Five Ways Daniel Proposed to Vala by 6beforelunch

Five Ways Daniel Proposed to Vala

By: 6beforelunch

CATEGORY: Romance

SEASON/SPOILERS: Season 10 “Unending”.

WARNINGS: Character Death in # 4.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: Written for sg1_five_things. This is the revises version.

AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:

1. Publicly, not at all like he'd planned.

Doctor Jackson's lab was tucked away in a back hall of Atlantis, far away from the hub of the action. A little inconvenient sometimes, if they needed him right away for something, but Daniel had turned down every suggestion that they move him somewhere a little closer to the center of the city. He was here to do research, he said, not supervise the anthropologists. He figured any social scientist that would make the half mile trek to his office really needed to talk to him.

But the population of the city kept increasing, and Daniel wasn't so far off the beaten path anymore. Quite a few people heard the exchange.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Are you having an affair?"

"..."

"Of course you're not having an affair. I mean, really. What woman would have you?"

"Well...you."

"Yes, but I'm crazy. Everyone knows that."

"Good point."

"Why won't you tell me?"

"Vala..."

"Is it a present? It's a present, isn't it? For me?"

"Vala..."

"Of course, it's for me. Who else would you buy presents for? Is it jewelry?"

"Vala..."

"Comes in a little black box, so it must be jewelry. A necklace? No, too small. Earrings?" She gasped. "It's earrings! Diamond? No, not earrings, you bought me earrings last time you went to Earth. A ring?"

"It's..."

"A ring! It's a ring. The box is the right size. What kind of ring is it?"

"An engagement ring! It's an engagement ring, okay? Here! Look!"

"..."

"Well?"

"That's a nice ring. Looks expensive."

"It was. Well?"

"Well what?"

"Will. You. Marry. Me?"

"Oh! Oh, yes, of course I'll marry you, Daniel."

The small crowd that had gathered outside was cheering so loud that Daniel barely heard Vala, who had hopped up into his lap, ask, "What else did you bring me?"

2. Privately, exactly as he'd planned.

(Of course, it helped to remember that Daniel had spent over a decade on SG-1, and so his idea of going according to plan was a little more liberal than most people's.)

The secluded private booth at La Tavola had to be booked four months in advance and the entrees cost more than most people made in a day. Daniel had been planning this for five, and had sprung for a bottle of overpriced wine on top of the overpriced food.

Vala had taken advantage of the seclusion to kick her shoes off and put them in his lap. Daniel wrapped his hand around her ankle, tracing small circles with his thumb. Vala had finished most of the wine; she held out her glass for him, but Daniel shook his head. He already felt like he was going to throw up. More alcohol wouldn't help.

"So," Daniel said.

"So," Vala said.

Daniel picked at the remains of the antipasto.

"So."

Vala raised an eyebrow.

This had been so much easier the first time. Of course, the first time he hadn't actually had to do anything except sit there like an idiot and decide to let a scared woman sleep next to him to spare her a completely irrational societal chastisement. The falling in love part had come after and he'd thought that was the scary part.

This time he'd done the scary falling in love part only to find that this part was scary too.

At least he had the sitting there like an idiot part down pat.

"Um."

Vala tossed her head back and swallowed the last of the wine.

"So."

"Yes, Daniel, I'll marry you."

"Wait. I--what?"

"Give me a little credit, Daniel. I've watched a lot of TV, I know how these things go. The expensive dinner, the private booth, the way you keep touching your breast pocket."

Daniel touched his breast pocket. "I do not--" He looked at his hand. "Oh."

"If you were a mark, I'd know exactly where you were keeping your valuables." She glanced down. "The ones not attached, anyway."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Oh, well. Okay."

Vala pulled her feet out of his lap and leaned forward. "You're cute when you're flustered." She held out her hand, palm up. "Ring?"

Daniel took out the ring and turned her hand over. He slid it onto her finger where it sparkled at him far too meaningfully for an inanimate object. Yeah. Scary.

Vala kissed him, slow and soft.

And yet so worth it.

