Chapter Two:

"Psst..."

Daniel's eyebrows furrowed at the sound. It was soon followed by a tickling sensation across his cheek, to which he swatted away before rolling over onto his side.

"Psst..." the sound came more urgently now in his ear. He cracked his eyes open and in the faint light coming from his alarm clock could barely make out the long locks draped across his face. After taking a second to wake up and sort through the half asleep confusion, he remembered that he had slept at the SGC last night, having worked well into the night and knowing they had a mission at 0800, meaning there was only one explanation for the dark hair tickling his nose and the slight pressure on his shoulder.

"Vala..." he warned. "What are you doing in my room in the middle of the night?"

"Trying to wake you up, of course," she replied as she leaned her chin on the hand that she had resting on his shoulder. "I said 'pssst'. I thought that would be obvious."

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will this scenario away. "That you are trying to wake me up is obvious, Vala. Dare I even ask why?" He was not looking forward to having one of these conversations again. It had been awhile, a long while actually, since he had had to turn down one of her many advances, but he should have known that this would happen again.

"Don't be silly, of course you can ask. But first you have to look at the time." He could almost hear the playful grin that was surely across her lips right now.

He squinted at the clock, finally able to make out that it was just after 05:00. What did that have to do with anything? "Okay..." he muttered as he flicked on the light.

"We leave for the Utopia place in just under three hours!" She paused, waiting for his excited realization. "Well you seem to be bursting with anticipation," she huffed.

"Vala," he ground out from between his teeth as he rolled over, "just because you are excited about this mission doesn't mean that you can...that we will..."

She blinked at him, confused, then a wave of hurt washed over her face. "You don't think we're going to find anything. You lied to General Landry and have just been placating me this whole entire day!"

He blinked back at her. "Wait...you woke me up because you wanted to talk about the mission?"

She was pouting at him now. "Well I did until I realized your excitement was just a lie."

He laughed out loud as he covered his face with his hands, now feeling incredibly stupid. He sat up, giving her knee a gentle pat of reassurance. "It wasn't a lie, Vala. I am excited about the possibilities of this mission, that the Ancients might have left things behind."

She brightened at this. "Or that I might have discovered the Ancients' retirement home?"

He gave her leg another pat. "No, not that. Let me get dressed and then we can go get some breakfast, okay?"

A coy grin spread across her face. "Breakfast and a show perhaps?" she asked, her voice thick with insinuation as she looked him up and down. She shrugged at his narrowed eyes. "Can't blame a girl for trying. Not twice in one morning anyway." She grinned again as his face flushed with guilt. "Really, Daniel, if I was going to try to seduce you I certainly wouldn't use 'psst' as my opening line. Try not to take too long in that cold shower of yours. I'm hungry."