Taking One for the Team
Older Kids
Gen, Challenge, Drabble, Friendship, Humor, Team
Episodes: Season Ten, after "Memento Mori"
Warnings: None
Synopsis: Days of Our Lives #3 - Team Building (bonus words "canoodling" and "flibbertigibbet"). Vala tries to make up for an error on her part; sequel to "Keeping Watch".
Notes: Intended to be gen, but Vala is Vala...
Word Count: 700
Status: Completed September 22, 2009
Taking One for the Team
It was all her fault. No, really, it was.
Vala thought she was doing the right thing by the team when she volunteered to guard Daniel while he snooped around in one of those rickety old ruins he loved so much. Samantha couldn't do it because she had mineral samples to collect, and Teal'c had already volunteered himself to help her. (Vala suspected they wanted some time alone for a little canoodling, though she wisely kept that to herself.) She wouldn't mind a little canoodling of her own with a certain archaeologist, but since he'd made his objections quite vehemently known a number of times, she'd take whatever she could get, which in this case meant guard duty.
So Vala graciously took one for the team, and followed her charge into the obviously unstable structure. Although Cameron had often accused the former thief of being a "flibbertigibbet" (which confused her, at first, since she thought it had something to do with singing nuns and a girl named Maria), Vala was more than capable of focusing on a single task for an extended period, and set about making herself an inconspicuous observer while Daniel worked. Unfortunately, at some point, she became so engrossed in her sworn duty to watch him, she quite forgot where she was, and relaxed against a nearby wall.
The wall shifted, the ceiling shivered, and a big ol' brick came straight down on top of Daniel's unprotected noggin. Oops.
Okay, so giving her teammate a concussion wasn't one of her smarter moves, but what Vala didn't realize until a few hours later was that she'd really goofed up when she forgot to mention why the stone fell in the first place. Years ago, she'd been quite talented at spinning a creative yarn and sticking with it, but her months among the Tau'ri had softened her, leaving her prevarication abilities more than just a bit rusty. One little slip of the tongue and suddenly the whole team was mad at her for knocking Daniel out cold and failing to own up to it right away.
As Daniel's head injury healed, Vala tried various ways to make it up to him, figuring that if he forgave her, the rest of the team would have to forgive her, too. She brought him pastries in the morning, made sure he had enough paper in his printer, sharpened his pencils, and kept his coffee cup topped off with fresh brew. (Her experience waiting tables at Sol's was coming in handy.) That lasted all of four hours before she got bored. Still, she managed another hour more before she accidentally dropped a stack of books on top of a very old and very much breakable clay dish, after which Daniel gave himself a headache yelling as he chased her out of his office.
It was safe to say the team's morale was quite low, and since Vala knew she was the inadvertent cause of their current troubles, she took it upon herself to organize a team outing that would serve as both an apology and a morale-boosting expedition. An internet search brought her to a place called "Elitch Gardens", and from the pictures online, she knew it would be just perfect.
Once Daniel received his medical clearance, Vala sprung her plan upon her teammates, and to her delight, they took her up on it. (Reassuring them that she'd used her own credit card to purchase the tickets had helped her case considerably.) In the early hours of what promised to be a sunny summer day, SG-1 squeezed themselves into Teal'c's SUV and headed for Denver. The "adrenaline junkies", Samantha and Cameron, raced for the roller coasters while she, Daniel, and Teal'c headed for the water park.
Her months among the Tau'ri had softened her senses, too, though it might have been all the noise from the giant wave pool. Either way, she never heard Daniel and Teal'c sneak up behind her until she was grabbed, hoisted into the air, and unceremoniously pitched into the water.
Ah, well, if it meant boosting morale--and given how hard Daniel was laughing, his morale was definitely improved--she would gladly take another one for the team.