DONE! Yay for you for making it all the way through. It's all done now, despite numerous sabbaticals throughout the writing process. I suppose that's what I get for tempting the bunnies and telling them what I want to write rather than what they want me to. If things are missing "d's" I'm sorry, my key keeps sticking. Thanks for staying with me, you've been a beautiful audience and review to tell me if you love it or you hate it, either way. Thanks!
There was a plan, there was a plan, she wasn't just being mean, there was a plan. And maybe if he just kept saying that it would true. And maybe the Ori would vanish, no doctor would ever try to wean him off caffeine again, and he'd spend the rest of his life in a Lantean library.
However, all he got to do now was debate physics. Specifically, if it was actually possible for Vala's top to burst into flames if Black spent any more time staring at it.
Daniel had run out of languages to count to ten in about five minutes ago, and was simply shooting murderous looks at Sam every time Vala reclaimed Black's attention from gloating. Apparently she grasped the plan while the men were left to fend for themselves. Every time Black did something to earn himself some time in the brig and the first place in line at the next Tok'ra host auction Sam would place a rather firm kick in their shins and glare them back into their polite hats.
Daniel's reverie ended with a rather overzealous kick from a combat boot that didn't belong to Sam. He followed the eyes (and stifled laughter) of everyone else at the table and joined in the staring at Black. It took a moment before the reality processed. Black was drooling. Vala literally had a member of the US military drooling over her. And she was enjoying it. This man deserved to be shot.
Landry's voice crackled over the radio and interrupted the luncheon with joyous news. "As much as I hate to break up this little get together, the Lieutenant's chopper is here, and SG-1 is due for a briefing." Bless that man and his penchant for directness. Mitchell and Jack sprang from the table, offering to escort Black to the helipad, and even Teal'c barely restrained his enthusiasm at the prospect of having this man off base.
Black's hand lingered on Vala's cheek for a moment as she smiled giddily back. He promised to call her and only grinned at Daniel for a heartbeat before going in to kiss her goodbye and strut out the commissary door. Jack stopped Mitchell for just long enough to pull the gun that the Colonel was so tenderly caressing out of the holster before sending him off as an escort.
"Well, I need a beer and a shower, and the base will have to be sanitized. But other than that I think today went rather well." Daniel didn't bother responding, Teal'c's quirked eyebrow was doing enough talking for the both of them.
"Don't worry Jack, your day is about to get a whole lot better." Vala tossed her black jacket into Jack's lap as she headed to Daniel's side of the table. She kicked her leg over Daniel's lap and bumped the table back to give herself sitting room. She tugged at the tank top to pull it even lower, and mussed her hair while Daniel blushed and held his hands as if at gunpoint, struggling not to stare.
"I thought my day was going to get better Vala?" She just grinned and started tugging Daniel's t-shirt out of its tidily arranged format and wrapped her fingers in his hair as she leaned in for a kiss.
"Vala, stop! What are you doing?"
She cocked her head in confusion for a moment before snapping her fingers in realization. "Of course darling, I completely forgot, and that's going to be half the fun." She grinned maliciously before saying, "Jack, left-hand pocket please, leave them on the table." Jack stuck his hand into Vala's jacket pocket and wriggled around for a moment before muttering, "Vala, there's nothing in there."
"No Jack, your pocket." Jack pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and dropped them on the table while barely suppressing a smile at his favorite resident pick-pocket. She wrapped one of Daniel's hands around the small of her back and placed the other a little too far up her thigh for his comfort (which she promptly moved back when he tried to withdraw.) She laced her fingers through his hair and went in for another kiss before Daniel even had the foresight to stop her.
It was only several seconds later when he heard Sam's giggle that Daniel had the presence of mind to pull out, and saw Greg Black frozen in the doorway of the commissary.
Jack, with barely contained mirth was the one to speak. "Hiya Greg. I thought you were heading back to Area 51."
"I, I…forgot my keys." Stunned didn't do it justice. Even Teal'c was smirking as Jack guarded his mouth with a coffee much to hide face choked with laughter. Vala went back to kissing Daniel, and only through considerable effort did he hear the astonished conversation between Black and SG-1.
"Aren't they sweet Greg?"
"They're…great Sam, just great. When exactly did they get together?" Black was hanging on to his sanity by a mere thread, shock overcoming whatever jealousy or rage he might feel in a moment.
Mitchell smacked Black on the back in a brotherly fashion and laughed, "They've been together for months Greg. There was even a bet goin' 'round the SGC about where the Ori got the other half of Adria's genetics."
