The Night Before.
The SGC, late at night. The two alien employees can be seen moving stealthily along the hallway, up on level four.
"Are you sure?" Teal'c looks briefly over his shoulder.
"Mmhmm. Definitely. You?"
"Indeed."
"You go first then." Vala wipes her nose on a mangled looking tissue and sniffs.
"Why should it be me?"
"You're tallest."
"I fail to see how that in anyway implies that I should be the one to go first." Teal'c frowns down at his accomplice.
"Alright then, I'll go first. Move out of the way." Vala elbows him aside.
Teal'c obligingly shifts to one side.
Vala produces something small from her pocket, and begins to fiddle with the lock on the door of the refrigerated supplies room.
A few seconds pass.
There is the faint sound of scraping, and both aliens can be seen scanning up and down the corridor.
Another moment or two slips by.
As something tinkles lightly to the floor Vala tuts, then freezes.
The sound of a distant voice reaches the aliens.
"Sssh! Is that Daniel?"
"I do not believe so."
"He'll tell me off if he finds me here." Pulling an uncharacteristically shapeless and thick robe more closely around herself, Vala frowns. "I'm supposed to be resting in bed. I'm ill."
"Then why are you outside the refrigerated store room with me?" Teal'c looks serene. She's not going to incriminate him on this one.
"Feed a cold, starve a fever, that's what Carolyn said. I haven't got a fever, I've got a cold. It needs feeding." Vala sneezes. It's a huge one. She looks apologetically at Teal'c.
He wipes his arm which is closest to her.
"Sorry." Vala splashes her trademark wide grin across her face.
Teal'c regards her solemnly for a while. Eventually he inquires : - "Well?"
"I'm wiping my nose. Wait a sec, Muscles." The sound of a wet sniff. "Okay."
Vala fiddles again with the locking device on the wall next to the door. There is the the tiny, tinkling sound again - scratching, scraping. "Got it!"
A very slight squeak can be heard as the well-oiled door swings open.
"After you, ValaMalDoran." Teal'c inclines his head towards his fellow burglar.
Vala chuckles faintly, wiping her nose again."Thanks!"
With another infinitesimal squeal the door is pushed wider. The two aliens enter.
Many minutes pass. Than some more. Another few as well. Eventually the door is tentatively re-opened.
Teal'c's large head peers out carefully. "All clear."
Vala follows him and quickly tampers with the lock again - in a few seconds it whirs into the locked position.
"Okay, Muscles?"
"Indeed. Are you well, ValaMalDoran?"
"Stuffed, actually, Muscles. I think I ate too much."
"Is it possible to eat too much chocolate ice cream?"
"Not if you're us. I wish they served it at every meal. That Phish Food is just divine. I could eat it until pigs fly."
"Why would pigs wish to do that?" Teal'c's glances at his accomplice, mildly puzzled.
"It's a Tau'ri saying. I think." Once more Vala produces another scruffy looking tissue from her pocket, which she sneezes violently into. "Or perhaps I could eat it until the cows come home. Yes, that might have been it."
"Come." Teal'c is on the alert suddenly. "I hear someone now."
The two conspirators go hurrying off down the hallway.
They stop suddenly.
Vala smacks into the back of her team mate."Ow!"
"Do not walk so closely behind me, ValaMalDoran."
"Then don't stop so quickly, Teal'c!"
He raises his hand and glares at her.
The sound of someone approaching can clearly be heard, coming away from the mess hall upstairs.
"It is Daniel! I told you!"
The two criminal masterminds move to the side of the passage and begin to creep slowly along the wall, in the forlorn hope that they won't be seen.
The sound of the stairwell door opening can be heard.
"Er…."
"What exactly are you two doing in the hall at 2 am?" Understandably surprised, Daniel squints at the two of them, as they stand, trying to look innocent, in the hallway.
"Well, darling, we might ask you the same question!" Vala folds her arms, eyeing the archaeologist crossly. "What are you doing here at such a ridiculous hour?"
"I'm – er – well, I'm working."
