Chapter 4 Doctor Lam's Discovery

The week crawled by very, very slowly from Vala's point of view.

Cameron and Teal'c had both been off base over the week-end, leaving Daniel to face the over-excited machinations of his girlfriend alone. He'd lasted until Saturday lunchtime by which time he was seriously regretting having told her anything about what was going to happen at the end of the following week. He therefore abandoned his office and whisked her away into town to go bowling then swimming followed by a long, long, lo-o-o-o-ong walk in the local park. Anything to try and wear her out. They'd rolled back into the SGC at about eight in the evening where Daniel had marched Vala straight to the mess hall to fill her up with the finest culinary fare that the catering department could offer. By the time they'd finished eating neither one of them had enough energy to do more than veg out in front of the little TV in Daniel's office watching dodgy programmes about storage bins and ancient quiz shows.

Vala fell asleep on the couch. It was five in the morning before she came creeping back to her own quarters to find Daniel asleep in her bed. Snuggling up next to him, she heard him murmur something under his breath but he didn't rouse fully and eventually she fell asleep again.

Daniel managed to cope with Sunday by telling her that as they were working all week she ought to start thinking about packing – Vala was out of his office before he could blink, and when he peeped in to her quarters after lunch the bed was covered with shoes and tops and negligees and – were they pink handcuffs? He decided not to comment, kissed her briefly and sped off again before she became too distracted.

And so it was Monday, then Tuesday, then very slowly Wednesday crept past as well. Thursday morning saw SG-1 waving Cameron off to meet with the President. Daniel, Teal'c and Vala went up to the conference room straight afterwards to discuss a future mission they were planning out to the planet Kallios Lucem. A type of crystal was mined there which the Lucian Alliance were busy trying to steal and combine with Naquadria to make weapons. Jonas Quinn had contacted them previously with information about these dealings.

Vala generally found it fairly difficult to keep interested for the entire span of a briefing but today she could barely keep her eyes open. It felt warm in the conference room – she started off with her elbows leaning on the table and gradually her head became heavier as the slipped lower and lower. Eventually she had her head on her arms with her eyes closed.

General Landry talked on for several minutes before his sudden "Ms Mal Doran!" exploded across the room and caused her to shoot up in her chair, eyes wide and brain scrambling around to keep track of what was happening.

"Are we keeping you up?" the General asked, glaring from under his eyebrows.

"Oh, no sir," Vala shook her head vigorously, on her best behaviour. "Daniel wore me out over the week-end and I haven't recovered yet."

The archaeologist glared at her.

"What?" she asked him.

He shook his head.

"Anyway –." Landry carried on. "Regardless of how you spend your time off duty, shall we all get back on track here? Unless you still want to be in this meeting instead of going to Paris, that is?"

"Oh!" Vala bounced in her chair. "Did you know that we're going to Paris on Saturday? How on earth did you find out?"

The General paused for a beat, face expressionless.

"You told me, Ms Mal Doran. At least three times."

She beamed unrepentantly, swinging her chair from side to side. "Oooops!"

"So – eyes down, SG-1." Landry pointed an accusatory finger at the alien. "Or I'm cancelling everyones' leave for the next month!"

Vala looked horrified. She sat straight in her chair, arms crossed, finger on lips.

Daniel smirked, catching Landry's eye.

"Shall we?" the General said, lifting his mission notes again.

The ex-space pirate nodded furiously, and the meeting carried on.

The briefing only lasted another twenty minutes but even so Vala was fighting a losing battle with her eyelids again by the end. She dragged herself to her feet and shuffled out after Daniel, who after a few moments glanced back at her.

"You okay?" he asked, squeezing her hand briefly.

"Oh yes, I'm just tired. I think I'm just over-excited, it's rather hard to sleep at the moment."

Dr Jackson frowned, concerned. "Not because of nightmares though, right?"

"Oh no, not those," Vala grinned up at him, leaning in for a kiss. "The nightmares are nearly all gone now, thank you."

"Okay." Daniel leaned his forehead against hers. "Well, I have plenty of work to do before Saturday. You feel like helping?"

"Later maybe. I might have just a little snooze first."

"Okay," he repeated. "Meet you for supper?"

"Mmm-hmm." Vala went strolling away towards the elevators. She let rip with a massive sneeze part way down the corridor, followed swiftly by another two 'whoosh'es'. "Bless me!" she shouted back to him, giggling.

