to jelly and he could no longer support them both. He let them slide down the wall until they rested on the floor with Vala on his lap facing him. Daniel smoothed back Vala's unruly hair before cradling her head in his hands and staring as if he was trying to newly memorize her unlined face.

He listened to the echoes in his memory and traced patterns by her lips and eyes, noting vanished wrinkles as familiar to him as the lines that had once been on his own face. "So young, we were, no," he murmured, "are so young." Vala, in turn, studied his dear features and couldn't resist nibbling on his lower lip. Daniel let himself drowned in her kiss, intoxicated by a volatile mix of love, tenderness, and unflagging lust.

In the past fifty years, his desire for Vala had only grown, and now like a gift from the mythical gods, he had the stamina to prove it.

Vala touched his cheek and traced his lips. "It feels like forever since I've been in your arms," she murmured. She met his eyes. "I missed you so much and yet I know that's absurd. The reversed field was instantaneous."

Daniel leaned into her touch and inhaled deeply, trying to drink his fill of her intoxicating perfume, a scent that essentially was only Vala. He stroked her hair and absently replied. "Like Sam told us, our minds seem to be processing the memories of our time on the Odyssey as if it happened a long time in our past. The freshest memories are from this timeline, the journey here, Thor's goodbye, the Ori's pursuit and so on."

Vala pulled back and looked at him mischievously. "Does that mean you're going to be miffed about that little party I arranged for you the other day or should I say fifty years ago? Because if that's true, then we are going to have to discuss your stubbornly ability to hold a grudge." She began kneading his shoulders. "It can't be healthy, causing all that stress and tension."

"Vala, I got over the fake birthday party a long while ago."

"I suppose that's true, but what about…never mind." Suddenly, she was not teasing. Insecurities from a lifetime ago swamped her ability to reason. She shook her head and their eyes broke contact. She stared over his shoulder at nothing.

He felt her sudden tension. He ran his fingers soothingly through her hair. "What? Tell me."

Vala bit her lip and spit out her sudden fears. "What about us? Was this," she said gesturing to their scattered clothing in the elevator, "about getting caught up in an old memory or am I still…, I mean on the ship before we left you said…, but before, I mean now, I know you didn't think, don't think I really... Oh, hell!" Frustrated, she blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and stuck her hands on her hips, raising her voice as she demanded to know, "Do you still love me?"

She looked like a furious goddess. His heart tripped and sped up. "Yes." He took her hand off her hip, kissed it and then smiled tenderly, "and you? Do you still love me?" He asked, feeling the tension drain out of her body even as it unexpectedly rushed to his.

"Beyond breathing," she answered without hesitation.

He cupped her face. "I won't ask you to choose."

"Still, would be an easy choice to make."

"Don't say that." He sealed his words with a quick, fierce kiss. "You and I are a package deal; if I'm ever going to get anything done, I need you close by, healthy and alive."

"It goes both ways you know." She tried to say it as a joke, but her eyes betrayed her earnestness. "I know the Ori's fleet is still out there, but I'll have none of the random dying of which Sam told me so much. I find it irresponsible behavior and completely inappropriate for a role model such as yourself."

Faintly puzzled, Daniel squinted his eyes and tilted his head to the side, "Role model?"

Vala looked down, seemingly fascinated by the invisible patterns she traced on his chest. For a moment, he wondered if she would answer. When she did, she spoke softly, her voice tinged equally with hope and sadness. "I know that starting a family isn't practical right away and I know we didn't talk too much about it and I know that was my fault, but back then, on the Odyssey, it hurt too much."

An unhealed ache came to life near his heart. She was talking about children. On Odyssey, they both knew children would be unwise, but there had been one close call, one divine accident.

She miscarried before they had even known she was pregnant, but the incident planted a longing that never went away.

"It was fine to fantasize about places I'd gone and things I'd done, those things I learned I could do without, but I couldn't let myself think about what we were really missing, because I wasn't sure if then I would be able to do without. But now, I want…need really, to know that someday we will meet our…,"

He finished for her. "Children."

"You would be a wonderful father and I think I could be a good mother."

"You will be a wonderful mother."

Vala flushed under his certainty. "I didn't do so well with Adria."

