In This Together

"You look nice. Going out?" Jack says as he steps into the elevator at the SGC to see the bases' resident intergalactic vixen dressed to the nines.

"Thank you, darling, yes I am actually. I finally managed to convince Daniel to take me out again." Vala looks downright giddy; she was definitely excited about her time with Daniel that didn't involve mortal peril. Jack couldn't really blame her.

"Lucky."

"Oh, I plan to be."

At that Jack represses a snort and a laugh. He might have not been that receptive to Vala at first, but he has to admit he'd grown to like the little scamp. She was good for Daniel, even if the stubborn archeologist did try to deny it- constantly.

"Does he know that?"

Vala lets out a wide and wicked grin. "Not yet."

Jack shakes his head at the woman. "So, do you know where you're goi--" but the elevator coming to an abrupt stop interrupts Jack. It jostles him and Vala, who grabs his arm in alarm. The lights then flicker for a second but they stay on, unfortunately they were no longer moving.

"Jack?.." Vala sounds worried.

There were no alarms sounding and the emergency lights hadn't gone on. Nothing seemed to be wrong except that they were stuck.

"I don't think anything's wrong, we just look to be stuck."

"I'm sorry Jack, but I don't think it's right to be stuck here, no offense darling."

"None taken. Let me just call to see what's going on."

10 minutes in

It was a system malfunction. A simple system malfunction, that just had all the elevators jammed. Sam was trying to fix it but apparently there were complication. Jack sighs. There were always complications.

Looking over at his partner in elevator hell, Jack sighs again; Vala looks even more bored and miserable than he does. She had really been looking over to her non-date with Daniel, and now she was stuck in an elevator, with him. Probably not her ideal second non-date.

"They'll get us out soon. Carter's genius, she'll figure it out. She can fix anything."

Vala smiled. " I know."

1 hour in

"I promise, I'll give it back" Jack hears Vala mutter.

He glances at the woman across from him. They were now sitting at opposite ends of the elevator; Carter was still working on whatever it was that went wrong.

"Give what back?"

"Huh? Wha.."

" You just said you'd give it back, give what back?"

Vala blushes and Jack sits straighter, interesting. "Oh, I.. I was just talking to myself, nothing to worry about… How much longer do you think?"

"Uh uh uh.." Jack shakes his finger at the ex-thief, "Nice try, but no changing the subject, now spill."

"Why?"

"It's called bonding Vala," she just raises her eyebrow ala Teal'c, he rolls his eyes and adds, "Fine you've peeked my curiosity and anyway what else is there to do?"

"Well for one I couldn't answer you're question and leave you in suspense."

"Ah! Yes, you could but you won't."

"Really? And why is that?"

"Cause you're bored and so am I." He gives the alien woman what he hopes is a charming smile.

Vala smiles back. "So I am. Wouldn't you rather guess, it much for fun that way."

"Is it animal?"

"What? No… why do you ask?"

"It's a game Vala, Twenty questions? They haven't taught it to you?" At Vala's shake of the head, Jack rolls his eyes, " I swear it's like they never listened, wanna learn?" Jack just watched as Vala nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh! Yes, I love learning new games, Teal'c taught me 'I Spy' and 'Truth or Dare', as well as several of his video games, I'm quite good at Mario Kart I'll have you know." Seriously, sometimes Jack really wonders who the aliens on the base were.

"Okay the game is pretty simple…"

1 hour 30 minutes in

"Is it an elevator?"

"Oh, you're good."

"It's a skill. Honed by many years of practice and situations just like this."

"I see. My turn. You ready?"

"Ask away."

"Is it animal?"

"No"

"Is it vegetable?"

"No"

"Is it bigger than a bread box?"

"Yes."

"Is it an elevator?"

"You picked it up fast."

"Thank you, I am quite clever."

2 hours 15 minutes in

"How long did Sam say?"

"She not quite sure, whatever got messed up made a pretty big mess of several systems."

"Always fun to hear."

Vala settles herself more comfortably against the wall. "I guess it's just not meant to be." She sounds so dejected and Jack knows exactly what she was talking about.

"Hey, look how 'bout when we get out of here, and Daniel if decides to bury himself in some translation, I'll take you for burgers."