Black's eyes groaned from the stress at widening that far (due to the purr from Vala at Daniel's kiss or the suggestion of paternity, Daniel wasn't sure.) Sam just smiled while Cam faked a coughing fit and she continued on his behalf. "You've read the mission reports Greg, once the SG teams heard her preach the rumors started to fly."
"But, but she's not…right?"
This time Vala had to pipe up, even Sam couldn't stop herself from smiling. "I certainly hope not Colonel. I would be immensely disturbed if our firstborn child had a crush on her father." She turned back to Daniel and started to trace the line of his bottom lip with her thumb as she continued. "Besides, I was hoping for a boy."
Sam snorted. The classiest woman Daniel had ever known snorted while was trying not to laugh. Mitchell turned his back to Greg, but that didn't change the fact his shoulders were shaking so hard from scarcely contained laughter Daniel was surprised Black didn't notice immediately.
Black stumbled towards the table muttering "pregnant." Vala just smiled, apparently thrilled with the thought that while her plan was to make Black wish he'd never been born, she got to ignite a whole new fanfare of rumors.
Black gingerly picked up his keys and couldn't rip his eyes away from the sight of Vala sitting very comfortably on Daniel Jackson's lap. He would brush her bangs out of her eyes, and she'd tip her head so the bangs would spill into her sightline again, and Daniel's hand would brush along her forehead once more.
"She was flirting with me!" Black didn't know where that came from. He was infuriated. This alien thing had been all over him, flirting with him in front of Jackson, and now she was plastered to Jackson's shirt and ignoring his presence!
"Flirt? Daniel, what does that mean?"
"Vala, remember how last night I told you that some men might interpret your behavior as something more?"
"But darling, that's how my people are polite." The angst in her voice was flawless. The innocent lamb wounded by such an accusation. She turned to Black with eyes dripping pity and apologized, all while staying firmly planted in Daniel's lap. "I'm so sorry if I confused you Colonel. That's simply how my people behave around friends. I didn't ever mean to 'flirt' with you."
Somehow she said the words and painted the perfect picture of purity, but there was still the smallest bite of sarcasm to it. A little river of condescension slipping through the words, and Black knew in an instant he'd been hosed.
"Your people consider suggestive behavior as friendly? I suppose I'd have to as well if my god, the person I'd been host to, was the deity of sex and sluts. Would that make you a whore as well?"
Vala didn't have time to recoil at the shot. She didn't have time to blink. In a heartbeat Daniel seized her by the hips and gently raised her from his lap to the tabletop and laid Black out in one punch.
The Colonel didn't get the chance to rise. Vala froze for a moment at the sight of Black sprawled at Daniel's feet, but in that instant Teal'c and Mitchell seized the offender and hauled him towards the door while Jack radioed for the chopper to be ready to leave the moment they reached topside, and gave Sam orders to forge the papers making it legal to shoot Black the next moment he stepped on base.
Daniel watched them exit in a rage, and was completely unaware of Vala appearing by his side. He started when she raised his right hand and stared at his knuckles. She didn't know what she was expecting to see there. It felt as if they should be bleeding, refusing to stay intact now that their purpose had been violated.
He had used his hands for violence. These hands that had delivered children, saved his civilization, bound life back within bleeding bodies, and traded his life for that of a world not his own. Blessed hands that had just been moved to violence for her.
She met his eyes. Those azure eyes that drank her soul in a little deeper each time, and this time she didn't fight.
She barely sounded the words, just enough of her strength left to form them, which was all the force she needed. "Thank you." He just smiled and gestured towards the door, thinking that General Landry would want an explanation.
He made it a step before her fingertips ghosted across his arm and stopped him cold. She stepped in close, and went onto her toes to breathe him in.
She touched her lips to his, the first chaste kiss she'd given in her life, the purity of the maiden he'd fought for today, honor she didn't think still dwelt in the host of Qetesh. And something only his lips would know.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she reached up to take the hand as they walked down the hall. She'd never let a man fight for her before. She was innocent to the ways of dependency; even Tomin had needed her more than she'd needed him. But this, she'd never stood here before.
No joining of bodies here, restraint had been in both their kisses while surrounded by onlookers. But that's what made it right. She'd never joined with another soul before, never had one who clasped her hand so tight. No words would do the feeling justice, no sweet nothings whispered by a lover who would never be granted the sight of her soul.
He'd made her clean again, found that small piece that horror couldn't touch, that he would never rip from her like others had. He'd given her back her life.
She rotated his hand to gaze at those knuckles again, and gently pressed her kiss to the hand of saint that thought her worthy of redemption. He squeezed her tighter to his side, and they kept walking, keeping the other's stride.