By: AvitarGirl
CATEGORY: Romance, General
WARNINGS: None
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Inspired by the gals at the D/V Forum. Thanks to JediMaster891 for the Beta Read!
This starts out funny but doesn’t really stay that way. Gets sorta angsty. And then sort fluffly.
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://www.geocities.com/JediLeia172/Arica.htm
Daniel Jackson stared into the mirror, looking at the reflection of the mark on his shoulder. A bright red heart with words written into it, it looked like. A tattoo, one that he definitely hadn’t agreed to get.
Now it wasn’t that Daniel had anything against tattoos, they just weren’t his style; and this one was definitely not his style.
“Darling, what are you staring at?” the voice of Vala Mal Doran called in an almost cat-like manner. She walked up behind him and snaked her arms around his neck, leaning down to read what he was so intent on staring at.
“Warning: Do Not Touch! Property of Vala Mal Doran!” Daniel read in a fierce, stiff tone.
“Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” Vala said, attempting to kiss his neck.
Daniel pulled away. “Vala, I am not, and I repeat, NOT, your property!”
“That’s only because you still won’t admit that you love me, Daniel,” Vala explained in her own odd little way. “I had to do something while I was in control of your body. Just be glad it wasn’t something far worse.”
Daniel thought for a moment. Yeah it could have been worse, he told himself, far worse.
“Besides, I don’t need any other women around this base or any other planets causing me trouble.”
Daniel continued to glare at her.
“Mitchell wanted to see you,” Vala said quickly, attempting to make it out of the room before Daniel could scold her again… But she was too slow.
“What makes you think I want to be ‘your Daniel,’ hmm?” he asked. “What if I have a girlfriend? Say it was Sam?”
“Oh, please, Daniel! I’ll have you know Carter and I have gotten to be quite good friends since I’ve been back and I have to say that, although she does find you attractive, it’s more in a brother sort of way.”
Daniel’s hands became fists and he shook with anger before walking quickly out of the room.
“Hey,
“Vala said that you wanted to talk to me about something?” Daniel said, slightly irritated.
“Yeah I did,”
Great job, Danny boy, you forgot to put your BDU jacket back on, Daniel thought to himself.
“Nothing,” Daniel said quickly, putting a hand over the tattoo.
“Property of Vala Mal Doran?” Cam asked with a smirk.
Daniel closed his eyes, fighting the sudden urge to punch the lieutenant colonel. “Apparently, while Vala had control of my body, she felt she had to make it clear I was hers.”
“Oh, so the whole girlfriend thing is official?” Cam asked, slapping him on the back.
“No!” Daniel protested. “I didn’t agree to this or being her…her boyfriend.”
Cam tried not to laugh. “Yeah okay, well, whatever. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I thought you had something important to tell me?”
“Nope, not really, just was asking if you wanted to join me and Teal’c for a game of basketball,” Cam said walking away.
Daniel thought a moment. Better to take the anger out in the game, Jackson. “Yeah, I think I’ll join you guys.”
“Alright, we’ll be waiting,” Cam called.
“Hey, Sam,” Vala greeted, entering Samantha Carter’s lab.
Sam looked up from her work and smiled. “Hey, Vala. What’s up?”
“Oh, the usual,” she replied, plopping in the seat beside Sam. “Daniel’s mad at me again. As if he’s ever not mad at me.”
Sam made a face. Now what did she do? “Why? What’s wrong?”
Vala scrunched up her nose. “Well it took him a few weeks but he finally found out about the tattoo I gave him.”
“He just found out?” Sam said, face openly registering surprise. “Are you saying that he hasn’t noticed it since you’ve been back?”
“Well I did do a pretty good job of keeping him busy for the first few days,” Vala said with a smirk. “And I can’t help it if the man is always wearing long sleeves and dresses in the dark.”
Opening her mouth to ask about that, Sam thought better of it and shook her head. “I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”
“I should know,” Vala said, tossing her hair and smiling. “I’m his girlfriend.”
“Not according to him,” Sam informed her. “He likes you but he won’t admit that he loves you.”
Vala stood and raised her hands up. “Thank you!” she said loudly. “Someone who believes that he really does have feelings for me.”
“Do you have feelings for him?” Sam asked.
Vala looked at her surprised. “I’m shocked you asked me that! Of course I do! Do you think I’d be hanging around here and joining SG-1 because I like this base? I’m in love with Daniel. I have been ever since I first saw him on the Prometheus. Granted I didn’t really know him then, but still, I do truly care about him.”
Sam smiled and thought for a moment. “Maybe you should talk to him. Tell him that you really do care about him,” she advised.
“What if he doesn’t feel the way that I do?” Vala asked seriously.
“I’ve known Daniel for a long time now. He was hurt a good number of times in the past, but I doubt that he could honestly say that he doesn’t care about you.”
Vala stared off at the blinking lights in Sam’s office. “Yesterday we had our first real, serious conversation,” she said, looking down at the desk. “He told me about Sha’re and his friend Sarah, both taken as hosts to the Goa’uld.”
“And?” Sam said.
“I was going to ask him if he would have tried to save me from the Goa’uld, had he known me back then.”
