Where the White Rabbit Leads
By: dvshipper
CATEGORY: Drama
WARNINGS: Some drug use (alien and accidental)
AUTHOR’S NOTES: For grooviekittie over at the daniel_vala ficathon. Thanks to taraleesg1 for being an awesome beta on this one, as always. Any mistakes are completely my fault. This idea was fed by episodes of Season 3 of Farscape, White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane, and much chocolate.
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://dvshipper.livejournal.com/
P3X-487 was a simple planet that seemed similar to
At the center of the village they encountered an outdoor market. There were people going about their daily business, perhaps more than usual considering it was a bright and sunny day. SG-1 split up to explore the booths selling fabric, spices, and everything else. Sam and Teal’c went off to look at some piece of tech sitting on a seller’s table, leaving Cameron, Daniel, and Vala to shop the more curious items of the market.
As the three walked down the center of the row of booths, sellers called out their wares and tried to persuade them of the quality and price. The smells of roasting chicken and fresh bread hung in the air as they looked through odd vegetables, wood carvings and bottles that boasted to cure various ills. The booth of a fortune teller came into view which made Daniel’s curiosity flare.
Cameron and Vala seemed weary of the old woman sitting on
the small wooden stool, who was staring at Daniel. “You go ahead,
“Sure,” Vala replied to the colonel at her side. She wanted to tell Daniel to be careful but couldn’t get her lips to say the words. Sure he had been told that plenty before, the last thing Vala wanted to do was annoy Daniel if she couldn’t get a rise out of him. Led by Cameron, Vala walked down the dirt path towards the end of the market hoping Daniel wouldn’t get into any trouble. When did Daniel ever avoid trouble? Vala smiled to herself at the thought.
* * * *
Daniel sat down in front of the gray-haired woman, curious as to what her ritual would be. If her method was somehow technology related, it could prove useful in the future. “You have a matter that troubles you, child,” the mystic paused, as if waiting for a response from Daniel.
“Yes,” he stated simply, not wanting to give her too much information to work with.
“It is a woman that is causing your heart to be split.” Daniel nodded. “You cannot decide between reason and emotion. Reason tells you that you shouldn’t but emotion tells you to continue. It is also your past combined with hers that has you worried. You can’t lose her like you lost your previous love.”
“You’re right,” Daniel admitted, getting a little caught up in what she was telling him. On one hand it was very accurate but on the other it was a little vague. The woman reached behind her to a small table full of ceramic jars. Picking up a dark red one, she took off the cork lid.
“Here, take this. It will free your mind so that you may see the path which you must take.” A slender, wrinkled hand offered him the jar. Daniel must have looked confused because she motioned that he was to sniff the powder. Of course he was hesitant but something in his gut told him it was the right thing to do. With that decision made, Daniel slowly put his nose just inside the jar and sniffed, getting a considerable snort of the powder.
Immediately, Daniel felt reality start to blur around him. The thought that this was simply a recreational drug flitted across his mind before being washed out by the oncoming wave of…what was it? Giddiness? Now feeling very grateful for the gypsy’s help, Daniel paid her with two power bars from his vest and stumbled out the front of the cloth covered booth. People walking past seemed as if they were smeared, like slow motion almost. The sounds of shouting and horses were much louder than before and rushed into Daniel’s ears with force. He knew something was a little off, but Daniel just laughed at the whole situation. However, things were clearer, even if his vision wasn’t. Daniel needed to find Vala.
* * * *
“How do you think
“Probably getting into some manner of trouble,” Vala half joked, knowing it was most likely true. For some reason that she couldn’t explain, Vala was worried for Daniel. Normally off world she knew he could take care of himself but today seemed different. The pit of her stomach was telling her that something was going to go wrong. Not anything like impending death but certainly something the rest of the team would need to bail Daniel out of.
* * * *
Daniel was stumbling down the street getting more than a few looks when he spotted someone that looked familiar. A smear of dark, long hair and black fabric appeared in front of a booth. Daniel smirked, figuring out a plan to show the raven haired beauty how he felt. Staggering toward the woman, he brought his arms in front of him to wrap around her waist. The absence of a P-90 in the front of the woman only crossed Daniel’s mind briefly. “Hey, beautiful. I need to tell you something,” Daniel whispered into her ear.
* * * *
Sam and Teal’c were bartering to get a small decorative box
that was giving off anomalous energy readings when they heard a commotion
around the corner. It was then that Cameron and Vala joined them from another
vendor with confused looks, having heard the noises themselves. A very familiar
‘GET OFF OF ME!’ reached the team’s ears. Vala looked at
“Was that?” Sam asked Teal’c hesitantly. Teal’c nodded in his usual stoic manner and the team started to move, hands on guns, towards the ruckus. The backs of what appeared to be authorities came into view. They were struggling with someone SG-1 couldn’t quite see yet. A very distraught woman was standing on the edge of the event being comforted by another who seemed to be a friend.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Daniel questioned rather loudly, being led off in handcuffs. In all likelihood he could have taken them on, but considering he could only see them as smears of color it was a little difficult. Not that getting arrested off world was anything new, but to Daniel’s mind which was flying quite high at the moment it just wasn’t fair.
“Hold on there, lawman. What’s the problem here?”
“He has assaulted this woman. Imprisonment is the rightful punishment,” the man responded, struggling to keep Daniel under control. Handcuffs often were reason enough for a man to accept his punishment and settle down in the local’s experience. This time however, all the restraints did were make the assailant more violent.
