It's Never Easy
spacegypsy1
~Chapter Three – Vala's Venture
~CROCIOUS – P3Q-877
Well, that wasn't so bad. Alright, possibly, yes, it was bad. Vala thought as she brushed at the residue acquired while slithering along the cold, jagged stone passageway. A sound drew her attention and her head snapped around to see the door opening. Remembering the few indentations in the courtyard wall, she dashed behind an urn, found the niche and once again slid into a teeny tiny space.
A woman, dressed in swirly fabric and veil entered the courtyard with a broom. Vala's mind whirled with thoughts. Hmm, how can I dispose of her body? I mean temporarily of course. Oh! I know. Right inside the door is that little room with a little door and I hope that the little key is still hanging on that little hook. My Daniel would call it a broom closet. But really, I think it's more of a little nook. A broom nook, rake and garden tool nook.
As the woman neared, Vala zatted her. The sweeping female turned and looked baffled, appeared to fade, and then finally dropped like a stone. After a moment of confusion at the woman's slow response to being zatted at close range the recently dismissed and now ex-SG1 member drug her prize into the nook, stripped her, then dressed herself in the woman's clothes and handy hiding veil. That took some time, the figuring out how to wrap the slinky material so that it didn't just fall off and more time to figure out how to hide the zat guns.
On examination of the space Vala discovered a small drawstring bag that would hold her clothes, the zats, knives but not much else was going to get crammed in there. Without hesitation she stashed the tiny stolen blaster into her cleavage. And off she went. Locking the little nook and taking the key with her Vala boldly walked the corridor towards the tower suite - which is most likely where he will be. Hopefully. She tried not to think of the woman and her fading. Like a hologram. One cannot zat a hologram. Shaking her head violently Vala knew she had to get that out of her head and find her treasure.
When she passed the hidden door to the main temple, cautiously she opened it to be sure it was openable. On the other side three women looked up from their tasks. Nervously she nodded, they nodded back, and satisfied Vala shut the door thinking to herself, This veil thingie works really well.
There were a set of stone carved winding stairs that twirled around and around. Thinking back Vala remembered she'd never seen the like before the first time she'd skulked around this very tower. However, oddly enough, she'd seen them since in some old movies about a guy in the Hood. Robert in the Hood or something like that.
Up and around she went knowing they ended at the door to the only suite were she truly hope hersweet was being held.
Half way up Vala heard a door open and a woman's scolding voice followed by the delight of hearing Daniel, his tone very snarky, saying something back. She couldn't make out the words. Strangely they might have been speaking Ancient, or one of Daniel's many other languages. Not sure. She turned and dashed down the stairs, hurriedly unlocked the nook and was barely inside when she heard that woman's voice again.
"Bren, are you not finished?"
Vala opened the door a crack and nodded searching her limited language bank for some of those Alteran, Ori, Adria words she'd learned. Unfortunately nothing seemed to be familiar except the realization that the woman had called her Bren.
Appearing a bit miffed, the woman turned away and scurried off and out the secret door.
Once again Vala climbed the twirly stairs. At the top she stopped to catch her breath then boldly opened the door.
Daniel turned and she almost wept with joy.
Grinning like a fool under that veil, which she quickly let drop to one side, Vala waggled her brows, struck an enticing pose by leaning against the door, one arm up, hand across her forehead, chest arched outward, breasts straining against the thin material, lips open and wetted with her slow traveling tongue. "Happy Birthday," She said in her most seductive tone.
He snatched her up against his hard frame and kissed her with such ardor she found herself momentarily stunned.
"We have no time for this... now, though I do love the outfit." Daniel whispered, yanked open the door, peered outside, and looked back at Vala. "Weapons?"
Still in awe and eyes locked on his handsome face her hand drifted unconsciously into the bag and onto a zat and she offered it up.
"That's it?" He seemed quite disappointed.
With a sigh and still adoring his apparently alive and well visage Vala reached into the sack again and handed over a knife.
His brows dove downward. "What else?" He didn't wait for an answer, just took possession of the bag and peered inside. "Damn." He said, grabbed her hand and off they went to trot down those dizzying steps as he muttered nonsense. "Doesn't really matter, I don't think conventional weapons are going to be any help." At the bottom he turned towards the Courtyard.
"No, we can't get out that way. We have to go through the temples." She'd leaned close to whisper. He smelled wonderful. Her head almost spun with the wonder of him as her mind whirled with incessant chatter. I think I love him more than ever. This is all going to end in disaster. This us thing. Not the escaping. Though, on second thought, that could also happen. It's just never easy.
"We'll be fine." He whispered back as though he'd read her thoughts.
"Which will be fine?" Still in a daze of sexual arousal Vala breathed the words out.
"Which what?" Daniel asked in all sincerity.
"Which one will be fine?" A bit miffed, Vala tried to clarify.
"I don't remember getting choices. What are my choices?"
He was grinning and Vala was wary. Had they replaced him with a clone? A robot?
"Us or the escaping?" She finally answered thinking now was a good a time as any to find out what the hell was going on between them. She reached for the small mechanism that would open the door and since he still had one of her hands in his she tugged him behind as she opened the door and peeked down the corridor.
"Hmm, definitely the us, maybe the escaping. But probably not. Zats won't work on ascended beings. And knives certainly won't either."
"Did they drug you?" They were traversing the corridors cautiously, voices low. Taking steps down when they could find them. Her hand in his, pulling him along.
