Bounty Tag: Right or Wrong
By: natalia5345
CATEGORY: Missing Scene, UST
SEASON/SPOILERS: Season 10 “Bounty”
WARNINGS: None
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Tag
for Season 10 episode Bounty – as a lead in for the next episode Bad Guys. Thanks SO much to
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://natalia5345.livejournal.com/ and http://www.fanfiction.net/~natalia5345
Vala: Well, then you
should say what you mean.
Daniel: I don't think you want me to start doing that.
Vala: I don't think you want to start thinking what I think.
– Bad Guys
* *
Daniel tapped his pencil on the table and glanced at the clock for the fifth
time in about a minute. When he saw how little time had passed he proceeded to
glare at the clock as if his annoyance might make the hands move faster. He
scowled. They were supposed to be back over an hour ago.
After things had been cleared up in Kansas, Vala had agreed to travel back with
Mitchell instead of coming home with the rest of the team right away. She had
said something about wanting to say goodbye to Mitchell’s parents and to
Darrell. When the thought of this ‘Darrell’ ran through his mind, Daniel’s
pencil – the one he was using as he attempted to translate the scroll in front
of him – snapped. He crumpled up the paper he was taking notes on and launched
it towards the wastebasket, missing by a mile. Picking up a new pencil, his
mind wandered back to the conversation he had had with Mitchell the night
before on the cargo ship…
“Who’s Darrell?” Daniel asked after Vala
rushed back down to the school gymnasium, calling something about ‘checking on
Darrell’ over her shoulder.
“He’s just one of my high school buddies,” Mitchell replied “Vala spent a lot
of time with him this weekend. Actually, last time I saw them, at least before
all the fightin’ started, they were walking off somewhere together.”
"What was she doing spending all her time with Darrell? Wasn't she
supposed to be your date?" Daniel demanded.
Mitchell looked slightly sheepish. “Yeah, she was, I guess. But I met up with
Amy Vanderberg – you know, the blond I told you about – and between focusin’ on
Amy and focusin’ on not gettin’ killed, I sorta lost track of the two of them.”
“You lost track of them? Daniel started to pace back and forth “Do you know
where they went or what they were doing?” Daniel’s tone was quickly filling
with anger.
Mitchell simply stared back at him calmly, “I honestly don't know, Jackson, but
you saw that dress, what would you do in Darrell’s shoes?”
Daniel broke yet another pencil. Tossing it aside, he looked down at the
translation in his notebook. He crumpled it up and threw it in the direction of
the wastebasket, missing yet again. All wrong. It was all wrong.
* * * *
Vala arrived back at the base, exhausted after the flight, but purely out of
habit, found herself on her way to Daniel’s lab, planning to check on him
before bed. She saw him working – or at least sitting – at his desk, and from the
single light of the desk lamp, she noticed several broken pencils scattered on
the tabletop, as well as a pile of crumpled papers that hadn’t quite made it
into the wastebasket. Not his usual style. She also noticed that while he had
some scrolls and papers spread out in front of him, he wasn’t really looking at
them. He was staring intently at the wall. His face was one of concentration
and his brows were deeply furrowed. Apparently something was frustrating him.
She leaned against the doorframe and asked softly, “Distracted?”
Daniel turned sharply toward her and blurted out in an irritated tone “Who is
this Darrell guy anyway?”
She was taken aback. Where had that come
from? Her shock didn’t last long however, as her skin prickled, anger
coursing through her veins. She was not about to take this attitude from him
when she had been rebuffing Darrell’s advances all weekend with Daniel in mind.
“Darrell is just a friend, Daniel. No need to act so jealous,” she replied,
moving into the room. Her voice was calm, but her eyes flashed, ready to defend
herself.
“Who’s jealous?” He looked down at his work. “What you do with your body is
none of my business,” Daniel added, shaking his head as he moved some papers
around on the desk.
“So you think you know what happened last night, do you?” Vala replied as her
anger began to boil.
His head jerked back up to look at her. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”
Apparently, he wasn’t about to back down.
