Title: Blind Date
Summary: Jack decides to set Daniel up on a blind date.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or any of its characters.
Daniel Jackson looked at the pile of books on the floor of his apartment and sighed. He was attempting to sort through all of them to see which ones he still wanted to keep and which could be donated to the local library. He never realized just how many books that he had until they were all scattered around his living room staring back at him.
General Landry had insisted that he take a few vacation days after his last mission went badly and he ended up in the infirmary for a week. He was feeling much better now, but still Landry had insisted so here he was at home sorting through old books.
Daniel heard his cell phone ring and he reached over to the coffee table and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Spacemonkey! How goes it?" Jack's cheery voice sounded from the other end.
Daniel continued his sorting. "I'm fine. What's up Jack?"
"What are you doing tonight at say seven o'clock?"
Daniel sighed as he looked again at the mounds of books at his feet. "Just trying to sort through some of my old books, why?"
"Well Danny boy, I've set you up on a blind date for tonight." Jack chuckled a bit.
Daniel was surprised, to say the least. "Umm...what? With who?"
"A friend of Sam's. She's smart, funny, and not to mention beautiful. You two will get along great."
Daniel hadn't been on a real date in years. Of course all of SG-1 still insisted that he had taken Vala out on a date the day that the Trust kidnapped her, but he would forever deny that. "I don't know Jack. I'm sort of busy here."
Jack huffed into the phone. "How has it been since you have been on a date? Several years? Come on Daniel, what can it hurt?"
Daniel considered what Jack had just said. "I wouldn't even know where to take her. Wait, what's her name?"
Jack paused before answering. "I can't remember what her name is, but I've already made the two of you reservations at The Blue Star Restaurant in Colorado Springs, it's upscale so dress nice."
Daniel couldn't believe what was happening, he hadn't even said yes! "You don't remember her name?"
"Nope, never been good with names. Trust me though, she is beautiful, you'll like her."
Daniel finally decided that there were worse things that he could be doing on a Friday night. "Oh fine, but what does she look like so I know who I am meeting?"
Jack laughed. "I'm not telling you, or it wouldn't be a 'real' blind date. She will be at table thirty at seven tonight, Sam told her to wear a blue flower in her hair so that you can recognize her."
Daniel was getting frustrated. "Jack, how do I even know where table thirty is?"
"Just tell the host or hostess that you have reservations and that table thirty has been set aside for you. They will take you there. Now go get ready!"
"I can't believe I'm giving in to this," Daniel mumbled but Jack had already hung up.
Seeing that it was nearly six, Daniel rushed to get ready. He took a shower, found a nice button up shirt and a sports jacket to wear, and even found some cologne to put on.
As Daniel applied a bit of gel to his hair, he thought of how odd it was for Jack to just randomly set him up on a date. He must have really thought that this girl would be good for him.
Finally satisfied that he looked decent enough, Daniel locked up his apartment and headed for his car.
Twenty minutes later he arrived at the restaurant. The place looked very nice, he was lucky that he had just gotten paid because it seemed like he would be shelling out the big bucks for dinner tonight.
Daniel walked through the door and was immediately greeted by a smiling young woman. "Hello sir. Do you have reservations?"
Daniel smiled at the girl. "Yes, umm I was told that table thirty has been set aside for me and my, uh, date."
The girl's face lit up in recognition. "Oh yes, she is already here, let me show you the way."
Daniel followed the young woman through the maze of tables topped with fancy tablecloths. The girl pointed to a table set up in the corner by the window. His heart pounded at the thought that he was on an actual date with someone who he was about to meet for the first time.
"There you go sir." The girl smiled again.
Daniel thanked her and headed over to where the table was. As he got closer, he began to make out the details of the woman he was to meet. Her back was to him, but he saw that she was slender with pale skin, accented nicely by a dark blue dress. Her dark hair was curled and pinned into an updo. Pinned into her updo was a blue silk flower.
Daniel walked closer and started to get a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. From here the woman almost looked like, but couldn't possibly be...
All of the sudden the woman turned and Daniel stopped dead in his tracks.
It was Vala.
She frowned when she saw Daniel walking towards her.
Daniel's head was reeling. He didn't know what was going on.
When Daniel got to the table, he addressed Vala. "What are you doing here?"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "I could ask you the same thing."
Daniel decided to be honest with her. "Well, Jack called me not too long ago and insisted that I go on a blind date with a friend of Sam's. So here I am."
Vala gave him an odd look. "Sam called me a while ago and told me that I should go out on a 'blind date' as you call it with a friend of Jack's. So here I am."
Realization hit Daniel. "Oh no, they played a trick on us!"
Vala still looked confused. "What?"
Daniel pointed to the flower in her hair. "Jack told me that the woman I was meeting would have a blue flower in her hair and be sitting at table thirty. Don't you see? Him and Sam played a joke on us. Setting us up together on a 'blind date.'"
Vala began to look angry. "Not funny."
"I agree, excuse me while I call Jack and yell at him." Daniel got up and went outside to make the call.
"Hello?" Jack answered his phone.
Daniel was irate. "Jack! What the hell? Setting me up with Vala? Really? And what's this crap about you not knowing her name?"
Jack laughed hard into the phone. "Settle down now Danny boy, it was for your own good."
Daniel yelled back at Jack. "My own good? That woman is the most infuriating, annoying, obnoxious thing that ever walked this Earth! I mean galaxy I guess."
