TOO NERVOUS
"And what are you supposed to do with it?" Vala looked in bewilderment at the brightly coloured pinjata that swung lazily from a branch outside Jack O'Neill's cabin.
"You whack it!" Mitchell told her and handed over a baseball bat. "With this. You gotta try and bust it open!"
Vala regarded him as if he'd gone completely mad. "But why would you do that? It's pretty! Why would anyone want to break such a pretty thing?" She ran her hand over the llama shaped receptacle, ruffling the colored paper. "I just don't understand you Tau'ri at times, really I don't."
Sam, chuckling, appeared beside them and squeezed Vala's shoulder gently. "It's an old Mexican custom. And you break it open because there are gifts inside!"
"Gifts?" Vala's eyes brightened and she looked with much more interest at the swinging cardboard beast. "Really? Like – presents, gifts?"
"What other kind of gifts are there?" Daniel grumbled. He dropped heavily into a camping chair close by.
Vala narrowed her eyes at him, weighing the baseball bat in her hand. "What are you in such a bad mood for?" she asked. "You've been moping about like a – like a bear with sores on his head all day! We're here to have fun!"
An unwilling grin pulled at Daniel's mouth. "I think you mean a 'bear with a sore head'?" he suggested.
Vala shrugged off-handedly. "Whatever."
Sam and Mitchell's laughter broke in on the argument – Teal'c had walloped the pinjata so hard that the gaily colored creature swung almost completely around and over the branch where it hung.
"Bad luck, Big Guy!" chuckled Mitchell. "You must want them candies pretty bad!"
Teal'c gave Mitchell one of his speaking looks.
The Colonel, mildly intoxicated by his consumption of several cans of lager, paused momentarily before breaking out into laughter again.
"Candies?" Vala pouted. "I thought you said there were gifts in there!"
"Edible gifts," Sam grinned.
"Princess, you love this sort of stuff," Mitchell winked lazily. "Go on – wallop the damn thing!"
"Oh – very well." Vala clouted the miniature llama, making it swung wildly. She chuckled and struck it again, then once more.
"Only one hit is permitted at a time, ValaMalDoran," Teal'c removed the baseball bat from her unwilling grasp. "I believe that it is my turn."
"I think that you'll find it's mine, actually," Sam corrected him, holding her hand out for the bat.
Teal'c hesitated for a long moment before reluctantly handing over the weapon.
Grinning, Sam took a firm hold and began to whallop the pinjata repeatedly, causing the poor little beast to spin wildly about on it's tether.
Vala moved away and sat next to Daniel. She frowned at him. "What is your problem today, darling?"
He squirmed uneasily in the canvas chair, not making true eye contact with her. "I – ah – that is, um, I – well, I – I don't have a problem." Yet, he thought. The good doctor's irascible mood had, in fact, been exacerbated by events which he hoped would be played out shortly. Daniel wriggled again and sent Vala a fleeting, wan smile.
She was looking at him as if he'd sprouted another head on his shoulder. "You could have fooled me!" she told the archaeologist bluntly. "Sores on your head! Since we woke up this morning! I haven't done a single thing out of turn today either! I've been properly well behaved – apart from setting fire to Jack's underpants but really, he shouldn't have left them there in the first place! I mean, even Sam said…"
"Vala – stop." Raising a hand, Daniel's stomach was beginning to tighten into knots. "Just – just go back and hit the damn thing again!"
"Oof!" Vala whooshed out an exclamation, gave him a filthy look, then flounced away in the direction of Mitchell who had managed to wrestle the baseball bat once more from Teal'c and was now merrily beating the long-suffering pinjata.
Daniel leaned forward, covering his face with his hands. A moment later he peeped through narrowed eyelids, to see Sam settling into the chair alongside himself.
She lifted her eyebrows. "Well? How's it going?"
"How's it going?" he hissed. "How's it going?! You can see how it's going! I'm terrified, Sam! And it's too late to turn back! The – the – the wretched thing is inside there, just waiting to be discovered, and there's nothing I can do about it!"
Sam lay a hand on his knee and patted firmly. "It'll be fine, Daniel, you know it will." A smile tugged at her mouth.
"That's easy for you to say!" Daniel grunted. "You and Jack – well, you two – you know – I mean, it's all sorted between you. But me – and – and … I suppose the only good thing is that your fiancé doesn't know what's going on here."
