Title: Camping Can Be Fun

Author: spacegypsy1

Rating: Teen +
Category: Action/Adventure/Romance
Season: After Season 10
Featured Character(s): Jack, Sam, Daniel, Vala, Teal'c, Mitchell
Pairings: D/V and J/S

Warnings: Please be sure to wear you seat belts!

A/N: Thanks MariShal, story goddess, and MariShal, Supershipper, Samvalasam, for beta help. Any mistakes remaining belong to me..

Title: Still undecided:

The Brink of Madness -Road to Perdition ,Again or Road To: (choose one) Recovery – Redemption – Reconciliation – Reason - Forgiveness. - Colorado Springs - Back From Perdition. Other options: Who's Driving, Anyway? Lost, The Missing Season. (Oh! THAT would have been fun… lost…hmmm.) The Z Files. Okcaw (wacko backwards.)

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The minute Jack completed giving Daniel directions to the highway, he propped his head against the window and fell asleep.

The minute Daniel pulled out on the highway, Sam nodded off against Jack's shoulder.

In the rearview mirror he couldn't see Teal'c, who sat behind him. Next to Teal'c, Vala's head rested back against the seat, staring at the ceiling, uncharacteristically quiet. Mitchell, eyes closed and arms crossed tightly across his chest, either slept or was dead. He hadn't moved a muscle since settling in the car.

Daniel flipped the radio on, turned down the volume as not to disturb anyone… as if he could, and grinned when Credence Clearwater Revival's 'Have You Ever Seen The Rain ' started to play.

Mitchell bolted up, "Jackson! Please change the station, that song gives me the creeps."

Daniel hit the button and got static. He turned the radio off. "Better?"

"Much." Mitchell, with thumb to one temple and ring finger to the other, squeezed hard, shut his eyes and tried to stop the sledgehammer from cracking open his skull. "I've got the hangover from hell," he sat back, crossed his arms and tried to sleep.

In the side view mirror Daniel caught a glimpse of Teal'c who appeared to be staring a hole in the back of his head. Maybe he was kelno'reeming.

Daniel shifted to a more comfortable position, set the cruise control, happy to be returning to his books and artifacts. Mysteries he was skilled at solving. Thinking of the mystery in the back seat, he lifted his eyes to the mirror again. Vala appeared to be staring at the back of his head. He reached a hand back to be sure nothing was amiss. He didn't feel anything.

Jack sat up suddenly, "You okay, Danny?"

"Yeah, wide awake, go back to sleep."

Jack settled back down, pulling Carter tighter against him.

Daniel's eyes stayed on the road, as traffic picked up.

Vala continued to stare at the back of his head. Her memory might be slightly foggy from last night, but she remembered Jell-o kisses. Who could forget that? And having slept little, she was pretty sure that aside from those absolutely divine kisses at the campfire, nothing had happened in the SUV. But two things bothered her.

One, waking up wrapped around Daniel like a snake, wearing bra, panties and Daniel's shirt. I don't remember doing that. If he'd done it, it would have been out of kind consideration for her.

Two, Daniel woke up in a good mood. He kissed her on the forehead and thanked her for forgiving him. I don't remember doing that. And then. Then! He acted as if nothing. NOTHING, had transpired between them. Jell-o kisses. How could he forget Jell-o kisses? After that - he and his oh so chipper mood - had ignored her. Her stomach rolled, she moaned and leaned back against the seat.

"Daniel?" She couldn't raise her head or her voice.

"Hmm?"

"I think I'm going to be sick."

He pulled over, shoved the car in park, jumped out, opened the back door, practically threw Teal'c out, and reached for Vala.

"Wha..?" Mitchell sat up with a moan.

Both Jack and Sam woke, momentarily confused by the commotion.

Daniel, an arm wrapped around Vala's waist, a hand on her shoulder, guided her to the grassy edge.

She leaned over, placed her hands on her knees and threw up.

Daniel had a hand on her back, rubbing gently.

"Ohhh, sorry." And she threw up again.

"Don't be. We've all been here." He tried to keep the humor out of his voice.

Teal'c walked over, handed Daniel a large bottled water and Vala's beach towel. Daniel nodded his thanks and Teal'c returned to the car.

Jack, Sam and Teal'c watched compassionately from the vehicle. Mitchell's head spun wildly and he jumped out of the SUV, dashed to the other side of the road and after a few dry heaves, returned.

Once Mitchell was in the car, he moaned, and fell over on the seat. His butt to the door, feet on the floor and head across the seat. One more moan and he was asleep.

