Worth a Thousand Words
By: valaMD (scifi_tv_addict)
CATEGORY: Friendship, UST
SEASON/SPOILERS: Takes place a month or so after “Memento Mori”
WARNINGS: None
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://scifi-tv-addict.livejournal.com/
“We don’t have a lot of time, if we’re gonna do this, we have to go now,” Mitchell said with a determined look on his face. Daniel glanced back over his shoulder for what must have been the hundredth time, hoping to see Sam and Vala on their way back. He sighed when he realized that they weren’t coming.
“Let’s give them a few more minutes before we just abandon them,” Daniel suggested. As much as he’d hate to leave Sam and Vala alone, he had to think about what was best for the team, and right now, that might mean a full-scale retreat.
“We’ve already waited too long,” Cameron said as he glanced over Daniel’s shoulder nervously, “If we don’t go now we’ll damn well miss our chance.”
Daniel looked to Teal’c but could tell by the expression on his friend’s face that he was on the losing side of this battle. “I am afraid that I agree with Colonel Mitchell. I believe Vala Mal Doran and Colonel Carter are quite capable of taking care of themselves in our absence.”
Daniel could only nod his head in silence, indicating his reluctant agreement. All three men took one last look over their shoulders before making their escape in the opposite direction. Daniel hated to go, but he knew that it was the right decision…he only hoped that Vala and Sam would understand.
* * * *
Cowards, Sam thought to herself as she watched her three
team members make their hasty retreat. She fully expected this little coup from
“Ooh, this feels wonderful,” Sam heard Vala coo from behind her. She turned away from the window that looked out on the swarms of eager shoppers and rejoined her teammate and friend at the table she was currently fawning over.
“I bet this would keep me toasty on those chilly winter nights,” Vala said knowingly.
Sam raised an eyebrow, “Chilly winter nights?” she asked.
“Yes, ok, so I don’t actually get to experience them so much
as read about or see them on the television…which I happen to think is a
travesty. How am I supposed to learn about your world if I never get to see
what is beyond my television screen? There are only so many life lessons I can
learn from
Sam smiled but conceded that Vala had a point. Tonight’s excursion was one of the few occasions in which Vala had been allowed off the base in months. The last time she had ventured into their world, she had been kidnapped by a goa'uld and been missing for weeks. That didn’t exactly persuade Landry, or anyone else for that matter, to readily allow her off the base again.
Since returning, a noticeable crack had developed in Vala’s thick armor of good humor. While Sam attributed most of this to the weeks of amnesia, she also suspected that her issues were just as affected by the weeks following her safe return.
Vala wasn’t the only one to be changed by the previous month’s events, Daniel had been decidedly different since the kidnapping as well. She could tell that he was hesitant to let Vala leave the base without a fully armed escort, and no matter how hard she had begged him to take her out, he would never acquiesce. Sam suspected that he simply didn’t trust himself enough to protect her.
While Sam understood where Daniel was coming from, she could see that Vala did not. Since joining SG-1, Vala had had very little interaction with her team members, with the exception of Daniel. His apparent cold-shoulder was made all the more painful because it meant that she was confined to her bunk, watching reruns of “Gilligan’s Island” or reading whatever book Sam had managed to scrounge up for her.
It had taken all of Vala’s persuasive skills to convince Daniel and General Landry to allow her off the base this time. If Sam remembered correctly, Vala’s argument to General Landry had revolved primarily around guilt. After all, Vala was trying to change and grow as a human being, but how could she do that stuck in her “sardine can.”
Sam had to hand it to the woman, it made for a pretty persuasive argument. Saying “no” would be downright detrimental to Vala’s emotional and psychological development as a human being, her words, not Sam’s. In the end, Daniel and Landry had had little choice but to give in.
Given Daniel’s over protectiveness as of late, his decision to go with Teal’c and Mitchell was all the more surprising. It was either a testament to his trust in her or to his complete and utter loathing of the mall experience. She suspected that it was a combination of the two, with an emphasis on the latter. He may care about Vala, but he didn’t care enough to be subjected to hours upon hours of interrogation on the color of sweaters. Everyone had their breaking point, and deciding between periwinkle and sky blue was clearly Daniel’s.
At this point, the group had gone to practically every store in the mall and even Sam had to admit that she was getting tired. Although, despite her fatigue, she had to admit that Vala’s unbridled enthusiasm during the whole experience was endearing if not always entertaining.