"Um – about that.." Sam wrinkled her nose, looking apologetic.
"You didn't!" Daniel looked aghast.
Shrugging, Sam tried and failed to look repentant. "He wrangled it out of me."
"Oh gods." The archaeologist's horrified retort merely made his team mate giggle again.
They were both interrupted by the sound of Vala squeaking excitedly, which was followed swiftly by a loud whoop from Mitchell. The pinjata had burst open, having surrendered at last to SG-1's combined ministrations.
Vala tossed the baseball bat aside before practically leaping onto the brightly wrapped candies strewn across the grass.
Teal'c was soon alongside her, swiping as many as he could before the alien woman stole them all.
"Leave some for me, you guys!" Mitchell complained good naturedly. "I did a heck lot of whacking there, too, ya know!"
Eyes twinkling, Vala threw a handful of sweets across to her CO. Teal'c, more reserved, handed him one small candy.
Daniel had shot to his feet after the pinjata broke and now stood, blinking widely behind his spectacles, watching with a look of horrified anticipation as Vala moved swiftly around the candies. I can see it, he thought, swallowing convulsively. His heart was thumping so loudly that he thought everyone at the cabin must be able to hear it. I can see it – any minute now she's going to see it too – oh gods….
"What's that?" Bang on cue and Vala, interest piqued, honed in on a small, square black box that lay among the rest of the treasure. "That's not candy – did it fall out of the pinjata?" Picking it up she looked at it closely. "Has someone lost this?"
"No." Daniel's voice sounded strange and scratchy to his ears. He was aware of Sam, Teal'c and Mitchell moving away subtly. "It's not lost. It's – uh – I – uh – I put it in there."
"You put it in the pinjata?" Vala's eyebrows were almost up at her hairline. "Whatever for?" She began to open the box.
"Wait!" Daniel almost shouted, making her jump. He swallowed again, before taking both of her hands in his own. "I put it in there because – because it's treasure. I hope. I think."
Vala, becoming aware suddenly that the small receptacle bore an uncanny resemblance to a jewellery box, blushed rosily. Her eyes stung and she blinked furiously.
"Open it," Daniel told her, softly.
With shaking fingers, Vala opened the lid to reveal a delicate white gold band topped with a small square emerald flanked by two diamonds. Unable to speak, she lifted one trembling hand up to her mouth.
"Do you like it?" Daniel asked, voice rasping slightly.
Vala nodded.
"You – you want to keep it?"
She nodded again, fiercely.
"Shall I – put it on your finger?"
"Mmmnnff." Vala wiped her nose on the back of her right hand as Daniel took her left in his own and slipped the ring onto her third finger. It fit perfectly, thanks to some subtle use of a measuring tape while she had been asleep one night.
"Vala?" Daniel, so full of nervous excitement now that he thought he might explode, held both of his best friend's hands gently. "Would you – will you – will you marry me?"
"Yuffssh!" She blurted unintelligibly, before snatching her hands away and throwing her arms around Daniel, burying her face against his neck. Overcome with emotion himself, and feeling his own eyes begin to prickle, he hid his own face in Vala's wild black hair briefly before lifting her suddenly off of her feet and swinging her about, full circle.
"Are you sure?" Pulling away suddenly, Vala bit her lip as she looked searchingly at her team mate. "You don't want to stay as just friends and co-workers?"
Daniel blinked bemusedly several times. "Uh – I think you'll find that it's been quite some time since you and I were just 'friends and co-workers!'"
"Well, yes – I mean – I know that…" Vala dropped her voice to a whisper. "But - I thought that you might, you know … well, I wasn't sure if you wanted – after Sha're…" She was halted in her musings by Daniel pulling her back in close against him and kissing her with such passion that by the time he'd finished her legs were trembling so much that she had to sit down hurriedly on the ground.
"I want," Daniel said simply, sitting beside her and cupping her face in his hands. "I've wanted for, well, for quite a while really. But I didn't – I didn't know – you know how it is.. and.."
"Oh, shut up Daniel!" Vala, her face a beautiful blend of tears and smiles, jumped into his lap and picked up the kissing from where they had left off. The engagement ring shone on her finger, bright and clear in the sunshine.
Mitchell, hiding with Sam and Teal'c on the edge of the treeline, turned around and grinned at his team mates. "I reckon that's a yes!"
THE END