Jack was still laughing. "You two are so hopelessly in love with each other it's not even funny. I just decided to help things along a bit."
"What? We are not! I mean I don't love her!" Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head to himself.
"Come on now Daniel, I see the way you look at her. I am your best friend, I know that you have feelings for her. Now be a good little spacemonkey and at least have a nice dinner with her okay?"
Daniel sighed. "Fine, I will go eat with her, but only because this isn't fair to her either."
Jack just laughed at him and hung up the phone.
Daniel walked back into the restaurant and sat down across from Vala who had just gotten off the phone herself. "I yelled at Jack."
She nodded. "I yelled at Sam. I can't believe those two!"
"I'm not that surprised that Jack did this, but I am not sure why." Daniel spread his cloth napkin over his lap.
"Sam said that we needed a push in the right direction or something like that." Vala fiddled with her fork until the waiter came over to take their order.
After they were done ordering, Daniel spoke up again. "I hope this doesn't turn out like the last time we went out for dinner together."
Vala gave him a wry smile. "You mean our date when the Trust kidnapped me?"
"It wasn't a date, it was just..."
Vala cut him off. "Two friends and co-workers out for dinner, blah blah blah, I know."
The waiter came with their drink order and Daniel took a sip of his water to clear his throat. "So, how did you get here anyway?"
"Sam gave me a ride over. She told me if I was lucky that my 'date' would take me home with him tonight."
Daniel sighed. "Oh boy, they really like to torture us don't they?"
Vala frowned at him. "Oh so being here with me is torture?"
"No, no, I just meant that they shouldn't have done this to us. I don't mind having dinner with you."
She gave him a weak smile. "I kind of like it, you know just the two of us."
Daniel couldn't believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. Well, the words he could believe, just not the implications behind they way that she said them. He coughed. "Umm, yeah."
A moment of awkward silence passed. Daniel still couldn't quite believe the whole situation. Vala really wasn't acting like herself at all. Not once had she tried to come on to him or annoy him at all. He finally couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Vala?"
She glanced up at him. "Hmm?"
He looked into her gray eyes. "Are you okay?"
She nodded and looked down again.
He didn't believe her answer or lack thereof. "You sure? You can tell me if something is wrong."
He swore that she was about to say something to him, but then their food arrived and the moment passed.
They ate in near silence, only occasionally chatting about light topics like the weather and the rumors going around the SGC about two of the Majors that were apparently hooking up in the storage closets.
Once they finished their meals, Daniel asked for the bill.
The waiter gave him an odd look. "Sir, your bill has been taken care of courtesy of a General Jack O'Neill I believe."
Daniel was in shock once again. Jack had paid for all of this? Okay so maybe he wouldn't have to kill him after all.
Daniel walked Vala over to his car and opened the door for her. After she slid in, he went around to the driver's side and joined her in the car. "So, uh, what were you going to say before the waiter brought out our meals?"
It was dark inside the car so Daniel couldn't really make out her facial expression.
"It was nothing, really." She shifted and pulled at her dress.
He leaned closer to her. "Please tell me Vala."
She sighed. "Daniel, I have to tell you something."
Daniel's heart began to beat faster and faster in his chest. He knew that she was about to tell him something important. "What is it?"
"When Sam told me that she had set me up on a blind date I was upset at first. I mean, she would always tell me before how she thought that you and I were perfect for each other and how she swore that you secretly were in love with me. So when I thought that she wanted me to meet somebody else that that meant that you didn't really love me after all."
Daniel was surprised by what Vala had just told him. "Did that upset you? That you thought that I might not love you?"
"Yes," she said in a meek voice.
Daniel's heart began to beat faster still. He could tell that this time she was not joking around. She really was upset. He realized, right then and there, that he was falling in love with Vala. Wait, who was he kidding? He had been in love with her for years now.
Daniel clicked on the overhead light in his car so he could see Vala's face. When the light flickered on he saw that her eyes were heavy with unshed tears.
"Vala, I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me. Do you...love me?" Daniel locked his baby blue eyes with her shimmering gray ones and waited for her answer.
She took a deep, shaky breath. "Yes Daniel, I do, but please don't be upset. I know you don't feel the same way." She turned away from him as a tear slid down her check.
Daniel turned her face towards his again. "Listen to me. I've been a fool. I love you and I have loved you for a long time now, I just never thought that you would genuinely have serious feelings for me, so I denied it, even to myself."
Vala's eyes lit up at his words. Another tear slid down her cheek and Daniel wiped it away with his finger.
"Really?" she said gazing at him with questioning eyes.
"Really," he confirmed and then cupped her cheek gently and kissed her. As his lips met hers he felt a jolt of something like electricity surge through him, he remembered that he had felt the same thing back when she had kissed him on the Prometheus, but he had chalked it up to lust at the time. Now he knew he was feeling a real attraction, a real chemistry with her.
Daniel deepened the kiss, pulling Vala onto his lap. His tongue caressed hers and he heard her moan into his mouth. His hands slid down her back and she shuddered in pleasure. Vala pulled Daniel's jacket off and began to unbutton his shirt. He was starting to get turned on very quickly, and he had to stop them before they had sex in the parking lot of the restaurant.
He broke the kiss and looked intently at Vala. "So would you like to come home with your 'date' and get lucky tonight?"
Vala laughed. "Hell yes!"
Daniel laughed with her and then helped get her back in her seat. Once buckled up, he sped away back to his apartment with his beautiful 'blind date.'
The End. I love reviews so let me know what you think of this story!