"Is it not rather late to still be in your office DanielJackson?" The Jaffa warrior raises one eyebrow at Daniel.
Er – no. Well, yes. Well, no – I often work late. I was just on my way to the guest quarters actually."
Vala looks at Teal'c.
Teal'c looks at Vala.
Both of them break out with false smiles.
"Well, nice to see you Daniel, but we must be off."
"To where? And why are you out of bed anyway?" It's Daniel's turn to glare now. "Didn't Carolyn tell you to rest?"
"I am resting! Or rather, I was resting, and I'm now about to do so again. Come on Muscles." Vala goes to move past, but the best laid plans as they say – she performs a sharp intake of breath followed by a huge sneeze. Then another. Then one more.
"Don't come crying to me in the morning when your cold's worse." Daniel is standing in the middle of the corridor now, arms folded.
"I wouldn't dream of it, darling." Vala gives up with the ancient tissues in her pocket and uses the sleeve of her robe.
Sighing, Daniel passes her his handkerchief. His eyes narrow again. "And I know that you two are up to something."
"We are up to nothing, DanielJackson. What we were up to has already occurred. We are two innocent parties making our way to our quarters."
Vala gazes up at her co-conspirator in admiration. "Nice one, Muscles."
He bows.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" The eminent archaeologist widens his eyes at the pair of them.
"Who cares? You're just a boring old grouch sometimes Daniel." Suddenly tired and peeved, Vala tries to shove him out of the way.
"Goodnight, DanielJackson."
"Night, Teal'c."
The two aliens move off along the hallway.
They are almost at the elevator before Daniel speaks again.
"I can see it, you know."
"What is it that you see, DanielJackson?" Teal'c pauses, and looks back.
"That tub of ice cream under your jacket. And the two in Vala's backpack."
Vala turns around slowly and glares at the archaeologist.
Daniel grins, unrepentant. "I'll bust you."
Vala performs a theatrical sigh and retraces her steps. She beckons Daniel closer, delivering a small kiss to his left cheek.
Before she can get away, he wraps his arm around her. "You're nothing but trouble," he tells her, not meaning it.
Vala grins and bites her lip. "Now, that's more like it, Daniel. You're place or mine?"
"Neither, I believe." Teal'c continues towards the elevator. "Mine – I have the spoons!"
- o - o - o -
- o - o - o -
- o - o - o -
The Morning After.
"Perhaps you'll listen to what I tell you in future," Carolyn Lam says, briskly shaking a thermometer as she moves toward the drug cupboard.
"Yes Carolyn," poor Vala turns onto one side, screwing herself up into a ball and hugging her arms across her stomach.
"Do you still feel sick?"
"Mmmm." The alien shuts her eyes and tries to pretend her innards aren't dancing a tango inside her midriff. "Ugh."
Carolyn frowns, concerned. "Do you need a bowl?"
A pale and sickly looking Vala pauses briefly before - "I don't think so. Not again." Several giant sneezes follow this proclamation. "Ugh." Vala pushes her face into the pillow.
Carolyn is SO not sympathetic. "I know that you were out of bed last night. I know that you went to the refrigerated store with Teal'c and I know that you ate too much ice cream! This is your comeuppance, I'm afraid! Karma. You now have a fever and an upset stomach. It serves you right, I'm afraid."
"Yes Carolyn," whispers Vala again. She coughs hard, then sneezes again. "My throat hurts too."
Carolyn sighs. The woman in front of her might be outrageously annoying at times, but she is also the doctor's good friend. Sitting down next to her, Carolyn offers up, one after the other : tissues, Tylenol, lcough syrup, lemon and honey.
Vala knocks the drugs back, one after the other. She blows her nose loudly on the paper handkerchiefs, then sighs.
"Has Dr Jackson been up?" Carolyn asks, gingerly removing snotty tissues from among the bedclothes.
"No. He's cross as usual." Cough. Cough, cough, sneeze. Sigh. "He says I brought it on myself. But he was there too! He stuffed himself with loads of ice cream. Pig."
