Ancient Rocks and a Giraffe

spacegypsy1

Daniel's and Vala's convoluted journey to finally admit their love.

-o0o-

The smile suddenly faded as General Landry raised his voice, "Dr. Jackson, that's an order!"

"That'll take two months! I've got a backlog of work already!"

Landry only stared, bushy brows lowering, eyes narrowing and mouth set in a hard line.

"Yes, sir." Daniel pulled out his phone opening the calendar app. "I could schedule that..."

"Now. Today. Pack up, you have about five hours, Colonel Carter has the Hammond on a tight schedule with no time to wait on you. I suggest you find someone to assist, take Dr. Moore, he's knowledgeable in the Ancients. Take any one person you want. Just get ready. Dismissed!"

Mouth opening and closing without sound, Daniel tired to speak before finally turning with a sigh and leaving.

By the time he entered his office he was so mad, his ears felt like they were on fire.

"Oh. There you are." Vala looked up from the pile of relics with a grin. "I have the last set done and ready to...Daniel? What's wrong?"

"I've got to take a bunch of big wig scientist to Ortus Mallum on an expedition!" He grabbed a duffle bag and started collecting journals and reference books.

Incredulous, she squeaked out, "You mean, now!"

He jerked his head around towards her with a glare, "yes, now! What the hell did you think I meant!"

She glared right back. "Oh, I see. Mitchell's off on his little jaunt with the flyboys, and Teal'c's off in Jaffa land. So...you've been reassigned and somehow it's all my fault! As usual!" Vala turned away with a huff.

Contrite, Daniel approached her. "Sorry. It's not your fault and I'm not mad at you. It's just that I still have a back log from years away chasing bad guys." Laying a hand on her shoulder he squeezed gently and went back to choosing what books he needed.

Vala stood. "Can I help?"

Looking up, he smiled. "Could you call Jake Moore and see if he can tag along. Let him know we're leaving in..." Daniel suddenly blinked. "Wait." His face split in a grin. Vala was the one person in his department that could keep up with the day to day operations, who knew enough about the artifacts to catalog, log them in the proper journal, and store them for him. She knew his methodology. Hell, she was the only person who could make some since of his notes! And Landry had said he could take anyone he wanted. There was no way his scant department could keep up for two months. It wouldn't take more then a few weeks for Landry to recall them if Vala wasn't here keeping everything in motion. Besides, who did he think he was kidding. He'd be lost without her...damn he hated that!

"What?" Vala asked, her smile widening at the grin on Daniel's face.

"Do you want to go?"

"Me?"

"Yep. I need an assistant. You know the drill. You've been there," he shrugged, "Why not? Do you want to?"

"Yes." She said in amazement, wondering why in the world he'd want her, but not asking.

"Great! Let's get what we need here and then pack. If we hurry, we should have enough time for a quick lunch with Sam when she gets here."

"Samantha? We're going with Samantha! I'm going to my room and pack, and I'll come back and help you with..." Vala waved a hand around the office, "...all this stuff." She dashed out.

"Vala! Be sure to take whatever it takes to keep you from getting bored!" Daniel buried his hands deep in his pockets and sighed with a quirky roll of his eyes, Suddenly it dawned on him that he had in reality, just ask Vala to accompany him. That should make him uneasy...funny thing, though, it didn't. Actually, it made him...well...happy.

-o0o-

''Daniel, must you talk incessantly about every tiny detail, place, thing? Couldn't you just have skimmed over the long boring facts and told them what the Ark was and where we found it! Did it really require three hours of Alteran backstory? One little paragraph and a few slides would have been sufficient! Picture one, the Ark found in the ruins. Picture two, the Ark opening and doing its magic. Picture..."

Tapping his papers on the table, Daniel narrowed his eyes. "There was only one person in this room yawning. Everyone else was interested!" His voice rose exponentially with each word.

"They were comatose!"

"They were paying attention!"

"They were..."

"Enough, you two!" Sam stood at the door to the small conference room on the George Hammond. She'd had enough of their bickering. The arguing between them had escalated each day. It was making her crew uneasy. As far as she could remember, they had never argued so much, constantly about any thing and every thing. "We'll be arriving tomorrow...thankfully. I'll be dropping you and your guests off as we planned. I've been thinking, though, that maybe, you, Vala," Sam turned to her friend, "might want to stay on board. We'll be doing some surveys around this system for about four weeks and then head back to pick up..."

"No." Vala said emphatically, at the exact time Daniel blurted out, "Ah, no."

Sam raised a brow in question.

"Well, I mean, Daniel might need me." Vala bit her lip, brows furrowing.

"Right. I mean, I have...stuff she needs to do." Daniel looked down at the papers in his hands. He slowly lifted his eyes and then quickly handed the papers to Vala. "Like this. She needs to keep up...er...with these."

"Yes, I do. I need to keep up with all this paper. You know how Daniel is. He's always losing things and actually, I have to carry his extra glasses...just in case."

Daniel nodded in affirmation, pushing his glasses up his nose with one finger.

It was all Sam could do to keep a straight face. They just didn't get it. They were blatantly doing their mating ritual, which had heightened considerably since she last saw them, and still the two had no idea how much they cared for each other...how they felt. "Alright. Fine. I'll see you two at dinner. Hopefully we can get through that without an argument."

"Not a problem." Daniel said, once again looking down.

Vala only grinned large and saluted.

Once Sam was gone, the room grew quiet. Then, as if on cue, they both spoke at the same time. Vala telling Daniel, "It wasn't really, boring, Daniel." While Daniel confessed, "Maybe it was a bit on the long side."

Their faces relaxed in tender smiles. Eyes locked, they stared at each other with only the gentle thrum of the George Hammond surrounding them.

When the urge to kiss Vala became overwhelming, Daniel took a breath, turned his eyes away, and told her, "Our last real meal for a while, we better get going."

"Hmm, okay." Vala ran a fingernail across the table inching her way towards where Daniel's hand rested. Reaching her destination, she placed her hand atop his.

It felt like a branding iron! Daniel had to control the need to snatch his hand away to keep from scaring. There seemed to be alarms going off in his head and other body parts. It was difficult to swallow. His glasses didn't seem to correct his blurred vision. He took a deep breath, cleared his clogged throat, "er...ah...if...if you want to take anything that won't fit in your pack, you should leave it in the supply room by the other gear. They'll pack it on the..."

Vala squeezed his hand gently and then let go. "Right. Will do."

She'd cooed, looking all sultry and sexy. Batting those lashes. Slowly licking that mouth. The one he desperately wanted to kiss. Daniel felt his knees close to buckling. "I'll meet you in Sam's quarters for dinner." He managed to sound fairly normal as he pulled his hand from hers.

"I'll be there." Vala tossed her hair, grinned wide, shrugged her shoulders high, and sauntered out.

"Damn." Daniel whispered as he watched her six disappear out the door, fighting the almost irresistible need to go get her and take that lovely mouth in a heated kiss. Uh oh... 'Houston...we have a problem'...big problem. Crap! How the hell did that happen?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*TBC