3. Privately, without really intending to.

Everyone came out to help them move. It was totally unnecessary to have six people around to move all of five boxes and a few pieces of furniture, but Daniel could hardly begrudge any of them the chance to have something to do. Anyway, it turned out that Sam had manufactured them a bigger bed, which was nice since the bed they had really wasn't meant for two people. Cameron got to complain about how heavy it was and Sam got to calculate the angles to move it up from the lab where she'd made it all the way to Daniel and Vala's new quarters. Never mind that they could have just used the beaming technology to move it. Where was the fun in that?

After they'd put everything back together, they sat around and drank wine and talked, and for a while they were just a bunch of regular people doing normal things.

Sam talked about moving bulkheads to give them more room and no one talked about the kids they would never have to take up the extra room.

After a while, Sam left with Teal'c and Cam got that edgy look that meant he was going to go pound a punching bag until he collapsed.

Landry looked around the room slowly. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Daniel said.

Landry looked at his feet, looked at them, and Daniel knew he was seeing the daughter he might never see again, might never get to help move, when he looked at Vala. Daniel wanted to say something to make it better but there was nothing to say because it wasn't better.

"Have a good night."

"You too," Vala said.

When they were alone, Daniel wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. He'd thought maybe she might cry, but he was surprised to feel his own eyes start to burn.

"We should do things like that more often," Vala said.

"Move?"

"Why not? I'm thinking I don't like the view in this room. The endless black is so much more interesting two levels up, don't you think?"

Daniel smiled. "We could have a wedding."

Vala went still in his arms and Daniel realized what he'd said. He also realized he didn't want to take it back.

"Someone told me once," he said, "everyone loves a wedding."

"I could wear a puffy purple dress."

"Purple?"

"I'm not going to adopt all of your culture's traditions, Daniel."

"Oh."

"Sam and I could design dresses. Teal'c could be the best man. I'll bet General Landry would get a kick out of performing the ceremony. I'll let Cameron be a bridesmaid." Daniel laughed and pulled her closer. She smelled sweaty from moving.

Vala kissed his neck. "You really want to?"

"Yes, I do."

She grinned and started to pull away. "I'm going to go tell Sam."

Daniel pulled her back. "Later."

"Oh? Oh. Later."

It was much, much later before Vala got around to telling Sam.

4. He didn't, he never got the chance.

"Hurts."

"Sorry," Vala said. She pressed down and Daniel half-screamed. There was blood on her hands, and under him, staining the sand.

"Really hurts."

"Sam! Sam, I need you over here!"

"Just once I'd like a painless death. Is that so much to ask?"

"You aren't going to die."

Daniel closed his eyes. Vala slapped him. She smeared blood on his face. Her hands were covered in it. "Hey. You aren't going to die. You don't get to die. Sam!"

The sound of gunfire and staff weapons echoed off of the ocean. Daniel opened his eyes and looked at her.

"I want you to know..."

"Shut up. Just shut up. You can tell me later." So much blood. "Sam, please! Hurry."

"I want you to know that this...this thing we have. Had."

"Have, damn you. Have. Are going to have for a long time."

"This thing we have. It means a lot to me. And I...I know it's silly and we've only...it's only been a few weeks since we really...but sometimes I thought about how nice it would be...to be married again."

Vala closed her eyes. She couldn't take her hands away from the wound long enough to brush the tears off of her face.

"I would have liked to be married to you."

"Daniel, shut up."

"Tired."

"No. No. No. Stop it. Sam!"

The gunfire stopped.

"I'm coming," Vala heard Sam yell. "Coming!"

Daniel closed his eyes. Sam came with the med kit. Cameron came. Teal'c came. They tried. It wasn't enough.

Daniel died on a white sandy beach overlooking a sparkling ocean under a clear sky.

It would have been a beautiful day for a wedding.

5. He didn't, Vala asked first.

Something was up. Daniel didn't know what. Frankly, he was a little scared to find out. Which was why, when Sam came into his office and told him there was cake in the commissary, he begged off. He was thinking he was much better off staying in his office today. Nothing bad ever happened when you were brushing up on Ancient case endings.