Daniel wet the towel with the some of the water and washed her face. "Here," he handed the bottle to her, "rinse and then drink."

Vala stood. She sloshed water around in her mouth and spit it out. She sipped a little of the water and handed it back to him.

"All better?"

"Yes, thank you."

Once again his arm went around her waist as he guided her back to the vehicle.

Teal'c stood with the door open. "DanielJackson, I will drive. You can attend to ValaMalDoran. ColonelMitchell has passed out in the back seat. ColonelCarter…." He stopped, seeing the bewildered expression on ValaMalDoran's face. "I will drive."

"Thanks Teal'c." Daniel moved Vala to the seat.

She moved in as far as she could and patted the little space beside her.

"Mitchell? Mitchell?" Daniel got no response.

Vala shook Mitchell's shoulder. "Mitchell! Cameron, please wake up."

Mitchell didn't move.

First Daniel's head went all the way back before falling forward, chin to chest. Then, his head went side to side. This is crazy. He wedged himself in between the door and Vala.

"Could you move over just a little?" He asked sweetly.

She smiled and edged as far as possible.

"Thanks." He smiled back.

In the front seat, Teal'c cut his eyes to O'Neill.

Jack knew what was coming.

Sam stared straight ahead after moving a little closer to Teal, to avoid contact with Jack's shoulder. She had to work with these guys, she didn't want them to think she and Jack were an 'item'.

Jack had his hands in his lap, literally twiddling his thumbs. They were going home. He didn't want the team to think there was some "thing" going on with him and Carter.

"Vala?" Irritation edged into Daniel's voice.

"What?" She matched his tone.

"The door handle is digging about three inches into my hip." His semi permanently affixed frown had returned.

"Well, I can't help it! He's dead weight, I can't move him." Her eyes, like steel darts, pierced him.

"Move his head, give me a little room."

"Maybe I could sit on your lap, torture you. Then you could say something charming about my past."

"Don't be an ass!"

She hit his arm with the back of her hand.

"Quit it!" he griped.

Jack turned. "Alright kids, let's calm down."

"Shut up!" Both Vala and Daniel said at the same time.

"Pull the damn car over!" Jack huffed. Both Teal'c and Sam looked at him questioningly. "Pull it over."

Jack got out of the car, came to Mitchell's door, opened it, hauled Mitchell up and slammed the door.

"What? We home?" Mitchell mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

Vala immediately took the space Jack had so kindly arranged for her. She looked at Daniel, lips pursed and head tilted. "Now, you've pissed father off!"

"I heard that." Jack said slamming his car door.

Daniel got comfortable. Ten minutes down the road he leaned over and whispered, "I'm sorry."

She whispered back, "I don't care. I hate you. I've always hated you. And the only, only reason I let you kiss me was because I was slightly tipsy and … and that was my favorite flavor." The chin came up and she turned away.

She was grinning foolishly at Mitchell, who, confused beyond ever understanding what was going on, held up his hands in capitulation. His vivid blue eyes were glaring in her direction, lightly tinted with fear.

Daniel was staring into the abyss; the proverbial cosmic two by four had just struck him upside his head. The memory shot through his entire body, the flavor of pineapple and coconut rum and Vala danced on his tongue. He covered his face with his hands trying to block out the image of undressing her in the middle of the night, putting his shirt on her so she'd be more comfortable. He had methodically buttoned every button, had smoothed the hair from her sleeping face, had looked longingly at her. Then, zing, his mind took him right back to the Jell-o kisses. He groaned. Really loud.

"Daniel?" Vala concerned, turned to him, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," He was no longer at the brink of madness. He was gone, departed, right at the center. He groaned again.

"Stop the car! Stop the car!" Vala cried out.

Skidding to a stop on the shoulder of the road, the SUV seemed to rock a second before Vala reached across Daniel, who was by this time looking at her all screwy. Practically, laying across his lap, she pushed the door open with one hand – the other one was on his shoulder shoving him out the door. She kept pushing, he kept looking screwy at her.

He gave in, got out. She crashed into him, she was moving so fast. He reeled from the impact. She shoved him, both hands on his back, forward.

She huffed and puffed from the exertion. He stopped, stared at her flustered.

Jack looked at Sam. "Can you spell discombobulated? Is that even a word?"

Sam answered, "Yes, and yes."

He nodded.

"What the hell's goin' on?" Mitchell asked, bent down and looking at the two nut cases outside the door.