“And what would that be?” she challenged him, stepping closer to look him
directly in the eye.
Daniel pinned Vala with a heated glare. “Do you honestly want me to describe it
to you? You and Darrell, off alone, doing god knows what together?”
“You really think I would do something like that?” Her face twisted in anger.
“I think I know you pretty well by now, don’t you?” he countered.
“And you believe I would still act that way after everything that’s happened?”
Her voice rose now, emotions bubbling higher.
“Well, from what I hear, this weekend hardly gives me evidence to the contrary,
does it?” Daniel answered quickly, his voice rising as well.
Vala was far too angry to reply at this point. She shook her head in disbelief.
Who was he to assume what she had or hadn’t done? She had changed. He should know that by now. He must know that by now.
He had told her so himself, on numerous occasions. Hadn’t he meant it? She
wasn’t who she had been that first day when she had stepped through the gate,
clad in leather, with a trick up her sleeve. And he knew that. She fixed her gaze on him once more, glaring fiercely,
but saying nothing.
They were both silent, grey eyes remained locked on blue. The room seemed to
spark with tension as they continued to stare each other down. Then, suddenly
the stalemate was broken as Daniel moved towards Vala, pushing her back against
the wall.
Vala, taken by surprise, did not immediately react. She was even more shocked
when the hands that gripped her shoulders moved to cup her face, pulling it to
his. Her wide eyes quickly closed as Daniel’s lips descended on hers and took
them as his own. She immediately opened to him, allowing him entrance, and he
did not hesitate. It didn’t take long for Vala to join in the battle though.
And it was a battle. There was no teasing here, nothing tender about this kiss.
It was passion and it was heat. Possession. Tongues duelled, fighting for
dominance, as fingers crawled into hair and held fast. Bodies and mouths,
pushed and pulled, as they each struggled for control of the kiss.
Yet, it was over almost as quickly as it had started. They broke apart, gasping
for air, foreheads meeting as they both tried to catch their breath.
“Daniel, last night, I honestly didn’t…”
“I’m sorry, Vala, I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. I didn’t mean…er…I
mean I don’t….We shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong.” He let out an
exasperated sigh and began to step back.
“Wrong?” Vala looked at him, perplexed.
Daniel opened his mouth but when nothing came out he just shook his head. His
gaze had softened but he looked away when she tried to meet his eyes with her
own confused ones.
In a flash Vala’s eyes turned fiery, anger bubbling once more. She put her
hands on Daniel’s chest and roughly shoved him away. He stumbled backwards as
she pushed past him.
As she moved for the door, Daniel opened his mouth to call after her but
quickly shut it. He had no idea what to say now. He sighed and sat down,
letting his head fall to his arms where they lay folded on the desk. Why did
she get him so riled up? He could hardly think straight when it came to Vala.
He had lost control of himself and then what had he done? He’d gone and kissed
her. Why the heck had he done that?
His emotions were a confused and tangled mess. No one had ever thrown him off
balance quite like Vala did. She always managed to rattle his composure and he
never seemed to know what to say or do around her. So, like now, he would do
one thing and say another. Not moving forward, and not moving back, his
indecision trapped him and he remained precisely where he was. Frustrated as
hell.
Storming out of Daniel’s office, Vala rushed around the corner and then paused,
leaning against the wall to catch her breath. She moved to touch her bruised
and swollen lips, She had felt something in that kiss, she wasn’t sure what,
but there was definitely something there. More than just lust – she knew what
pure lust felt like. But she couldn’t believe his reaction, at least his verbal
one. It was ‘wrong’? What was wrong here was the fact that Daniel couldn’t seem
to wrap his head around the fact that she wanted him. And as far as she could tell, he wanted her, too. His words
might have said ‘wrong’ but his lips and eyes had said ‘right.’ That man was so
aggravating sometimes. For a renowned linguist, Daniel’s ability with words, at
least in her experience, left much to be desired. With one last frustrated
glare at the door of Daniel’s office, she turned and marched down the hallway,
shaking her head. Why couldn’t he ever just say what he meant?
**
The End **
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