All's Well That Ends Well

spacegypsy1

Chapter Five

~0i0~

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

~0I0~

Vala waved goodbye to their passengers, shut the hatch and turned to Daniel. "So, what did the SGC say?"

"Glad you're alive. What the hell happened? Bring the Tel'tak home and don't Gate back from Dakara – we need that ship."

"Not very exciting. So. Mitchell and Teal'c?"

"Teal'c was in session and couldn't leave. Mitchell was already gone, Sam picked him up and they're hunting for us."

"Okay, so everybody is fine." She hit the controls and the Tel'tak blasted into space throwing Daniel back against his seat.

"What the hell!"

"I'm in a hurry, sit tight! We're going home, doing the med check, the mission gone wrong report and then, darling, we are going to..."

Daniel palmed a button on the console, bringing the ship out of hyperspace. Reaching across her and ignoring her protests, he quickly manipulated the autopilot.

Her head jerked towards him and her eyes squinted. "What are you doing?"

"Yes. We're going home." He said with his best lecture voice. "We need to talk about our future. I have to know."

Vala sighed. "Fine." Then she shocked him by pulling her tee shirt off over her head, whipped her belt off and with the grace of a charging Rhino hopped the space between them and straddled his hips. "I love you. Strange I know. I mean, how did that happen? And even more wonko? You love me. I'm amazed that that happened! So talk about our future, darling. Because," She wiggled deeper into his lap. "I'm listening."

Daniel grinned, reached and undid her BDU pants, ran his hands under the waistband and around to grasp her six, then laughed out loud at her shocked gasp. "This is a big part of our future, I think that's obvious." He took a firm hold of the soft skin of her hips jerking her forward.

Recovering from his uncharacteristic actions, Vala removed his glasses, carefully placing them on the console, ran her hands through his hair, and kissed his eyes, one at a time. "You do realize that the last time you took your lovely blue eyes off of the controls we crashed."

She arched when he ran his hands up under her camisole, across her back. "Daniel." She breathed his name like a prayer. "Now? We can't."

"Oh? Backing down, are you? Not very Mal Doranish. I thought you wanted this. Baby time clock and all. I'd say," He told her as his hands started lifting the edge of her chamise, "that..."

"Jacks... there?... stay... we're..." Mitchell's garbled message seemed to hiss from the comm before the words were eaten by sizzling static.

Vala flinched, yanking at her top and looking guilty. "What?"

Wrapping an arm around her waist, Daniel leaned forward and hit the comm. "Come again?"

What came back sounded even more distorted.

"Mitchell, you're not coming through. Come again."

"Rendezvous... six. Wai... de-cloak in about ... coordinates... dock the... we're behind you..."

"Six? On our six? Six minutes? Six hours? Days, weeks? Mitchell?" Daniel let go of Vala. "Mitchell!"

"Well, darling," Vala said as she climbed off him and back to her seat, redoing her pants and slipping her tee shirt back on, "that's a mood killer."

Leaving his chair Daniel headed towards the cargo bay. "See if you can reach Mitchell and get a clear message."

Confused, she watched him retreat. "Where are you going?"

"To take a cold shower."

With a huge grin Vala fluffed her hair, spun around and began to attempt to find Mitchell.

~0i0~

"Any luck?" Daniel, barefoot and in BDU pants asked while he toweled his hair.

Looking over her shoulder, Vala nearly gasped at the sight of Daniel, shirtless and grinning. "Ah, ah, ahm... no. Not yet." She turned fully and just stared.

Wrapping the towel around his neck he moved close to her, then realizing that wasn't a good idea he backed up a step.

Taking a deep breath she let it out slowly. "Mmm, you smell wonderful."

"You could have brought something a little less... girly."

"Well, Sandalwood is, I goggled it. Just in case." She couldn't stop from touching his chest. Pulling her hand away quickly Vala cleared her throat. "Anyway. Get dressed... please. I can't think with you looking all sexy. You can sit here and fiddle with the comm while I try to boost our signal. We're past the six minutes, so I suppose we have six hours. I think we need to make sure." She waggled her brows and pointed towards the cargo bay. "Go put on more clothes. We wouldn't want to get transported locked in a compromising position."

"This is crazy!" Daniel grouched and with hands in pockets headed towards the back.

~0i0~

"Try it again." Vala called from where her head was half buried in a panel of wires and gears.

"Mitchell? Do you read me?" Daniel worked the comm hoping for better results.

Nothing came back.

"Darling, why do you all say read me when in fact it is hear me?"