"What does it mean?" Jack asked her.

"A state of disconcerting confusion."

"Oh, I get it. Spacemonkey and spacemouseketeer." Mitchell said, sitting up and looking out his window at the cars driving past.

Teal'c was on the precipice of laughter.

Jack still leaned across Carter for a better look at the couple outside.

"Sir," Sam said in all seriousness, "could you scoot over a little?"

The SUV filled with laughter.

Daniel blushed looking at Vala fully clothed and not kissing him.

She perked her head up, cocked it to one side, scrunched up one eye, confused. "Are you or aren't you going to throw up?"

"Not."

"You're not sick?"

"Of what?"

Her hands went to her hips. "Of too much alcohol, Daniel you were acting like you were sick,"

He shook his head, "Nope, not sick, not acting sick."

He looked off across the landscape.

"What is it?" the kind, concern in her voice sent his mind back on the path to sweet coconut and her moist hot mouth.

He turned back. "I'm fine, really."

She smiled, eyes alight with caring.

He smiled. Madness wasn't so bad. He leaned. She leaned.

"Can you two just get it over with and get back in the car?" Mitchell called out.

Daniel closed his eyes, sighed, then a hand lightly on her back he walked to the vehicle with her. When they got in, Vala stayed closed to him. Hip to hip. When she looked up she caught Teal'c's reflection in the rearview mirror. He was smiling. And she smiled back, laid her head on Daniel's shoulder and closed her eyes.

It wasn't twenty minutes before Vala asked, "Jack?"

"Yes?"

"How much further is it.?" She had that calculating voice.

She had a whole plethora of voices and Jack had begun to catalog them in his brain. He sighed; he could have been stacking papers. He couldn't wait to get back to Washington and stack papers. Stacking papers can be fun. "A couple of hours, maybe three."

"I need to use the little girl's room." Vala switched to the saccharine voice.

"Me too!" Traitor Sam piped in.

"T, how's the gas?" Jack had the 'three fries short of a happy meal' voice.

"The indicator hovers over the half way point."

"Okay, let's stop at the next station."

When they pulled out of the station, Daniel drove, Vala in the middle and Sam by the window. The other three settled unhappily in the back seat.

Jack looked at Mitchell. "You gonna survive?"

"Barely." Mitchell put his hand to his forehead.

"I hate to see a grown man cry." Jack grinned at Mitchell, who only nodded in acquiesce. "Want a beer?" Jack asked.

"O'Neill, open containers of alcohol are not allowed in a moving vehicle." Teal'c never turned from his constant vigil out the window.

"Right."

Having eaten the lunch they picked up at the station, everyone settled down for the remaining two hours of the trip home. If it wasn't for Vala's constant radio station switching, it could have been described as pleasant in the SUV.

She was doing the sitting dance to 'Crazy' and grinning foolishly at Daniel. Halfway through the song she switched the station, got some country-western ditty and changing dance style, bobbed around to that one.

"Feeling better I see." Jack quipped from the middle of the back seat.

"Much," she moved on to the next station.

"Vala!" Daniel reached and turned the radio off.

She brought her hands to her chest, cupping one in the other. She bowed up, frowned and turned the radio back on. She had the sense to turn the volume down.

Caboom! Flap, flap, flap.

"Daniel?"

"Jack?"

"What was that?"

The SUV was limping to the side of the road.

"I think the tire just blew."

"Are we there yet?" Mitchell laughed at his own joke.

The troop of men got out and stared befuddled at the shredded tire.

Vala and Sam looked at each other and shrugged. Vala turned the radio up, scooted into the driver's seat and started dancing again, Sam joined in.

"That's a great song." Sam reached and turned the volume up a little more.

"I know, I love Pink, she's my favorite." Vala started singing "Stupid Girls……"

Outside the vehicle, the boys sighed in unison. Then Teal'c, Mitchell and Daniel turned to Jack.

"Well, campers, I guess we have to unload the back and change the tire." Jack frowned, hands on hips.

"Don't you have triple A?" Daniel stared at what remained of the tire.

"I think we can manage to change one tire, Daniel." Jack unlocked the back and started pulling everything out.

Teal'c and Mitchell pitched in. Daniel supervised.

It took them nearly fifteen minutes to reach the equipment and jack the car up.

Mitchell pulled the spare out, tried to bounce it on the pavement. It didn't bounce. He looked at Jack, baffled.