Vala pulls a face, gagging suddenly. "Ugh." She reaches for the kidney dish and cuddles it, together with the pillow. "I feel sick."
Carolyn pats her gently. "I'll come back and check on you in a while. I'm afraid that you're just going to have to ride this one out!"
Moving away, she ditches the tissues and dirty equipment before being interrupted a minute or two later by the ringing phone in her office.
"Hi Carolyn," Daniel says, on the other end of the line. "How is she?"
"Pretty unhappy." The doctor can't resist a little smile. "Although I doubt that she's learned her lesson."
"She still throwing up?"
"Not for a while. She's feeling pretty rough though. Give her a day or two and she'll be back to normal."
"Guess I should pop in later, then, huh?" Daniel pushes his glasses up his nose.
"Well, it would certainly cheer her up."
"Okay. I'll come in tonight. I really have to get this translation sent over to Atlantis." He pauses. "Maybe she'll listen to what I say next time."
"You really think so?" Carolyn sounds disbelieving.
There is silence on the phone for a moment. Then Daniel chuckles reluctantly. "Nope. We-e-ell, maybe. She does sometimes. Occasionally. Actually, not where ice cream is involved. So no. Definitely no."
"See you later, Dr Jackson." Also smiling, Carolyn hangs up and goes off to busy herself around the infirmary.
- o - o - o -
Vala manages to keep down the medication. She falls asleep eventually, still cuddling the pillow and plastic receiving bowl. Lunch time comes and goes. The alien wakes, pulls a face at her plate and declines to eat anything.
The afternoon wears on and becomes evening.
Daniel turns up at gone 1900 hours, to find Vala sleeping again. Her limp, bedraggled hair is spread across the pillow, face pale and still, closed eyes under-rimmed with purple smudges.
The archaeologist is hit with a massive surge of guilt. Poor Vala. She looks so ill. Penitently, he sits in the chair next to the bed and gently takes her hand in his own. He kisses her fingers softly, then runs his other hand gently through the tumbled, raven locks scattered across the pillow.
Vala's eyelids flutter. "Hello darling," she croaks, rustily.
"Hey," Daniel moves his fingers to stroke her cheek now. "How are you feeling?"
She coughs and grimaces. "Crap. I hate stupid Tau'ri colds. And everyone is cross with me. It's so unfair. Even you're cross with me." Her smoke-blue eyes gaze soulfully into his own.
"No, I'm not cross." Daniel smiles gently down at her. "I think that you got your recompense ten times over with the horrendous stomach ache, never mind all the sneezing."
Vala bites her lip and looks adorable.
Daniel is hard pushed not to kiss her in the middle of the infirmary, but has no desire to catch the horrendous lurgy which she is carrying. He pats her nose instead.
"Want me to get you anything?"
Vala's lovely eyebrows tug themselves into a mild frown. "Not ice cream, thank you. I ate too much even for me last night."
"How about drinking chocolate? Might help your throat too."
Considering Daniel's offer, Vala nods eventually. "Yes please, darling. That would be lovely."
"Okay." Daniel leans over and kisses her forehead gently, which already feels much cooler than it did earlier.
Vala tries to grab him by his shirt front but he's having none of it – chuckling wryly he extricates himself and heads away, out of the infirmary.
A moment passes.
Vala sits up tentatively in bed and checks that Daniel has left, before she chuckles and hurls the kidney bowl at the airman in the opposite bed.
He grins back at her.
"Your deal, I think?" Vala smirks, producing a pack of cards and waving them gaily, before hopping out of her own bed and going to sit on his.
They are half way through a round of poker when Daniel returns unexpectedly, looking for his wallet, which Vala has secreted in her bedside locker. He stands by the door, glaring.
His team mate bites her lip, looking absolutely gorgeous.
"Sorry Daniel," she tells him huskily.
Dr Jackson gives in to the inevitable. He comes and sits down next to the airman's bed. "Okay, deal me in."
Vala grins widely and kisses his cheek. "I don't suppose that you brought that hot chocolate back with you, did you darling?!"
The End!