Vala Mal Doran lifted her chin high in anticipation of seeing Atlantis again. She hadn't spent twenty-four hours in quarantine with those horrendously talkative little men on the Midway for nothing. She entered the event horizon without a look back at the men who'd been drooling all over the control panels for most of her brief stay.
As the cavernous space of Atlantis' gate room materialized around her, Vala's spirits lifted. The city was as spectacular as it had been over a year ago, when she'd taken part in SG-1's quest to find Merlin's secret planet. This particular visit, however, was purely pleasure at the invitation of Colonel Samantha Carter and Vala planned to do some serious sightseeing this time, having been limited to the dreary interiors of conference rooms and libraries as she and Daniel Jackson had searched for clues last time.
Her eyes widening as she took in her surroundings, Vala noted with approval the handsome young men guarding the gate and she winked at the closest one. The eye candy was most spectacular, too. She was in Sam's debt already.
"Welcome to Atlantis, Vala."
Vala heard Sam's voice, but she couldn't place her location. She looked up to see a trim blonde in a slate grey jumpsuit trimmed in burgundy approaching the railing on the level above her.
Vala smiled broadly at Sam.
"I'm glad you could come," Sam said, smiling warmly at her.
"Thank you for the invitation," Vala said, following the young man who'd relieved her of her travel bag. The pleasure's all mine, she thought, eyeing the young man's backside as he ascended the stairs ahead of her. Oh yes, the sightseeing would be simply magnificent this time.
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Vala's eyes widened and she sucked in a deep breath, feeling empathetic pain as she watched Colonel John Sheppard take another hard hit to his back with the long wooden stick that she'd forgotten the name of already. Adopting the cocky walk of a victor, Ronon Dex shot Vala a fierce smile as he twirled past her. She looked the young man over from dreaded head to bare feet and responded with a suggestive smile of her own. The smile disappeared when Ronon knocked John to his knees with another well-placed hit on the hamstrings.
Vala's breath caught again. She hoped Colonel Sheppard wasn't hurt too badly. Serious injury certainly had not been her intention when she'd dared the men to demonstrate their fighting techniques for her.
John dropped his stick and raised his hands in surrender. "I'm calling it this time. All yours," he said to Ronon.
At the admission, Ronon's smile turned smug and he exited the room, his dreadlocks swaying back and forth as he nodded his head in victory. It was very, very primitive what they had done, but very…educational, she decided. Based on what they'd demonstrated to her, she might have to persuade this Ronon fellow to give her some private lessons before her week on Atlantis was up.
She heard throat-clearing from the floor, and she looked down to find John eyeing her. "Help a whumped man up?" he asked.
"Most certainly, Colonel Sheppard!" Vala said, rushing over to where he was locked in position on the floor.
Groaning as the cartilage in his knees popped and slowly rising up to a low stoop, he gave her a pained smile. "John, Ms. Mal Doran. Please call me John."
Vala carefully held his shoulders and admired the firmness of the muscles underneath her fingertips. From what she could feel she gathered he was normally no slouch in the fighting department; few men could have withstood Ronon's youth and vigor for as long as he had. She appreciatively checked out the rest of his body as he stood immobile.
"And please call me Vala," she said. "Is there anything else I can do for you, John?" she asked, putting the ever-slightest suggestive spin on her tone.
At her suggestive tone, John started to stand up straighter, but he suddenly stopped, shivering in pain. "Awww, man," he said, hunching back over. "He got me good this time," John grumbled under his breath.
Vala moved her hands to support John at the elbow and bicep. "I think you might need to see a doctor," she said.
John held a hand to the base of his spine and swiftly straightened up, howling as he did it. "I think you may be right," he said, grimacing.
"Here, lean on me," Vala said, tightening her arm muscles to support his weight. "Just take it a step at a time."
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Dr. Jennifer Keller busied herself organizing the supply cabinet. It had been a slow Friday, so she had let the nurses go for a long lunch in anticipation of that evening's movie night. She grinned. Normally she would have skipped it, preferring the solitude of a good book to the bustle of what her nursing staff called "date night." But the movie "Never Been Kissed" was being screened this time and although she'd watched it once before, it had been back on Earth on the little TV she'd had in her last apartment. She looked forward to seeing it on the big screen and to the company that she'd be keeping that evening.
"Dr. Keller?" she heard an unfamiliar female voice call out from the infirmary doorway.
"Yes?" she asked, turning around to find Colonel Carter's visitor, Vala Mal Doran, supporting a hobbling John Sheppard. "Colonel! Are you all right?" she asked, rushing to his side. From his facial expression to the way he was moving, it seemed like John was barely holding it together as he and Vala slowed to a halt.