"Oh, crap, I forgot to get it fixed." Jack returned to the front of the SUV, reached under Vala and retrieved the Sat' phone, looked askew at the two harebrained women enjoying themselves in the front seat, and scrambled for the safety of the pack of men at the back of the vehicle.

The music blasted out of the back of the SUV and Jack walked away to make his call. Returning, he noticed both Daniel's and Mitchell's head, every so slightly, bobbing to the beat. "They'll be here in fifteen minutes."

Teal'c, hands behind his back, looked expressionless at the set of flat tires laying on the pavement. He may as well have looked Jack straight in the eye and said, 'Idiot'.

Jack shook his head, "Damn."

The tow truck arrived in twenty-five minutes, the driver, a displaced Texas giant named Billy Wayne, tossed the two tires into the back. Jack grabbed Mitchell's arm pulling him toward the tow truck, "I might need a translator." And the two got into the cab of the truck and off they went.

Vala leaned, arms folded, against the hood of the SUV. Sam sat, back against a lonely tree, about ten feet from the road. Teal'c stood beside her, hands behind him, looking off at the vista of the mountains.

Daniel approached Vala, "can we talk?"

"Of course, Daniel," she unfolded her arms.

He took her hand and began to walk the opposite direction from Sam and Teal'c. They walked for a long while in silence, hand in hand.

"I'd like to tell you how sorry I am for hurting your feelings. And I really need to make sure we can get past that." He stopped and buried his hands deep in his pockets. "I want us to be friends, Vala."

"Of course, I forgive you, Daniel." She kissed him sweetly on the side of the mouth. Twirling a pigtail, she continued, "we are friends. Daniel, you are my closest friend."

He pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head. "I'm sorry about the whole, um, other thing too. I was way out of line."

Vala pulled back, brows furrowed, head tilted. "What other thing?"

Daniel let go, sliding his hands down her arms, taking her hands in his. "The, um," he let go of one of her hands and gestured like he was taking a cup to his mouth.

"I don't understand." Her furrowed brows went deeper.

"You know, the um, the…" He did the cup to mouth thing again, letting go of her other hand, taking a step back.

"What? The What?"

"The Jell-o, the coconut rum, the mouth to mouth exchanges!"

He was embarrassed, he was endearing, and she silently squealed in glee. "The Jell-o kisses?"

"Yes! Yes, those and the ah," he started moving his arm, with hand palm up, back and forth from her shoulder to her knees.

"The ah, what?" What is this?" She copied his gesture.

"You know…I… might have," he puffed a sigh.

Her eyebrows rose, she grinned, "You undressed me."

"Correct. But nothing happened; I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable." He was relieved that it was over, and he was still breathing, had all his body parts. She hadn't killed him. That had to be a good sign.

"I forgive you, but not for the kisses."

Crestfallen, he didn't know what to say.

"Daniel, I know it makes you uncomfortable for me to talk about…. Well, really Daniel, I loved those kisses. And I know you don't see me that way, but you can't apologize, because I will always keep that memory…" Vala chewed the inside of her mouth a moment, "and should you ever choose to do that again, I'd be more than happy to….."

His mouth shut her up. His arm wrapped around her waist.

Her mouth accepted his. Her arm locked around his neck.

"Oh, boy…" Sam walked up on the couple, "Sorry guys."

They broke apart.

"The tires are back and we're ready to go." Sam smiled and Vala grinned. Daniel blushed, closing his eyes a moment.

Back on the road, Daniel drove and Vala leaned against him.

"Can I drive?" She rolled her head on his shoulder and smiled up at him.

"No."

"You let Teal'c drive."

"Teal'c has a license."

"Well, I want a license."

"Then learn to drive."

"How can I learn to drive if you won't let me?"

"You can't just start driving, you have to… learn."

"Will you teach me?"

"Maybe."

"What are you doing now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Driving, what are you doing and how are you doing it?"

"I'm driving."

"Well, yes, I can see that, but how?"

"Vala."

"Yes, Daniel?"

"You have to get a book. You have to practice. I'll try to teach you some, but I don't have a lot of time for teaching driving lessons."

"When?"

"When, what?"

"When will you teach me?"

"When I have time."

"How about now?"

A/N: THE END. This is the End my friends -sing that Doors' song here – I should have done a soundtrack CD, I was gonna throw that song - "It's In His Kiss" - in here too, but I don't do Song Fics.

Keep an eye out for my fic..(in process).. Daniel teaches Vala to drive.

Thanks for reading. And thanks for the reviews! Spacegypsy1