"Really!?" Vala turns to him smiling bright and wide. It's moments like this that Jack wonders why Daniel resists the woman; sometimes his friend is an idiot.

"Really. We might even give old Danny boy some gray hairs if we play our cards right. Paybacks a bitch." Vala lets a clear laugh out and Jack joins her.

"I always knew I'd like you, darling. This burger place you plan to take me too, does it have shakes? I really like the strawberry ones from Burger King." She sounds like a little kid, waiting for a treat. Jack thinks that's good for Daniel- to have someone in his life that allows for excitement, even for the little things like shakes. He's seen them together. They balance and compliment each other; they seem to ground each other while at the same time bring each other to life. They spark whenever they're together. They push each other to be better, to want to be better, and support each other in their gentle way. Jack has seen how protective the woman in front of his best friends, and he's seen how his friend looked at her too. The kid was just being stubborn.

"Even better than the Burger King ones." Jack returns her smile.

2 hours 45 minutes in

"I'm hungry."

"Yea, me too."

3 hours 30 minutes in

"You know, I'm thinking about taking back the whole 'Carter can fix anything' thing. I probably jinxed the whole thing."

"Jinxed? What does that mean?"

"Murphy's Law."

"Oh."

"You know Murphy's Law but you don't know 'jinxed', it's obvious who you spend most of your time with."

"Oh, darling, no need to be jealous, Sam talks about you all the time." Vala winks at him and he feels himself blush, just a little though, Vala just smirks.

"Be careful, I might take back my offer to buy you dinner."

"Mean. And don't talk about food."

Jack nods, he was hungry too.

4 hours in

Vala yawns.

"Tired?"

"Mmmhmmm."

"Come on." Jack pats the spot next to him; Vala looks at him like he was crazy. But he can also see the wariness in her eyes.

Jack rolls his eyes. "The floors uncomfortable, and shouldn't I be the one worrying about my virtue." He all of a sudden understands Vala better. She's tough and will kick ass, but letting herself being dependant on some else is hard for her. She reminds him of Daniel in that way. They want to be loved; they just afraid to let people in, they've burned too much.

She gets over her issues and makes her way over to him. Sitting next to him she leans against his shoulder.

"So know any bed time stories?"

Jack laughs.

4 hours 15 minutes in

"Still wanna know?" Vala's voice is tinged with early stages of sleep. Jack looks down at the head on his shoulder, confused.

"What?"

"Earlier, when you asked what I was going to give back. Still wanna know?" He remembers, and remembers that she never did answer. She was good.

"Sure."

"It was Daniel's university sweater. I "borrowed" it months ago."

"Bargaining?"

"Yea…" And Vala falls asleep.

5 hours in

The doors finally open and Jack sees Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell and Daniel all look at him, the surprise in their faces is evident, but then they probably weren't excepting to see him leaning against the wall of the elevator, with a sleeping Vala curled on the floor next to him using his jacket as a blanket

Sam recovers first. "Sorry it took so long, sir. The problem turned out to be more complicated than we first thought."

"It always is. It's alright Carter." He nudges Vala only to have his hand slapped away, he laughs softly and notices the darkening in Daniel's eyes. Huh. Interesting. He nudges her again. Slap. "Vala, we're free."

That gets her attention. "Huh?...oh.." She looks like a little kid waking up from a nap. He moves to stand and extends his hand to her. She takes it and pulls herself up. The minute she's up she looks around and becomes aware of her surroundings, she smiles at Carter and gives her a big hug. "Oh, thank you Sam!" Carter looks less surprised than he expected at Vala's reaction.

"Had fun?"

Vala yawns and smiles. "He's not so bad." Carter laughs. Vala yawns again.

"Okay well as fun as this is I think someone's tired." Jack puts on his best "Dad" voice, Vala nods.

She turns to Daniel. "Walk me to my room?" She sounds sleepy and sweet. Jack can see the softening in his friend's blue eyes.

Daniel nods and when Vala moves to lean against him, she's already half asleep, he just puts his arm around her. They're half way down the hall when Jack thinks to call out, "Hey, Vala, remember I owe you burger and a shake!"

Vala turns towards him and smiles sleepily, " Wouldn't miss it darling." As her and Daniel head back to her quarters together, Jack sees Daniel's arm tighten around his friend.

Jack smiles.