"Does it look like it?" John asked tightly.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Just a little demonstration of male virility," Vala answered, helping Jennifer ease John onto an examination table. "Just a little."
"Ronon?" Jennifer asked, feeling John's arms and legs for bumps and sore spots that could indicate broken bones.
Vala nodded in response. "I don't think I've seen fighting quite like that in a long while."
"I was a little distracted," John said defensively, wincing as Jennifer re-examined his knees.
"Oh no – no!" Vala said, looking aghast. "I certainly didn't mean you did poorly. You were in fine form, especially against such a young virile man."
John squeezed his eyes shut. Jennifer wasn't sure whether it was in response to her continued pressure on his knee or to Vala's explanation. She eyed the leather jumpsuit that Vala was wearing and the low-cut "V" that had substantially enhanced Vala's cleavage. Yes, she could see where some of the distraction had been.
"Colonel, I don't think anything's broken, but we should x-ray just to be safe," Jennifer said, lifting up a nearby phone to page the radiologist.
"Who said x-rays are safe?"
Jennifer heard Doctor Rodney McKay's voice in the entrance way and she turned, smiling warmly at the doctor. Rodney shot her a quirky smile and then smugly watched the facial contortions that John went through as he tried to lean over to see the smirking doctor.
"Aw man, Sheppard, you look like you had the c-"
"Dr. McKay!" Jennifer said, taken aback that Rodney would use language like that in front of a guest like Vala. He normally called things like he felt they were, but she'd not heard him speak like that in a while.
"Well, he does!" Rodney shrugged. "Not to change the subject or anything, but since I was in the area I just wanted to make sure that we're still on for dinner and the movie tonight."
Jennifer blushed. Few knew about their budding relationship and the fewer the better, she felt. "Sure," she replied, nonchalantly. "Meet you in the atrium at six."
After Rodney nodded and walked away, Vala eyed her suspiciously and arched a brow.
"It's not what you think," Jennifer said defensively.
John moaned in pain as Jennifer lowered the bed to take him to x-ray. "Oh, yes it is," he said under his breath, his amusement apparent through his pained expression.
Jennifer's eyes widened.
"It's okay," Vala told her. "The doctor's okay. In a geeky, slightly Daniel Jackson-ish kind of way." She frowned. "If you crossed Daniel with Samantha Carter, that is."
That elicited a snort from John.
Jennifer wasn't sure what to say, and she started to wheel the bed out of the infirmary.
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Teyla grew uncomfortable at the attention that Colonel Carter's former teammate, Vala Mal Doran, was giving to her bulging abdomen. Teyla laid a protective hand across the top of her stomach and breathed in deeply the salty breeze that blew across the outdoor deck. Vala sighed loudly and leaned her chin on her hand.
"Ms. Mal Doran, you are not feeling well?" Teyla asked softly.
"No, it's just the memories," Vala said wistfully. She put her hand back down on the table to trace the edge of the lunch tray in front of her.
"You have children?" Teyla asked, starting to slice the fresh fruit on her plate. When she received no answer, she looked up to find a surprised look on Vala's face.
"You don't know about my daughter, Adria?" Vala asked, sounding dumbfounded. Vala looked at Teyla and then at Sam who was sitting next to Teyla.
Teyla gripped her knife tighter. But of course, how could she have not? There was just so much happening right now, both in Atlantis and inside her own body, so much to keep track of that she had momentarily forgotten Vala's infamous offspring. Teyla loosened her grip on the knife and smiled. "But of course. I apologize for my forgetfulness."
"I understand," Vala said, smiling. "Those pregnancy hormones'll do it to you every time." She nodded at Teyla. "Hopefully your luck will be better than mine and your child will be much better-behaved than Adria ever was." She raised a brow. "This is your first?"
Teyla nodded as she carefully chewed her fruit.
"Well, if you need any advice, feel free to ask," Vala said amiably. "I can tell you all of the nitty-gritty, like how to keep stretch marks from forming to what to do when your man doesn't want to be intimate with you…."
Teyla lowered her head and wiped her mouth. "Thank you for the generous offer, but-"
"I mean, I know - really, really know - how hard it is to raise a child in this kind of environment," Vala said, waving a hand at one of the uniformed gate guards walking by their table to make her point.
"That's very sweet of you," Teyla said, "but-"
"I can even tell you how to-"
"Vala!" Sam's voice was sharp and firm.
"But I have so much I can share!" Vala protested.
"I think-," Sam began to speak.