"Bless you!" Daniel acknowledged and went off in the opposite direction.

Vala slept until well into the afternoon. When she awoke she headed off to the cafeteria, surprisingly not hungry. She stood in the queue, wrinkling her nose, in the end just taking a slushy and a bottle of water, both of which she downed pretty quickly.

Dr Lam came in and sat down across the table from her. "Excited?" she asked, pulling in her chair.

"Oh yes," Vala nodded. She went to say something else but sneezed hugely.

Carolyn passed her a napkin.

"Thanks." The alien sneezed again.

"You're not coming down with a cold, I hope," the doctor said, popping a square of carrot into her mouth.

"No!" Vala stated, vehemently. "I won't allow it! I won't let my body have anything as pathetic as a cold to be wrong with it right now! I'm not going to sneeze all over Paris – or all over Disneyland. Or all over the plane. It's a long plane journey, Daniel says. That's why he's bought tickets for a night flight, so I don't get too bored. Anyone would think I get bored easily." She let rip with another massive sneeze.

"Take some vitamin C," suggested Carolyn. "if you are coming down with anything, it'll really help boost your immune system. Run by the infirmary later and I'll give you a bottle."

"Okay," Vala scratched her head vigorously. "Well, I'd better go and see what Daniel's up to. Teal'c is planning to meet up with Jonas next week – I like Jonas, do you? It's a shame we'll miss him." She stood up and sneezed again.

Carolyn passed her the last of the napkins. "Vitamin C," she instructed her. "My office. Before the end of your shift."

"I will," Vala smiled, wandering off slowly. She exited the cafeteria. A huge "Atishoo!" flew back in through the doorway.

"Vitamin C!" Carolyn shouted, loudly, after her.

Carolyn was pleasantly surprised when Vala wandered into her office a couple of hours later. The alien plopped heavily onto one of the beds, rubbing her hair absent mindedly, which was uncharacteristically scruffy.

"Curling tongs broken?" the doctor asked conversationally, unlocking the medicine cupboard.

"What? Oh, no. I did my hair this morning. I looked nice this morning, really I did, I don't know what's happened to it. It feels strange – my head, I mean. The outside, I mean, not the inside."

"Strange?" Carolyn queried, pulling a box of vitamins from one of the shelves.

"Mmmm. Itchy. Like I haven't washed it in days. But I did. This morning. It hurt when I washed it." Vala scratched absent mindedly at her chest as she looked around the infirmary, already bored.

"It hurt?" the pretty doctor frowned.

"Mmmm. You know – like if you scratch something too much and it stings." As if to prove her point, Vala rubbed furiously with both hands on her head again. Suddenly distracted by a copy of 'Chat Weekly' which lay abandoned on the table, she hopped off of her bed, grabbed it and hopped back on, flicking through the pages.

Carolyn moved closer, observing her friend intently, who spent the whole time scraping half heartedly at her chest, then her shoulder, then her head again, as she read the magazine. The doctor slowly pulled out a thermometer and popped it into Vala's mouth.

"Whach oooh doin?" the alien asked, around the small stick.

"Just observations," Carolyn replied. "do you feel hot at all?"

"Mmmm." Vala looked at the doctor apprehensively.

Carolyn had her fingers on her friend's pulse. She observed Vala for the entire time, as she counted the beats. The alien looked tired, and her cheeks were slightly flushed, but nothing excessive. She felt under Vala's chin, and her armpits – swollen glands. The doctor pondered. She took out the thermometer. 100 degrees Farenheit. Hmmm. Not excessively high, but…

Carolyn picked up an observation chart and noted down the results. When she looked back Vala was picking at a large spot close to her hairline. There was another smaller one under her chin. Crusty, red, scabby. One by her ear looked more like a small….oh dear.

"Lift your top up please," Carolyn instructed.

"Why?" Vala was looking worried now.

So was the doctor. "Just do it."

The alien slowly took off her black long sleeved T-shirt. Her chest had about twenty large, fluid filled blister-like spots spread across it. Her back had more. A few of them had already crusted over.

"Oh Vala," Carolyn sighed, and unexpectedly pulled her friend into a hug. "You have Chicken Pox!"

TBC.

You knew it though, right? Poor Vala! Poor Daniel! Poor Disneyland Paris!...