"Nooo, why would you think that?"
"Well, obviously not all are Ancients... I zatted one and though she took a long and fading time she did..."
"Fading? Meaning?" Daniel tugged her to a stop.
"Yes, sort of … Shhh.. wait. Someone's coming down the corridor." Vala looked around, frantic before shoving him into an arched doorway, repositioned the veil and pretended to be checking the wall for... er... something. The women passed in single file. Older women, with a tray and a cup and... her eyes lifted to Daniel's. They were taking him his supper. He nodded in understanding. "We've got to get out of here and fast. Alright, across there," Vala pointed, "up to the left and out the window. That is if we're low enough."
"Sort of what? What were you talking about?" He followed though a short hallway and into a chamber.
"Oh, sort of faded, and looked right at me bewildered then out and down she went." Vala peered out the window – it wasn't even a five foot drop to the ground.
"Interesting." Daniel agreed taking a quick look out the window. "I think they are all Ascended Alterans. That's why they lured me here. They want to... get this... they want to descend."
She should have been shocked, but Vala shook her head and sighed disparagingly. "I can't even begin to understand those crazy Alterans. But I know one thing. They are not getting their wavy armed glowy hands on you!"
"Alrighty then. Bombs away," Daniel whispered and out the window he went.
Without the addition of some reference she wasn't going to understand, Vala leapt out the window and found herself caught in his arms.
"Where'd you get a ship?" He asked setting her to her feet.
Vala raised a telling brow.
"Vala!" Daniel said with false shock, "You've been thieving again, eh?"
With a childish pout she singsonged. "What was it Wellan called you? A bone thief?"
"Touche'"
"Too who?"
"Move along." With a grin and a gentle playful shove he moved her forward. "So where's the ship?"
"Five maybe six clicks back in the woods behind the Stargate." She trotted off thinking he was right behind her.
"Son of a bitch! They'll be all over that area, why'd you park there?"
She turned and scowled her very best scowl which was lost behind the stupid piece of material. "Because I needed to be close to the Gate to find my way to find you to get your ungrateful, yet quite nice, ass out of here!"
He blew his cheeks out and then puffed the air out all the while his head danced to and fro. "Fair enough, sorry."
"Oh gods! They did drug you!"
By now they were almost running through the think brush of the woods, following the little river that she knew would take them back towards the Stargate.
"Not funny. I can be nice. As long as you're nice... it makes me wanna be nice too. We're just two peas in the wrong pod."
His comment brought her to sudden stop.
"I hate pods. I hate them because they make me closet-phobia!"
Daniel had stopped a step ahead and he looked back at her with that silly expression of his that means he totally enjoyed whatever she'd said because it was wrong.
Vala scratched at her nose and dropped one side of the irritating veil. "Well, whatever, darling, I don't think being nice in the pods is going to work. We are always going to be Daniel and Vala, always. You need to quit whining about it."
Coming back to her Daniel planted a short peck on her stunned lips, then a little buzz kiss to her temple. "You're wrong that it won't work and right that we're always going to be Daniel and Vala. Let's see if we can find that ship. At least we know our pursuers are zatable if we run into trouble."
"Daniel, did you just make up a word?"
"Yep."
"I like it. So, now we could use some help. Maybe the villagers..."
"Nope, no villagers are actually here... on this planet. None." He took her hand and they started off again trotting along at a steady pace.
"Ah, I see. Well, worry not, I'm quite sure I can rustle up some of the ne'er do wells..."
"Also none."
Shocked, she tugged him to a halt. "A complete ruse?"
"Exactly!"
"That, Daniel is extremely disturbing. Now what?"
He moved close, his voice low and raspy, "Maybe... I mean... I think... I think we should consider, er, not just dating, but more like being a couple, intimate couple, maybe, I mean..."
"NOW!" Birds flew and unidentified animals scurried because it came out very loud and laced in her best unbelievable tone, ever.
He bellowed right back. "Of course not now! Just something to think about while we're trying to escape and get back to the SGC. Which now may be harder than ever because we may have unwittingly alerted the mind boggling multitude of crazy renegade descending Ancients and who knows what kind of trouble they'll unleash on us!"
She couldn't think of a thing to say.
With a quirky roll of his eyes and a shrug he took her hand and together they followed the river.
Within minutes Vala stopped again. "Uh oh." She commented low and cautiously,
"What now?" He whispered back.
"There. The Stargate and a hundred or so of the mine boggling... mind boggle of... those, there, the fallen or disenchanted or escaping ancient ascended Alteran bad ass women. Why don't you call up your ascended contacts and have them sucked back into the Borg Collective?"
"The what?" He sounded a bit cranky.
"Never mind. Something Muscles made me watch which actually was very entertaining and could possibly be real. Anyway, we have to change plans. Now it's time for Plan double Z, followed by the discussing of intimate coupling." She grinned. Batted her lashes. Pulled the veil back across her lower face while standing in the middle of nowhere with eluding capture far from mind.
"What?" He muttered in response to her antics then turned and started off pulling her along. They were moving slowly. Creeping around. Him leading and her behind, which made no sense whatsoever since she had parked the cargo ship.
"You finally love me." She said, suddenly feeling light on my feet.
"No." Came his reply.
Vala took a shocked breath. "No?" Yanking her hand free she stood her ground.
First he turned just his head, waggled his brows and smiled, then he turned fully towards her. "No, not finally love you, Vala. Finally admitting I love you."
~TBC