"It means do you hear and understand." He came to stand over her, looking down with a thoughtful expression. "Why do you love me?"

She popped out, peering at him over the open panel. First she shrugged, unsure. When he scowled, Vala grinned. "Alright, I think it was the way you dug at me, forcing me to see myself and, I love you because of who you are. How you work. How you respond to danger. Including danger of falling in love with me. There are so many reasons. So much to say, and I find that being close to you steals my reasoning. Like a magnet, you draw me in. Sometimes, I think I love you because, well, I find you sexy and irresistible." Biting her bottom lip, Vala let her gaze drift to his lips, then looked up again. "And why do you love me?"

Squatting down, Daniel stared silent for a moment. "You make me want to be happy. You excite me. And you make me look at my life. I find you intoxicating. But really, it's because of who you are. I'm crazy about you. And when I realized that I might lose you, well, I couldn't let that happen. I can't believe I waited so long." His gaze wavered a moment. "Actually I suppose it took me a while to fall in love with you. Or, maybe it was the moment I met you. I only know that now, now I'm so in love it feels like my life suddenly has new meaning."

Amazed by his words, Vala sat back on her heels and sighed in wonder. "We are a pair, aren't we?"

"Yes. We are." Leaning in, Daniel kissed her softly. "A pair."

Vala wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with ardor.

Responding in kind, he pulled her closer, dropping down to his knees, hands running up under her tee shirt to pull it off. He had to break the kiss, groaning with disappointment until he tossed her shirt away and reconnected with her mouth as he maneuvered to get a hold of her chemise.

Vala, moaned. Hands splayed on either side of his ribs she pushed his tee shirt upwards, wrestling to get his arms loose then leaving it around his neck as the kiss deepened.

Gently pushed her to her back and leaned over her at the same time he released his shirt. Their mouths remained melded while hands roamed. With effort Daniel pulled away, sat back and discarded his boots, then his socks. Taking his time, he unlaced her boots and pulled her socks off. Raising a brow he slowly removed her chemise, tossing it over the panel, gaze traveling from the delightful sight of her perfect breasts, up to her mouth and finally coming to land on her half closed eyes.

Their gazes locked. Both smiled.

Vala reached and undid the first button on his pants.

"Vala? Jackson? Do you read me?"

The sound of Mitchell's voice over the comm had Vala shooting upwards, her knee connecting with Daniel's nose.

"Son of a bitch!" Daniel yelped, blood spurting from his nostril.

Taking off to the controls, Vala stopped at the console staring at it in shock. Finally she hit the comm, then put a hand over each breast as if Mitchell could see her. "What? I mean, here, I mean, we were just, where are you?"

"Where are you? We keep getting a ping but you're still cloaked." Mitchell answered then added, "Are your rings active?"

Head lifting ever so slowly, Vala peered out the view screen and saw the large ship overhead. She backed up, hands still clasped tightly over her breasts.

Daniel tossed her tee shirt to her as he reached over and hit the comm. "Hey, give us a minute, we, er, we've been working on the cloak, rings we're not so sure about, give us a minute." He turned to Vala shaking his head, one hand over his bleeding nose.

"Oh, you're bleeding!"

"Yeah. Get dressed. Hurry."

Once they pulled themselves together Daniel took a deep breath, then laughed. "God, this is crazy. I'm sorry. I know you said..." he threw his hands up in frustration, "that we needed to wait. I shouldn't have..."

"Me too. It just got out of hand. Or in hand if you think about it." She grinned, lifting a dark eyebrow.

Casting a broad smile her way, he asked, "Ready?"

"I'm not sure. Are we ready?" Vala said just above a whisper.

"What 'are we ready' are you referring to?"

"Ready for us, darling. Together. I mean, won't it be complicated?"

"Very. How do you feel about marriage?"

"As long as it's forever. As long it is with you, well, then, I'm all about it!"

Pulling her close Daniel kissed her roughly.

When he let her go, Vala sighed happily. "Well, that's settled."

"So, are we ready now?"

She nodded, reached back, turned the cloak off, and activated the rings.

Side by side Vala and Daniel stood and watched as Sam and Mitchell appeared through the rings.

~0i0~

Mitchell grinned wide. "Well, again you two manage to survive and thrive. Glad to see you both." He stopped halfway into the cockpit as his gaze landed on four boots and four socks dotting the floor.

Sam on the other hand stayed back her eyes on the bare feet of the couple who remained standing at the console.

Open mouthed Vala followed Mitchell's gaze and spotted her and Daniel's frantically discarded footwear.