It had been particularly funny when Vala had insisted upon
going into
Sam smiled, for a brief moment, Daniel had morphed back into that sweet, shy kid she had first met nearly ten years ago. If for nothing else, that made her glad that Vala was now a part of their team.
“Where are my boys?” Vala asked, interrupting Sam’s thoughts. “I need their help in deciding what jacket to buy.”
“Haven’t you tortured them enough?” Sam asked, a smile playing on her lips. She loved to see the guys tormented every once in awhile, as long as it was by a friend…and not too painful. Jack’s absence had definitely left a vacuum when it came to playful teasing, a vacuum that Vala was doing her best to fill.
“Nonsense, there’s no such thing as ‘too much’—unless of course I kill them, and I certainly don’t plan on doing that. Then who would help me pick out my clothes? Besides, this is the first time I’ve gotten off the base in months and I plan on taking full advantage of it,” she said self-satisfactorily.
“Keep it up,” Sam warned “and none of them will ever want to go out with you again.”
“Trust me, I know more than a little about the male psyche. All you have to do is push them until they’re about to break, then do something wonderfully considerate. That’ll be the only thing they’ll remember. It’s called the ‘recency effect’ or something.” Sam gave her a curious look, to which Vala defended “I learned it while studying for my psych evaluation,” she smiled. “That, and the leech has 32 brains.”
Vala walked on as Sam stood speechless, the woman had a tendency of doing that to people. “I say we find the boys, so we can get out of here…I’m getting a bit tired myself,” she said, as she stretched.
* * * *
After Vala spent what remained of her money, the two women headed out into the throng of shoppers. They walked towards the sporting goods store, assuming that’s where at least Mitchell would want to go first. They had barely walked a few feet inside before spotting their missing team members.
While
Vala sauntered up to him. “I’d go with the leather one…there’s something sexy about a man in leather.” This was sufficient enough to pull Daniel out of whatever revere he was currently lost in.
“Done shopping so soon?” he asked dryly.
“Well, I had wanted to go to the shoe store and pick up a pair of sexy little heels but…”
“Didn’t you already get a pair of shoes?” Daniel interrupted.
“I got a pair of walking shoes, yes, but I was talking about a pair of heels,” she said patiently, in a tone a mother would use when explaining something to a small child.
“A shoe’s a shoe, why do you need more than one pair?”
Vala just gave him a pitying look “You really don’t know much about women, do you Daniel?” He was about to defend himself when Mitchell interrupted him.
“Are you done now? Honestly, I don’t know how much one person can need.”
“Hey, I don’t know when I’ll get to go out like this again, so I plan on making the most if it,” she said defensively.
“You know, I’m learning so much about your world from this wonderful place. For all your primitive technology, you have come up with some amazing items. Just look at this new lipgloss I found. It’s called ‘Venom,’” she said as she pulled the make-up bag out of the many she was currently carrying. “It’s supposed to plump my lips up to…three times their normal size!” Vala exclaimed excitedly. “Can you tell?” she asked as she looked at the three men questioningly.
Mitchell was the first to speak up and utter an affirmative, if non-committal, “sure” while Teal’c just gave a slight nod and raised his eyebrow. Sam knew this could mean any number of things based on the observer’s interpretation. Vala was obviously choosing to see it as a good thing.
That left one more person; everybody turned their heads, anticipating Daniel’s response. Sam felt sorry for her friend, she knew he hated to lie but he was stuck in a tricky situation.
He was trapped. If Vala had asked him before purchasing the gloss, he would have told her what a ridiculous idea it was, how no lip-gloss could possibly increase the size of one’s lips by that much. But the damage was already done and he didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth now. She seemed so happy, like the answer to all of her problems lay in that little tube.
He had to admit that as annoying as Vala could be sometimes, her optimism and enthusiasm for even the most mundane things was endearing. There were, as much as it scared him, moments when Vala sparked something in him that he had long ago believed had died…and he didn’t want that feeling to go away. Because of all of this, he gave her the one response he knew she wanted.
“Yeah, they’re definitely…plumper,” he said with as much sincerity as he could muster. That seemed to make her happy. For all of his missteps, Daniel did know a few things about women.
After some further perusing in the athletic department, the five teammates decided to head back to the car. Mitchell paid for his running shorts, Teal’c paid for his set of typical tight workout shirts, and all five of them walked out of the store together.
* * * *
On their way to the parking garage, they passed a picture booth. “Ooh,” Vala cooed “who wants to do it with me?” she asked excitedly. It took her a moment to realize what she had just said. “But before we get to that, who wants to take a picture with me?”