"Not a fair comparison. You know that." He gathered her closer, and wrapped his arms around her tightly. His whispered into her hair, "I can't help believing who you are, how much you care, how deeply you love was one of the reasons why Adria had to age at such an amazing speed. If you'd been the one to raise her, had been given time to mold her, then the Ori could not have retained their hold on her. But," he sighed, "you're right, starting a family right away probably isn't a good idea." He felt Vala nodding.

"I feel like I still have a responsibility with the Ori situation."

"As do I," he pulled back to look at her, "but we won't wait too long, no matter what. Agreed?"

Vala blinked several times and then blinded him with her smile. "Agreed."

"So," she said changing the subject at lightning speed and starting to drop lazy kisses on his chest.

"Mmm," he absently responded, distracted by the sight of a vulnerable spot just below the nape of her neck.

"I was just thinking."

He smirked, unable to ignore that opening. "I can't remember. Is that a good or bad sign?" She nipped his chest. "Ow!" He yelped and rubbed the offended flesh. He sighed dramatically. "Fine, what were you thinking?"

She sat up and linked her hands behind his head. "Just how detailed will our mission reports have to be?"

Daniel threw his head back, bursting out laughing. "Good question." He chuckled again. "I don't think I want to explain a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs to the boys in Washington."

She smiled provocatively. "From what I've heard, they know all about them."

"Vala," he said her name half-amused, half-exasperated.

She turned serious again. "I can't completely change, I think you know that. I'm not ever going to be perfect and I'm still going to on the occasion say things that you find too provocative, embarrassing or simply stupid," she hesitated, ignoring the immediate denials that sprang to his lips, "and it won't just be around the team. Can you handle that?" She anxiously bit her lower lip.

He cupped her face in both hands again. He waited until she finally lifted her eyes to meet his stare and then answered with all seriousness and gravity, "I am still going to get so wrapped up in my work that I miss lunch, sometimes dinner and the occasional breakfast. Can you handle that?"

She smiled softly, "I can work around that."

"Ok, fair enough and if I need you to be quiet, I will just have to practice my patented technique for ensuring silence. Fifty years and I found only one reliable way."

"Oh," she challenged, "and what's that?"

His eye sparkled devilishly, "Let me demonstrate."

XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX

Some time later, Vala pulled back from Daniel's kiss, "Do you feel that?"

The lift was vibrating beneath them.

"It's nothing to worry about," he said pulling her back into his embrace, "the lift is just moving." The words hadn't left his mouth before he froze and Vala's eyes grew huge. He scooted her off his lap, scrambled up, and shouted, "The lift is moving!" They had just seconds before the doors would open onto the bridge of the Odyssey. Daniel pulled Vala to her feet. He hastily scooped up some of their scattered clothing.

XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX

"I'm telling you, I just don't believe it." Cam insisted to Sam while they waited on the bridge for the lift.

"We spent fifty years together and still you doubt me?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you're completely off the mark, just foolish to narrow down all the possibilities to just the…" The lift doors opened. "Aw, crap." Cam sighed.

Judiciously holding a bundle of clothing in front of him, Daniel stood with Vala tucked behind him in the corner. He lifted his free hand in a weird kind of wave acknowledging his state of semi-nakedness.

Seeing their audience, one of Vala's arms snaked around Daniel's chest and she casually held something out to Daniel. "Darling, I found your glasses. They were on the floor…beneath your boxers." If possible, Daniel turned a deeper shade of red, but he just calmly slipped them on and said a short thank you. "Any time," Vala purred.

Sam's lips twitched as she held out her hand, palm up, to Cameron. "Pay up."

Mitchell grumbled as he dug into his pocket. "Jackson, would it have killed you to wait two minutes and find a real room." He slapped a crumpled ten into Sam's hand.

Sam took his money grinning, "Never bet against a sure thing." They let the lift doors glide shut.

Landry shook his head, "Somebody please tell me those two calmed down eventually."

"Oh they did, sir," Sam hurried to assure the General. "I'd say they really mellowed during the last, oh, what would you say Teal'c?"

"Five years." Teal'c provided with a nod.

General Landry groaned.

"Yep," agreed Mitchell. "The last five years I almost never caught them naked in the elevator." He shook his head and grimaced. "Good thing I was getting cataracts."

Author's note: Originally, this was the end, but I'm playing around with a continuation of this world. Reviews are love.