"I could stay permanently on Atlantis and be Teyla's nanny!" Vala burst out, her face shining with glee at an idea discovered.
Teyla inhaled slowly and deeply to maintain her composure. Given what she'd learned about the humans from Earth during the years she'd lived on Atlantis, she had been surprised to learn that Vala had actually been assigned to the SG-1 team that John Sheppard had always talked about so reverently.
"That is so very kind of you to offer," Teyla said quietly, allowing Vala a soft smile, "but my child's care has been sufficiently planned for."
"But I love children," Vala said.
"I'm sure you do," Teyla acknowledged.
Sam learned forward to touch Vala's hand. "Vala, didn't Dr. McKay say he needed your assistance this afternoon?"
"He did?" Vala asked, surprised.
Teyla caught Sam's eye and gave her a grateful nod, acknowledging Sam's action, before Sam turned back to Vala.
"That's what I thought he said this morning when I showed you his office," Sam explained.
Vala squinted back inside Atlantis from the outdoor terrace they were seated on. A faraway, slightly calculating, look crept across her face. "Yes, I think maybe he did. What time did he want me again?"
"Thirteen hundred hours, I thought," Sam said.
Vala lifted Sam's wrist to look at her watch and her eyes widened. She looked quickly around the table. "If you'll excuse me, my date awaits…," she said, quickly getting up from the table and sprinting off towards the door.
"Date?" Jennifer asked approaching the table with her lunch tray.
"Don't ask," Sam said.
"And we shall not tell," Teyla finished, a smile on her face.
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Sam watched Jennifer Keller depart. The young CMO of Atlantis had stopped by Sam's office at the end of her shift to give Sam her regular end-of-the week update. Jennifer had reported that John Sheppard had been sent to his quarters with a small stash of painkillers and muscle relaxants. Sam knew already that John would use them only sparingly, if at all, but she appreciated that Jennifer had done everything within her power to ease the colonel's pain. She'd also reported that Teyla's pregnancy was progressing smoothly, and that the afternoon glut of bruises and torn muscles from the basketball tournament had been anticipated and handled without a hitch.
Sam smiled. Atlantis' medical needs were in capable hands. Not quite the hands of Janet, as there would never be another Janet Fraiser, but very capable ones indeed. Jennifer had kept the meeting under ten minutes for once, rushing so she could head back to her quarters to change into civilian clothes for her date that she insisted wasn't a date with Rodney. Although Sam would never have thought to put the pair together, the idea of their slowly-developing relationship had grown on Sam, and she liked the idea of the two of them together.
She smiled. She also very much liked the idea that it gave Rodney someone else to dream about.
Vala had already stopped by Sam's office, just before Jennifer had, to give her a report about Rodney's surprise at having her assistance all afternoon. Vala hadn't had much interaction with Rodney when SG-1 had visited the first time, but this time she was blunt in describing Rodney as a terse, but well-meaning man who was fully unable to accept competition. Sam was afraid to ask what she meant about competition and since she hadn't spoken with Rodney yet, she knew he'd explain it after he chewed her ear off for directing Vala his way.
But that wouldn't be for a day at least, especially since John was supposed to be leading his team out on a fairly routine mission the following day. Since it was only supposed to take a few hours, perhaps she could assign Vala to go along as an impartial observer. Well, somewhat impartial. She remembered Vala mentioning something about stopping by John's quarters later this evening to "check up on him." Okay, so not impartial.
"Staying late again?"
Sam looked up from the paperwork on her desk to see Major Evan Lorne sticking his head in her doorway. He'd already gone off-duty and was in jeans and a t-shirt.
She nodded at the papers littering her desk. "There's a lot to catch up on," she said. "And I find I get a lot done when it's this time of day and especially on movie nights."
Evan leaned back against the door jamb, his eyes twinkling. "So then I take it you won't be catching the movie tonight?"
Sam gave him a warm, open smile. "It would be nice to get away for a moment," she admitted.
"So go," he said, his smile wide and his tone encouraging. "The paperwork will still be there later."
"But then it will be later," Sam pointed out. "And most of this has to be completed before the morning."
Evan nodded his understanding. "Maybe next time then?"
Sam nodded. "Definitely next time."
Evan smiled and exited her room.
Sam knew she probably should step away for a few hours, but time was precious and even more so during the quieter hours when there were less interruptions. And besides, she was a sucker when duty called her name.
She shut her eyes for a moment. Atlantis always hummed with the vivid life contained in her walls, but in the evening she still hummed, a more muted, softer hum that Sam could feel throughout her body, and it was comforting to Sam because it meant all was well. All was so very well.