A Day's Fishing

~Fanfic~ SG1 An interesting conversation between Jack and Vala set after Jack as left and Vala has given birth.

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they are merely fun to write for. SG1 belongs to their creator**

Jack O’Neill blinked softly in the warm sunlight, his gaze absent and slightly hazy with the mist only memories could bring. The light had stopped being light on the waters surface, he’d been staring so long now that it seemed to be nothing but shifting patterns and ripples in a solid object that was constantly moving.

   

He had no idea how long he’d been out there, it had been slightly chilly when he had pulled his lounge chair out and sat his butt down. Now the sunlight was warming with its late day phase, lazy and sluggish as it beat down. And his beer was warm… How long had he been out there??

   

“Well… got up around noon for some lunch and beer…” Jack squinted some more and looked around, trying to see where the sun was, shifted around so much in his chair that he almost fell over and cursed as he hurriedly regained his balance, then looked around like he expected someone to have seen him, even though he was alone. At least he thought…

   

“Nice, very smooth recovery, I’m sure no one saw…” A deep, chuckling female voice sounded from behind O’Neill and he jumped, his eyes going wide as he fumbled for a moment to try and place the person, then blinked, mouthing the name as he turned around.

   

“…Vala… yes… It’s me…Been a long time Jack…SG1 really isn’t the same without out you…Granted I really wasn’t around much when you were… but… you did have a certain… Charm you brought to the place… How are you?” Vala Mal Doran smirked as she walked slowly towards the former SG1officer, her thick hair in pigtails, and her hands in the back pockets of her leather pants. It had taken some doing, well, really not that much, in finding out where Jack lived.

   

“Please, Jack, don’t get up, I’d like to think we’re friendly enough to be casual around each other…”

   

“Friendly enough? Vala, I don’t even know how you GOT here! What are you doing out of the base?” Jack got up, his head tipped as he stared at the woman, his brain in temporary lock down as he tired to figure out what the hell was going on. He knew a little about the situation that had made Vala a permanent part of the crew, Sam and Daniel kept him updated whenever they visited, but he couldn’t think of a damn thing that would make this woman venture out to find him… 

   

A soft laugh came from her and she nodded softly, dipping her head down as she came up beside him, close, but not overly close. She wasn’t going to be able to charm Jack into thinking they were actually friends, but she’d like to think at least, he’d have enough understanding to accept why she had come out to see him.

   

“Trust me, it wasn’t that easy to get out of ‘H.Q’, but it was worth it… actually finding you, now that took a bit of work… You have a lovely place… it’s so… quiet, calm here… I can see why you’d choose to live out here…” Vala looked around at the area, smiling softly at the sunlit lake, admiring Jack’s cabin and just breathing in the fresh air. Air that hadn’t been recycled underground and that wasn’t sterile to the smell. Oh, she really couldn’t complain about the living conditions of the base, hell, it was more comfortable and steady then most places she’d found herself in, but there was only so much cement walls and steel doors one could take when faced with the things she’d been dealing with the last year or so… And it was nice to see that some people actually lived in a beautiful, warm world, with nothing but the temperature to worry you…

   

For a long moment Jack just stood, blinking with the face he normally got when Sam was trying to explain complicated scientific principles to him before he was able to shake himself out of it, pulling his head back a bit as he stared at the woman. It was more then odd to see her in the setting, and truthfully, he was a little wary of having her knowing where he lived, she was after all a thief, a mercenary out for number one…

   

“I don’t know Jack… it’s… hard to explain… you’d have to have been there to see it… though I suppose being a parent will change just about everyone…Oh don’t get me wrong! Vala… She’s still Vala… annoying as ever…but… she’s…different now…”

   

Daniel’s voice was a soft echo in the back of his head as he looked at Vala, frowning more as he realized it was true. She had changed, it was subtle, in the way she carried herself, the look in her eyes and Jack softened a bit, reminding himself of the things Vala had been going through, how she’d been nothing less then violated and forced to give birth to a thing that was now terrorizing the galaxy, Hmmph, the anti-christ of the galaxy… who would have thought you’d have been it’s mother…well… Mentally Jack slapped himself, shaking his head as he heard Sam snapping at him for the unfeeling comment and almost as if he had expected Vala to have some how heard his thoughts he coughed and leaned down, offering her a mostly warm beer and a the only seat he’d brought out with him.

   

“What? Oh, thank you… Jack…Really though, I don’t want to put you out… looks like this is your only seat…” Vala looked at the brown bottle, reading the label and realizing it was an alcoholic beverage and an offering of peace…

   

“Oh, don’t worry about it, my fat butt has been sitting around all day… about time I got off my kester and stretched a bit…” Jack shrugged, waving off Vala’s words and he gestured for her sit down, smiling as he dipped his head, then took a swig of his own beer before realizing she probably didn’t know how to open it and did it for her, “Sorry about it being warm… tastes better when it’s cold, but I got my last three out here… SOOO unless you want to venture to the store… find out what a real beer tastes like…”

   

“No, it’s alright, really Jack… Thank you…” With a dip of her head she smiled at him, then finally took the seat he had offered her, sipping slowly at the beverage. At first she grimaced a bit, licking her lips and pulling the bottle back to stare at it before taking another sip. It wasn’t that bad…She had defiantly had worse…

   

“…You’re welcome…” For a long few moments Jack just stood next to Vala as she sat in the chair, both staring out over the water and sipping at their drinks, seeming to realize the calming peace they were sharing before Jack murmured softly, a hand tucking into his jean pocket as he arched his brows at the woman, “…Sooo… what was it that brought you all the way out here…?”

   

“…Fishing… I’ve never fished before… I’ve heard the others talk about doing it with you… How much fun it had been... but I got the feeling it was being out here, more then it was about the fishing… thought I’d give it a try… that is, if you’re willing to teach me…” With an impish little chuckle she tipped her head at O’Neill, wondering if he’d actually believe she’d told the truth.

   

Jack just stared at her, that same blank look on his face before he suddenly grinned and brought a fist up in a congratulatory manor, “Ha! I KNEW they liked fishing with me! It’s not pity fishing!”

   

“Umm… I’m sorry… pity fishing?”

   

“What? Oh, nothing! Uh, yeah, sure, if you want to learn how to fish, I’ll teach ya, the Jack O’Neill way of course…”  Jack grinned, beaming softly as he watched her, then looked around, setting his beer down so he could pick up his fishing pole, reeling it in for her, then explained quickly what everything was, demonstrating for her how things worked and the proper way to cast out. After about ten or a hundred minutes, Jack finally told her to just go for it and stood back, watching with a squinted frown and standing way out of the way of any possible flying hooks that might come his way.

   

Vala stood close to the water’s edge, her tongue stuck out and her brows furrowed in concentration and with a few practice swings, she finally cast out, swinging firmly and releasing the reel, laughing as the bait and hook went sailing through the air in a lovely arch and plopped down a good distance in the water, “Look! Look I did it!”

   

“Yes, yes you did, now, the best part of fishing…” Jack stretched then groaned as he plopped down, stretching out on the grass and reached into his cooler, pulling out a plastic bag with a sandwich, then fished around for another and grunted, gesturing for her to sit down, “Don’t forget to prop the pole up on your chair like I showed you…Here…” Grinning he tossed her the other sandwich, then settled down, watching the water again with a smile.