As for Daniel his look dropped from Sam to Vala's naked toes. "Ah, er, ah, we, er, we, we got tired of boots and, and, in a bit of fun we, er, we decided to go barefoot. Yeah, barefoot."

Sam watched as Vala lifted her lowered eyes upwards. With an almost imperceptible tick of her head Sam indicated for Vala to follow the direction towards the open panel where Vala's chemise lay limp and forgotten across the top.

Eyes wide Vala dashed, snatched and then stuffed the undergarment into her jacket which she closed, buttoned and folder her arms across. She was not about to look Sam in the eyes.

Mitchell studied Daniel a moment. "Man, what the hell happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Daniel gently touched his nose, then grimaced. "Vala hit me." He said with as much annoyance as he could fake.

"I shoulda known. Damn. Can't you two stop mucking around long enough to get your shoes on!?"

Daniel and Vala exchanged a quick look before shrugging in unison.

"Fine. Let's get you two home."

~0i0~

Daniel paced the space between his quarters and Vala's. It was nearly midnight, but they had gotten back hours ago.

Shortly after Sam dropped off Daniel, Vala and Mitchell, Teal'c had popped in needing a short respite from the long Jaffa sessions.

Once through with his med check, and after stopping off to take care of one small thing, it'd been hard to break away from the buddy get together with Mitchell and Teal'c but Daniel feigned exhausted to eke out some time to hopefully meet up with Vala.

Vala was still not back from her post mission medical check-up. Dr. Lam, off on vacation, had left a small staff with only two physicians doing twelve hour shifts on duty.

Daniel looked down the hall then at his watch.

They would be stuck on base tonight because Landry cancelled the debriefing until 0700 tomorrow. It was if fate was against them.

He stopped pacing, stuck his hands in his pockets, dropped his chin and sighed. Eyes closed and mind full of images of Vala on his lap in the Tel'tak he didn't hear her approach.

"Change your mind, darling?" Vala asked seriously as she came to stand in front of him.

Eyes popping open Daniel grinned. "Nope. Just waiting. You're finally here. How'd your medical go?"

"Perfect."

"Yeah, that you are."

"So romantic. Where have you been hiding all that?" She laid a hand on his chest and fiddled with his shirt button.

Keeping his hands buried deep so as to not snatch her up, Daniel shrugged. "What took so long?"

"I needed to stop by Harry's quarters."

"Ah, oh, er... why?"

Frowning, she said with a whisper. "I had to tell him that I loved someone else. But, oddly he said he knew."

Daniel pursed his lips and nodded.

Her hand raised to his cheek for just a moment then she blinked in surprise. "Darling, what happened? You have a bit of a black eye."

Daniel sighed heavily. "I talked to Harry. I told him I was sorry I didn't tell him that I... that I loved you when he came in with those rings."

"Oh?" Still confused Vala cocked her head to the side and waited.

"He said that was fine. He understood. He wished me luck, turned away and started to walk off. Then, well, he spun around and sucker punched me. Ya know, I deserved that."

Vala frowned. "Hmm, he just told me he understood, but that he was sad. Well, all's well that ends well, right?"

Neither noticed Mitchell and Teal'c come up the hall.

"Geez, man," Mitchell whispered, "look at them. Arguing again."

"I am unsure they are arguing."

"Hmph. Sure they are." Mitchell mumbled and keyed his door. "'night, Teal'c."

Teal'c bowed as Mitchell's door closed. Looking down the hall he let a small smile grace his lips, locked his hands behind his back and watched as Daniel, standing face to face with Vala, took her face in his hands.

Turning away, Teal'c grinned and disappeared into his quarters.

Laying his forehead against hers, Daniel spoke. "I never expected to ever feel this way again. And, hell, I can't believe I'm going to do this... here."

"What?" Vala asked, breathless. "Do what?"

Unable to stop himself, Daniel kissed her wildly, pushing her back towards and against her door. His hands were frantic on her body. His kiss a prelude to what was to come. "Key, key, key", he mumbled against her mouth.

"Key? Oh! Key!" It was hard for her to stop running her hands all over him, but Vala searched her pockets and found the key. Another moment passed as they grapple to swipe the key, all the while trying to hold the passion in the kiss.

"Daniel, my love. I... I can't believe you... me.. that we are going to... now. Here. Really? What? What are we doing?"

Finally the door opened and they tumbled in. "Vala," Daniel breathed out with what little control he could rally, "Let's make babies."

~END