Too Quiet
Day One
Daniel sat in his office, completely still, listening to the silence.
There was no chattering, no shuffling – no sounds of tapping or sighing or tutting. Nobody was dropping anything, or chewing, or crunching. The TV wasn't on – not even on silent. There was no faint buzzing sound of music emanating out of the ear buds belonging to an Ipod. No-one scraped a chair, no-one slammed a door. No other pen but his own made scratching noises against the paper. Only Daniel's hands opened drawers, turned pages, moved books.
He breathed deeply. The only sound was the faint, gentle hum of the electrical equipment – the laptop, the printer, the filter on Jonas's fish tank. Along the corridor the occasional squeak of the elevator doors opening could be heard, or the faint sounds of people speaking.
Daniel leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply.
Bliss.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Two
The peace continued.
Daniel worked uninterrupted, head down, engrossed in what he was doing.
The clock ticked faintly, the fish tank burbled, the elevators sighed softly as they went about their business.
When Daniel looked for one of his translation books, it was where he had left it. When he reached for a pen, he found a sensible black one, not a purple or orange or pink one, with dancing hearts or feathers on the end. Nobody had left their drink in his way, so that he could knock it over, or dropped their cookie crumbs across his papers.
When he left his office at the end of the day, and locked the door, it stayed locked. He didn't spend time worrying about who might break back in during the night, to rummage about and 'borrow' his things.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Three.
Ah, the quiet.
Daniel found himself tapping his own pen against the desk once or twice before he realized what he was doing. And at midday he turned the TV on briefly, just to catch the news. The fact that Myth Busters, a show that Vala liked, came on immediately afterward was merely coincidence, but he left the TV until the show had finished.
Part way through the afternoon, and half way through an important translation, Daniel found that there was no more paper in his drawer. In fact, there was no more paper anywhere in his office. He had used the emergency stash on top of his bookshelf the day previously. Grumbling, he stamped off to the stationary cupboard, grabbed a ream of lined A4, and stamped back again.
Two minutes later he swore in Gou'ald under his breath when his pen ran out. There was nobody in his office to borrow another one from, pink and feathery or otherwise.
Daniel slammed his hands on the desk as he stood before throwing himself out of his office in a proper tantrum, taking a fistful of black pens from the store and stamping back in again. By the time he'd wrestled the lid off of the pen, and ripped open the pack of paper he'd forgotten what he'd already translated and had to start over.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Four
Daniel's head throbbed. He was tired and thirsty.
Nobody had nagged him to finish work and take them to the mess hall for dinner last night, so subsequently he had worked through meal time without realizing. It was gone 22.00 hours before he noticed, by which time he'd drunk all of the coffee that his coffee maker had to offer. He would have put some more beans in to grind, except he'd run out, because there hadn't been anyone to remind him to buy more, after he'd used the last lot.
By the time he'd gone to the mess hall all that was left were some rather dry sandwiches, a dubious looking fish pie and about half a dozen pots of blue Jello. He'd sighed, grabbed a sandwich and a Jello and returned to his office, where he'd fallen asleep at his desk at about two in the morning.
By the time that SG-1 had a mission briefing at 16.00 hours, Daniel was so grumpy that even the ever-patient Teal'c looked askance at him. The archaeologist barely spoke through the meeting, leaving as soon as it was over.
He stopped at a well known fast food chain on his way home, bought twice as much junk food as he needed, ate the lot then felt sick all evening.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Five.
The quietness of his office was driving Daniel mad.
He gave up at about 10.00 hours and left to return some books that he had on loan from the district library. They were outrageously overdue but he couldn't pay the fine as he'd forgotten his wallet. The person who normally had his wallet, or reminded him so that he had it, wasn't there. He had to promise the librarian that he'd come back that afternoon.
When Daniel returned to the SGC, it was to find that he'd forgotten his sparring match with Mitchell. On rushing down to the gym, he was knocked flying by his enthusiastic CO twice within two minutes. Daniel gave up and went back to his books.
In the late afternoon he returned to the library, arriving just as it was closing. The librarian relented and let the harassed looking archaeologist back inside to settle his debts. Once inside Daniel caught sight of several books which he thought looked interesting enough to borrow. The librarian knew one of the authors personally, which led to a lengthy and pleasant discussion.
On leaving Daniel returned to his car, to discover that he'd received a parking fine, which he was unable to pay immediately as he had visited the library alone and nobody had reminded him to pick up his jacket as he left. It was now locked in the library, along with his wallet.
Sam received a reverse charge call from a very irate Daniel at just after 18.00 hours, asking her to pick him up.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Six
Daniel had no coffee.
He had had no breakfast, nor dinner the night before. His head felt as if the hammers of hell were knocking against it. Yanking open one of the drawers on his desk he found the Advil and knocked two back with the dregs of a canteen cup of coffee. Vile.
At the bottom of the desk drawer – miracle of miracles – he spotted a stubby, lilac writing pen, covered in silver glitter, which had a star on the end that lit up as one wrote. He grabbed it, kissed it soundly, then began his work.
Five minutes later he went to the mess hall, coming back with two enormous chocolate muffins, one of which he massacred in about three minutes flat. He drank a whole can of fizzy drink almost in one gulp, then burped loudly, grinning.
Twenty minutes later he didn't even try to pretend but flicked the TV on in plenty of time for the I-tunes chart on MTV. He had no idea who the artists were, and he didn't think much to the music, but turned it up loud anyway. Head nodding, he found himself working with much more enthusiasm than of late, as he tapped rhythmically on the side of his desk.
- o - o - o - o - o - o -
Day Seven
Daniel was aware that someone had their arms around him from behind, and was cuddling in against his neck.
Just as he registered this, the someone moved round, ducking under his arm and snuggling in close onto his lap. The someone smelled nice, a mixture of flowers, chocolate and gate rooms – whoever they were, they were nuzzling up under his chin and kissing the side of his neck.
Daniel opened his eyes blearily, focusing quickly as the person on his lap grinned, and tried to hold him even closer, if that were possible.
He found that his arms had wrapped themselves of their own accord around the intruder, and were hugging her tightly. Running one hand up her arm, he squeezed gently.
The person chuckled and lifted her face up to his – he found that was kissing the interloper with some degree of enjoyment before he quite realized what was happening.
After a minute or two he managed to distract his assailant by moving his lips to one of her soft, sweet cheeks, then regretfully pulling away.
Vala – that wrecker of artifacts, keeper of wallets, maintainer of coffee supplies and all round archaeologist entertainer – grinned up at him. "Hello, my darling Daniel," she said, beautiful eyes full of love and mischief. "Did you miss me while I was away?"
Daniel looked at the untidy desk, the overturned coffee pot, the broken pens and the newly returned jacket and wallet. He acknowledged the sound of the TV chattering away in the corner and the fact that Vala's rucksack was lying haphazardly on it's side, top open, leaking toiletries and underwear in a tangle onto the floor.
Leaning over to the remaining chocolate muffin he grabbed it and handed it to her.
"Nope," he told her, pulling her in to him very, very tightly. "Not at all."
The End!