Sam looked at her with concern. “Why didn’t you?”
Vala smiled slightly. “I’m not one to show my true feelings that much, Sam. I tell you things because you’re my friend. Daniel wouldn’t believe me to be serious about that.”
Sam sighed. “Okay, this is what I want you to do.”
Standing up, Vala tossed a mock salute at Sam. “Yes ma’me.”
Sam smiled. “I want you to go and talk to Daniel. Tell him what you told me about the whole Goa’uld thing and that you care about him. If he doesn’t believe you, send him here to talk to me, and I’ll teach him level three hand-to-hand combat like he’s never seen it before!”
Vala smiled. “I’ll do my best!” With that, Vala skipped off to find Daniel.
Vala found him in the exercise room playing basketball with Teal’c and Cameron. It was currently Cameron and Daniel against Teal’c. Vala waited until they took notice of her presence to say anything.
“Hey, Vala!” Cameron was the first to see her. “Wanna play?”
Vala felt herself getting nervous. “No, thank you, I need to speak with Daniel for a little while.”
Daniel noticed her after Cameron and tossed the basketball to Teal’c. He grabbed his glasses and a towel, then walked over to Vala. He noticed an almost shy, sad look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked gently.
“Daniel,” Vala said, crossing her arms in front of her. “Can we go someplace where we can talk?”
“Vala,” he said warningly. “What do you mean by ‘talk’?”
She made a slightly irritated face. “Conversation? Dialogue? Get you mind out of the gutter!”
Daniel noticed the hurt look on her face. Since when does Vala honestly look like she’s going to cry? He thought. Well, there was that one time…
“Please, Daniel,” she said quietly. “I really need to talk to you. It’s important.”
Daniel nodded. “Alright, we’ll go to my office.”
“I had a long conversation with Sam today,” Vala started. “Mostly about you.”
Daniel was leaning against the side of his desk, arms crossed over his chest. He was trying to pay attention, but Vala kept walking around the room, pacing.
“She said that I have some things that I need to say to you.”
“Like what?” Daniel asked.
“Well, I had a question for you the other day that I didn’t ask. I feel that I need to ask it now.” He’s not making this easy for me, she thought to herself.
“Vala will you please stop pacing? It’s distracting,” he muttered. “Ask your question.”
Vala stood in front of him and looked him directly in the eye. “Would you, had you known me years ago, have tried to save me from the Goa’uld?”
Daniel looked at her, now genuinely concerned. “Why are you asking me this? What’s wrong?”
Vala closed her eyes. “Please, Daniel, just answer the question. Would you or wouldn’t you?”
“Look at me,” Daniel said.
Vala opened her eyes, reluctantly. Daniel put his hands on her arms, real concern in his eyes. “Yes, had I known you I would have tried to save you from the Goa’uld.”
Vala sniffed a little and nodded. “That’s good.”
“What’s wrong with you today?” Daniel asked gently. “I’m sorry, Vala, but you’re not exactly yourself.”
“Sam said that I should try to talk to you. I don’t think that you’re going to believe anything I say. You never do.” She started pacing again.
“Talk to me about what? Vala, you’re never serious, how am I supposed to know when you are being serious?”
Vala sighed and rolled her eyes. “I have been serious, Daniel. That’s one thing that I have been. I may have my own ways of being serious, but I have been serious in the past.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry,” he said gently. “What was it that you wanted to tell me?”
Vala felt a few tears enter her eyes. “The mood isn’t right,” she muttered.
Daniel heard the tears in her voice. “Are you crying?”
Vala nodded.
God, why does she keep this bottled up inside? Daniel sighed and walked over to where she stood, pulling her close into a hug. “Vala you need to tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll be here for you.” He glanced at his arm. “After all, aren’t I the ‘Property of Vala Mal Doran’?”
Vala felt herself smile a little. God, one minute he makes me cry, then the next I’m laughing. She pulled away and looked into his blue eyes. “Don’t laugh at me when I say this okay?” she warned.
Daniel nodded. “Okay.”
Vala bit her lip and silently prayed that this paid off. “I have to tell you the real reason behind everything I’ve done for the past few weeks, including the tattoo.”
“Okay.”
“Daniel, I don’t really know how to say this, but, I truly do care very deeply for you. All my flirting and the tattoo is just easier then flat out saying that…” Say it Vala, she told herself. “That I love you.”
Daniel was deeply surprised by this. “Umm… Wow! Okay…”
Vala sighed and turned away. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”
Daniel grabbed her arm. “Vala, wait!”
She turned around but kept her eyes away from him.
“I love you too,” he said. “It’s just I haven’t said that to a woman that I truly cared about since my wife died…even though that was about six or seven years ago now.”
Vala nodded. “I understand.” She still kept her eyes averted.
Daniel lifted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. He slowly leaned down and kissed her. I got him, Vala thought excitedly. I can’t wait to tell Sam.
“So,” Vala asked when they parted. “Are you going to keep the tattoo?”
Daniel’s smile turned into a smirk. “Costs too much to get rid of it, so I might as well.”
** The End **
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