Well, unless you were brushing up on Ancient case endings off-world and came under attack. But that was neither here nor there.

Mitchell came next. "Cake, Jackson."

"I'm good, thanks."

Mitchell stood in the doorway. "It's chocolate."

"I'm on a diet." Technically true. Doctor Lam had raised an eyebrow at him during his last physical and suggested that between hitting his mid-forties and retiring from active gate duty, it might be time to re-think his eating habits.

"So don't eat any. Just come see it."

Okay, something was definitely up.

"Why would I want to look at a cake I can't eat?"

Mitchell shrugged.

"I don't want any cake, Mitchell."

"Coffee, then."

Daniel resisted the urge to bang his head against the workbench. "Go away or I will tell you about the new catalog of early Indo-European words derived from Goa'uld."

Mitchell left. The phone rang.

"Daniel!" Okay, that sounded creepily excited.

"Jack."

"Sorry I couldn't make it."

"Make it to what?"

"..."

"Jack?"

"Cake?"

"What about cake?"

Long silence on the other end. "Don't tell Sam about this, she'll kill me."

"About what?" Daniel asked, but he was talking to a dial tone. Daniel looked at the phone. Maybe he could convince General Landry that he absolutely had to go visit the Nox, right now. Or better yet Chaka. Chaka liked him. Chaka would let him hide in his cave for the next year or so.

Teal'c came next. "I wish to eat cake."

Why me?

"And I'm stopping you?"

"Indeed you are. Come."

Daniel looked at Teal'c. Teal'c gazed at him quietly. It took a special sort of will to stare down Teal'c, but Daniel had faced down aliens, presidents, generals, and ascended beings. Of course, none of them had mastered the art of the eyebrow like Teal'c had. Daniel went.

There was indeed cake in the commissary. There was also Vala in the commissary, sitting on the table next to the cake. And Sam. And a largish collection of SGC personnel all staring at him. It was a little creepy. He should have trusted his first instinct and gone to hide among the Unas.

"Finally," Vala said, hopping off the table. "I baked you a cake."

At this point, if someone came up and asked him if he wanted cake or death, he was going to have to go with death.

"You bake?" Daniel asked.

"Of course I bake, Daniel. What do you think I ate when I was in the Ori galaxy?"

"Ah."

"I helped," Sam said added brightly.

Vala looked at her.

"Well," Sam amended, "I let her use my oven."

"When I asked you to put the it on four-fifty, you told me it didn't go up that high," Vala said.

"I thought you meant Celsius."

Vala gave him a what-can-you-do? look. Daniel shrugged.

"Daniel," Mitchell said. "Look at the cake."

Daniel looked at the cake. It was a simple sheet cake, frosted in chocolate, with Ancient writing emblazoned in green icing. Daniel blinked.

"Um."

"Well?" Vala asked.

"What does that say?"

"You're the Ancient expert, you tell us," Mitchell said.

Daniel cleared his throat. "Judging god..."

"Oh," Vala said. "We couldn't find the ancient version of 'Daniel' so we tried a direct translation."

"'God is my judge'? You need to use the nominative case of 'god' which would be..."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Just keep reading."

Daniel sighed. "To be...you are...will join to...partnership with I...What?!"

"Oh for crying out loud," Vala said and Daniel was never letting her go fishing with Jack again. Ever. "It says, 'Will you marry me?' It says, 'Daniel, will you marry me?' It's not that hard."

"Oh," Daniel said. He picked a napkin up off the table and dug a pen out of his pocket and started to write. "That would be..." He stopped. Looked up.

Mitchell was shaking his head. Sam was trying very hard not to smile. Teal'c had pulled out the eyebrow of doom again.

"Oh."

Vala chewed her lip, looking vulnerable in a way she rarely let anyone see.

"Oh. Um. Well, yes," Daniel said.

Vala brightened and gave him a huge grin. "Oh good," she said, sounding slightly breathless. "This was going to be a very awkward party if you'd said no."

Daniel looked at Sam. "Who bakes at four hundred and fifty degrees Celsius?"

"Just shut up and kiss your girlfriend."

So he did.

** The End **

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