When nobody spoke up, she tried her best to coax them into it. “Oh, come on. I’ve been here for nearly a year now and I still don’t have any pictures of us.” She looked at Daniel imploringly, but it was Teal’c who volunteered. Although she had hoped for Daniel, she was just as pleased to have her fellow non-Tau’ri join her.
If she had only seen Daniel’s face as she and Teal’c had entered the booth, she would have been more than a little pleased with herself.
After a few minutes, the two emerged. As everyone looked at the pictures, they had to laugh. Nine out of the ten pictures featured Vala all smiles with a stoic-looking Teal’c staring straight at the camera. It was the last picture, however, that had the team rolling on the floor. In it, Vala was doing one of her usual playful smiles, but this time, Teal’c was doing a smile so grandiose that it was equal parts comical and unnerving. Their two expressions combined made the picture look like a bad circus poster, or something out of a horror movie.
Their results only motivated Sam and Mitchell to enter the booth themselves. Although their shots proved less comical, they were still funny in a playful and cute sort of way. Spurred on by the fun they were all having, Teal’c dragged Mitchell and Sam back in and the three of them had a ball making funny faces at each other.
After about ten minutes, everyone had taken his or her picture with everyone else, with the exception of Daniel, who continued to remain aloof.
“Come on
Daniel wasn’t exactly warming to the idea of being stuck in that tiny booth with other people, despite his friends’ obvious enjoyment. But when Vala grabbed his hand, he was caught so off guard by her touch that he didn’t resist her when she dragged him into the booth.
Once inside, Daniel was all nerves. Being this close and confined to Vala was something he had been trying to avoid as much as possible for the past few weeks. He had almost lost her and was still carrying the memory with him everywhere he went. He refused to allow himself to get that close to her again. But there was little else he could do now, so after a few minutes of awkward closeness, the two exited the booth.
When their pictures were finally done, everybody gathered around eagerly to take a look. What they saw, however, wasn’t the hilarity that they’d all been expecting. Instead of the usual laughter, Sam, Mitchell, and Teal’c all looked down at the shots with wonder.
Three of the pictures showed a smiling Vala with an uncomfortable looking Daniel at her side. Those shots were followed by several featuring Daniel looking over at Vala, his expression filled with, what could only be described as, a mixture of emotions.
But it was the last picture that blew the three of them away; in it the two teammates were looking straight at one another. It definitely wasn’t a look shared between friends. Instead, their expressions revealed hints of desire, longing, and devotion. If there was any doubt in their minds about how these two felt about one other, it was certainly gone now.
Of course, the only two people who didn’t seem to see it were the two people involved. Vala complained about her hair while Daniel defended how he just didn’t photograph well. All three team members looked at them pityingly, regretting that two people who were so obviously in love couldn’t see it themselves, even when it was staring them straight in the face.
* * * *
After returning to the base, the team parted ways. Sam headed back to the lab while Teal’c went to watch the episode of “24” he had taped, with Mitchell tagging along. That left Daniel and Vala, who each decided to head to their respective quarters for the night.
After she had closed her door, Vala rifled through her shopping bags for one of the many items she had purchased that afternoon. She finally found the wooden picture frame Colonel Mitchell had given her money to buy as they were leaving the mall.
She then reached into her purse and pulled out the
collection of pictures the team had taken at the mall. Carefully and lovingly,
she placed them into their designated spots in the frame. She thought the goofy
pictures of
The picture of herself and Daniel looking at each other, she saved until last and placed in the center. Despite her comments to the team earlier, Vala was fully aware of what she was seeing. And while she wouldn’t act on anything, out of respect for Daniel, she smiled to herself knowing that despite his recent distance, her feelings didn’t go un-returned.
While she had claimed to everyone else that the trip to the mall was an opportunity to get off the base, she had an entirely different purpose in mind when she had approached General Landry and Daniel with the idea. Since joining SG-1, she had shared precious little time with her teammates outside of their missions, something that was made all the more clear during the past few weeks. From what she was able to glean from the dozen of teen movies she had watched recently, shopping was a strange kind of bonding experience here on Earth. Although, she had come to realize, it clearly worked better with women than with men.
For her, this frame represented the new life she was creating and the new relationships she was building. She knew that rough times were ahead, but for one day at least, she had truly felt like she was a part of something, part of a family…and that was enough to see her through, no matter what her daughter and the Ori threw at her.
** The End **
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