Time has no meaning on Stacy! Bendytimed like woah!

[valaunbound]

For the archeological team that went to Kalimba on Stacy's mission, they've been gone for six months give or take. Six months of being held prisoner and tortured. None of them have any idea that they've only been gone a few days as far as the rest of Stacy are concerned, something they'll discover sooner rather than later presumably.

When they do arrive back Vala's on the brink of collapse, barely able to stand up or stay conscious. She'd been injected with poison and used as a booby trap for the Goa'uld Sobek that had used Daniel as a host for six months and she still has the dead Goa'uld inside her. Whether it's that or the poison that's in her system or the signs of malnutrition or a combination of all of the above is unclear but in a nutshell, she's not looking good even if the naquadah in her bloodstream is helping her a little.

Right now she's laid out on a bed in medbay, still dressed in the skimpy ceremonial Goa'uld robes and hoping someone knows how to get this 'thing' that's wound itself around her spinal chord out of her. When she can stay lucid enough to think about it that is.

[OOC: Open to those who were on the Kalimba mission and Medical Staff]

Comments

[hi_there_aliens]

She looked terrible. There wasn't any better way to describe it. This wasn't the Vala he was used to, filled with a lot of boundless energy and a lot of 'pain in the ass' to go with it. It didn't fail to remind him that the reasons he looked like this was partially because of him. She did it for the others too, but somehow he got the impression she hadn't been thinking that clearly or that far ahead when she'd first made the offer in the throne room.

Daniel intercepted her hand before it could mess with the feed, and before he knew it, his fingers curled around hers. She needed someone there, any human touch.

"The doctor says 'they'll live'," Daniel answered. He asked, knowing the answer. "How're you feeling?"

[valaunbound]

"Never better." A wry smile curled at the corners of her lips, quietly appreciative of his reassuring touch. "You can thank me later." The comment was as kneejerk as her decision to take the poison had been.

There wasn't much pain, the poison was acting as a sedative numbing her senses. A fact that she'd have been grateful for were it not having the effect of distancing herself from all of this. It only added to the feeling that she was drifting away and wasn't in control. She'd shrugged off the Doctor's warning about not knowing how long her body would tolerate the toxin, it wouldn't come to that. Much like everything that happened on Kalimba, Vala never stopped to weigh up consequences, she acted on impulse and barged ahead with bucketloads of optimism.

"I pulled you out too early..." She trailed off at that, another spasm of her stomach cutting her off as it tried and failed to rid itself of the poison that had spread that far.

[hi_there_aliens]

She looked better than she did earlier, but that wasn't saying much. Daniel didn't smile back at her attempt to lighten the mood. He'd been inside her head before. He knew a little more about how she worked then she probably wanted him to.

Daniel had had a feeling that was what happened. That, combined with the sarcophagus acting the way it did, it was a surprise he was even walking around. Sobek hadn't even wanted to get in it himself unless it couldn't be avoided. She had nearly cost herself and the rest of the crew wasting time on him, not only getting him to the sarcophagus but waiting on it to revive him.

"You shouldn't have bothered." Daniel began to say.

She had cut off, jerking. Daniel held onto her hand tightly. What did he do? Should he get a doctor? If she started throwing up blood, he wasn't going to be of any help to her.

[valaunbound]

The spasm cut through her painfully, producing nothing. She'd almost wanted it to, that feeling when you know if you could just vomit it all up everything would be alright. But it wasn't just a case of being drunk or even food poisoning. Chuck up a few times and you rid yourself of everything and then just sleep it off. Vala tightened her grip on Daniel's hand, the only sign that Vala Mal Doran was actually scared by all this.

"We never leave a man behind." It was easy to repeat the mantra she'd heard so many times from Cameron, easier than admitting how her own life wouldn't seem worth living if she'd left Daniel behind. How that thought had never even crossed her mind, how she would have rather died back on the planet than returned without him. "Besides, if I had, Jack would probably come out of the pod caverns just to make my life hell."

Even like this, frightened for her chances she manages to twist it to be about her own neck, saving her own skin.

[hi_there_aliens]

Vala jerked through what was obviously a painful spasm, fingers almost crushing his. Daniel took the painful squeeze in stride. He sent her a return squeeze in response: she wasn't going to face this alone. Preferably she wouldn't have had to be in this position in the first place but it was too late. They just had to get her through this.

Hearing that phrase come out of her mouth was unexpected. Where had she heard that even? It sounded like what the rest of the SGC loved to claim, not something Vala would live by. She wasn't as invulnerable and solitary as she wanted everyone to believe, but Daniel didn't believe she was a team player, much less a charitable kind of person either. At least not most of the time.

A strange look went over Daniel's face at Jack's name. Jack. As if he could say anything after this. He'd grown to trust the Colonel at some point. As much of a frustrating, pain in the ass and a dick the man could be at times, Daniel had always known he would be there. So where was Jack, the one time Daniel needed him, really needed him most?

"He'd have the least reason to bitch if he did show up. I don't want to talk about him. But you should have focused on saving yourself and the others. You might've gotten back before the poison got so bad."

[valaunbound]

"Well I didn't know it would do this to me!" She'd had a clue though, the Doctor had warned her he didn't know what long term exposure would do. But that's tantamount to there just being a chance it might be harmful, not a foregone conclusion. She was an impulsive gambler, nothing will ever change that.

"Besides we're all here so clearly I made the right decision." She gave what passed as a shrug, an attempt at looking superior which in her current state came across as more depressed resignation.

[hi_there_aliens]

"No, I guess you didn't have much of a choice," Daniel had to concede. Sobek would have left them all to rot or as sport for the faithful that remained behind, even if he hadn't taken to Vala as a possible host. They had to do something. Sobek had been distracted in the last stages of his plan, so that had been the best time to act. The only chance they got, really. Vala had chosen to risk everything on that slim chance.

"Maybe in acting as a carrier. But you could have cost everyone else and your own life because you wasted time on me."

[valaunbound]

"I was hardly going to leave you after I'd gone through all that. You know a bit of adoration and eternal gratitude wouldn't go a miss."

The Ancient tech that was nullifying the poison in her system was clearly starting to show signs of working already. There was colour returning to her gaunt cheeks, and Vala's inimitable ego was definitely returning. She shot him a look that suggested his martyr act was tiring her.

It wasn't up for debate, Vala had chosen to do what she'd chosen to do. "The others would have left without us, I don't think they would have been stupid enough to wait much longer." She wasn't taking any responsibility for their lives. Risking her own was one thing, but accusing her of risking theirs... that stung.

[hi_there_aliens]

"Sorry." Daniel said after a moment, tight-lipped. "Thank you for taking the risk."

Whatever he thought of bringing him back to life, it wasn't right to go dropping it on her, especially at this time. Too bad that realization was just hitting him now. Nothing better than being nice and late to the party. People were harder than deciphering an ancient language. Vala even more difficult. What was done was done. He couldn't go back and change it. He could live with the fact that Vala wasn't going to succumb to the poison in the next few hours.

Vala looked like she was regaining some color, so at least that much was going right. The doctor did know what he was doing.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I would have said I didn't think they all could leave us, but this experience taught me a few things. Even the Doctor."