Won’t Ever Let Go
By: dvshipper
CATEGORY: Drama
WARNINGS: None
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Thanks to taraleesg1 THE most awesome beta in two galaxies!
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://dvshipper.livejournal.com/
This mission gets officially categorized as ridiculous, at least according to Vala. Who cares if the subzero temperatures changed naquada into this new awesome…stuff. The SGC could have sent another SG team, but no. SG-1 had to be assigned to freeze their asses off. It was kind of funny seeing Daniel in the huge puffy jacket though.
However, there was one thing that really irked Vala. Having
to get up in the early morning and go outside to the ‘box’ to use the bathroom.
Someone had told her (
This morning though, Vala had been half (okay, three quarters) asleep when nature called. Too groggy to think about what she was wearing, she quickly made her way there and back in just her sweats. When she got back into the team’s ‘hut’ that was pretty warm, she figured she’d just hop back into her sleeping bag and warm right up. Wrong.
Daniel was sound asleep beneath Vala’s top bunk dreaming something quite wonderful about one of those dreaded (by other team members at least) ‘aliens made us do it’ scenarios. A sense of urgency invaded his slumber; clearly something was out of place. Waking up, curiosity got him out of bed to check on Vala. Peeking over the edge of the bunk, the sight of Vala surprised him.
Curled up in a little ball of gray fabric with the sleeping bag all bunched up around her, Vala was perfectly still but something was absolutely wrong. Daniel reached up and gently brushed a piece of hair from her face revealing gritted teeth partially hidden behind pale lips. It was eighty-five degrees in here, there’s no reason she should be cold. Letting his hand linger, Daniel carefully put the back of his hand against Vala’s cheek. Something had definitely happened.
“Vala? Vala! You need to wake up and tell me what’s wrong,” Daniel whispered loud enough to rouse Vala, but quiet enough as to not wake the rest of the team. Vala’s expression only changed slightly. Either she was sleeping or just didn’t want to move. “Vala, did you go outside without your gear?”
Vala nodded her head slightly, letting Daniel know that she had clearly made a mistake. “Okay, Vala, I need you to remember how long you were exposed to the cold. Was it more than four minutes?” Daniel asked the still form in front of him. The survival briefing was starting to flash through his mind. If Vala had hypothermia, he’d need to take action.
“A f-few min-nutes,” Vala tried to reply but was having difficulty moving her lips. This wasn’t just being really cold, that she’d felt. Her very core felt cool and that was something completely alien to her. Daniel started to talk again and Vala realized if ever there was a time to listen to him, this was it.
“Vala, there’s no time to remind you or explain, I just have to do what needs to be done. Okay?” Daniel asked and got another slight nod from Vala, sending him into immediate action. Before unzipping the sleeping bag she was in, Daniel poured part of the water on the stove that was humidifying the hut into a water bottle. Then he grabbed a dry hat from rack by the door, thanking whatever god was real for that survival briefing. After putting the water bottle in the sleeping bag with Vala, Daniel quickly but gently lifted her head enough to put the hat on her that would hopefully keep her from losing what heat she had left in her.
Taking the next step in what he’d been told to do, Daniel stripped down to his boxers. With Vala already in the sleeping bag, there wasn’t any way he was going to get all her clothes off so he’d just have to manage to get enough skin to skin contact to get her warm. Climbing up into the bunk and the sleeping bag, Daniel did his best to get her socks off with his toes so that there wouldn’t be anything restricting her blood flow. Cradling her in his arms with his hands rubbing her back beneath her shirt, the thoughts that had been blocked by immediacy started to trickle through his mind. That trickling had to be stopped though because Vala still wasn’t very responsive.
“Vala, you’ve got to help me get you warm, okay? Just lift up your butt for a second, can you do that?” Daniel asked, not getting an answer, but instead Vala lifted up her middle with her feet. Quickly, before her strength gave out, Daniel pulled down the sweats she was wearing and scrunched them into the bottom of the sleeping bag. Hoping it would warm her faster, he wrapped his legs around and in between Vala’s. He could feel her shallow breath on his chest and it was breaking his heart.
Going through the motions, probably number than Vala was, Daniel’s mind started to fail in combating those thoughts that were trying to come through. It wasn’t the fact that he was closer to Vala than he’d been before, with a hell of a lot more skin exposed, but the more somber thoughts. What if she didn’t start shivering? What if he wasn’t doing enough? Even the thing he dreaded most began passing through Daniel’s mind, leaving unwelcome tracks.
Time lost its hold as Vala was deep within her mind. She was aware of what was going on, but it was like looking through a rippled glass window. The basics of the situation got through to her but not the details. People always said that when something horrible happened to you, your life flashed before your eyes. That wasn’t happening though. Maybe the situation wasn’t dire enough, but Vala knew that wasn’t true. The past wasn’t really that important to her and for some reason Vala had the inkling that things were going to be okay, whatever the outcome.
Daniel became a little more relaxed when Vala began to move ever so slightly. Teeth began chattering and eyes opened. Those two events cause Daniel to breathe a heavy sigh of relief onto Vala’s shoulder. The paths that were left by the crazy thoughts of horrible turns of events soon became overrun with concern for Vala, the healthy concern that had him smiling. Words didn’t need to be spoken as Daniel offered her the water bottle that was in the sleeping bag. Vala took a few sips of the warm water and got back that sparkle in her eyes that let him know everything was going to be just fine, eventually.
Vala couldn’t help herself, and her emotions took over for her. A tear slipped past her thick eyelashes and she wrapped her arms around Daniel, thankful for what he had done. For some reason, they always seemed to wake up from ‘death’ in each other’s arms. Maybe that should be telling them both something. However, at that moment it wasn’t about the medical attention she’d need afterward, the questions from teammates about why she did what could have killed her, or why Daniel didn’t wake the team. The moment was only about how poetic it was that Daniel saved Vala with his own body. The message wasn’t delivered through words or eyes, but with tiny twitches of fingers and the light tightening of arms and legs around each other. How could something so frightening and unlikely not bind two people?
** The End **
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