“What happened?” Sam asked, the question feeling more familiar on her lips with every mission.
“Nothing! A simple case of mistaken identity,” Daniel tried to explain. He could make out the wall of black that his teammates made with their uniforms. Whatever that powder was must have been wearing off because his vision was clearing slightly and the giddiness was now gone. The loss of the happy feeling however could probably be attributed to being arrested.
“You mean somebody else did something and now you’re being blamed?” Vala asked, trying to gain some kind of information as to what was happening. Daniel seemed different, like he wasn’t quite thinking clearly. The odd thing was though he had the most loving expression when he looked at her.
“Let me go, I need to talk to her,” Daniel struggled, trying to get closer to Vala. He made it a couple steps before being stopped with a quick tug at his wrists. “I thought she was you,” Daniel told Vala with a grin that was definitely unusual for him.
“So you assaulted her?”
“No, I just hugged her. I was try—“ Daniel was stopped short by the man holding him by the arms, which were firmly behind his back.
“You can tell them all about it when you’re locked up,” the man restraining Daniel pulled him away toward what must have been the prison. Normally, SG-1 would have stopped Daniel from being taken away but they knew that whatever he did was probably not with a clear mind. So they followed and met Daniel in prison, an event that was not entirely unusual after so many years. In all that time, Daniel had made a habit of having a pretty good reason and/or excuse for being arrested. Hopefully this time would be the same.
* * * *
Daniel moaned from his cell which was made of steel bars that were starting to corrode and thick wood beams. The effects of the gypsy’s powder had definitely worn off and left him with the headache of centuries. “I don’t know what was wrong with me,” Daniel lied. “I just thought the woman was Vala and wrapped my arms around her. She screamed, and then the police came and arrested me. They take that stuff very seriously apparently.”
“Okay, so sort of mistaken identity,” Cameron tried to work the story out in his mind. What would make Daniel do that? Some kind of magnetic field maybe, but Sam wasn’t picking anything up. The food? The water? Hell, maybe a bug got up his nose.
“Well, if you did actually do that, there’s nothing we can really do. It’s not like you’re completely innocent,” Sam said trying to suppress a chuckle. Usually the alien women fell in love with Daniel, not have him arrested.
“Oh, great, thanks,” Daniel replied with the well taught sarcasm of Jack O’Neill. Looking around at the team standing in front of his cell he couldn’t help but notice that someone was missing: Vala. “Hey, where’d Vala go?”
“Uh, I don’t know actually,” Sam said, looking around her for the fifth member of SG-1. A missing Vala was never usually a good thing. “I’ll go find her.”
* * * *
“Thank you very much,” Vala told the jailer, who then reached for the ring of keys hung on a peg next to his chair. By explaining to him that Daniel was going insane and couldn’t help his actions, the surly man agreed to let Daniel out. Well, that and a little persuasion that was Vala’s trademark.
The jailer passed Sam as she made her way toward Vala. “What’s he doing?” Sam asked, curious as to what Vala had been doing in her absence.
“Letting Daniel go,” Vala replied simply like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Pushing politely past Sam, Vala followed the giant of a man back to Daniel’s cell, which the others were standing in front of. Cameron and Teal’c gave her a confused look when the cell door opened and Daniel stepped out. Vala however, felt pretty good that she had actually saved Daniel’s ass instead of the other way around.
“So I can go?” Daniel asked the jailer in disbelief, thinking it may be some cruel trick. The pounding in his head however didn’t leave much thought. Vala gave him a loving look that may have had a hint of a smirk in it. Daniel didn’t even want to know what she had done to get him out. Then again, at this point he didn’t really care. All Daniel wanted to do was get to the infirmary and his hands on some painkillers.
“You’re free to go, sir,” the man looked even taller standing next to Teal’c and not many people did. The team gathered their gear, which they had set on the floor, and headed out of the jail into the warm sunlight of the planet.
* * * *
People were still bustling about as SG-1 moved toward the gate that was about a klick from the town. Cameron took point and Teal’c brought up the rear along with Sam, leaving Daniel and Vala in the middle with an awkward silence their companion. “So, um…” they both started at the same time. “You go first,” Daniel told Vala with a smile.
“Why did you hug that woman in the marketplace?” Vala asked, her eyes trained on the ground in front of her feet. An honest answer frightened her, but what scared her more was that Daniel wouldn’t give her one.
“Well, A: I was high on some weird drug from that fortuneteller and B: I thought she was you,” Daniel explained, hoping he wasn’t sounding like an idiot. Vala didn’t always take honesty well.
“And why would you want to hug me?” Vala had trouble holding back her smirk, not wanting to fully give away her happiness that Daniel wanted to be closer to her. A thought crossed her mind however, that Daniel may have just done it because he was up on some drug. Unfortunately that was a real possibility.
Daniel stopped at Vala’s words, knowing there was a playful nature about them that let him know she was accepting of his feelings. Grabbing Vala’s hand with his, Daniel pulled her closer to look her in the eye. “So I could tell you that if I wasn’t suffering the after-effects of some crazy alien drug, I would take you out to dinner tonight,” Daniel told Vala with a smile, at which she squealed.
“Really?” Vala asked, already knowing the answer. Daniel nodded his head, which made Vala’s smile beam brightly.
“
** The End **
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