"Daniel…?" Vala purred, somehow managing to wriggle her head past his book to settle her cheek against his chest.

"Mmm?" he grunted, flipping a page.

"I have an idea," she announced.

"Vala, aren't you reading?" he reminded her, half expecting some new attempt to get him to tell her what her Christmas present was and where he'd hidden it.

"Well, yes, darling, that's where I got the idea," she nodded earnestly.

Daniel tilted his chin to look at her. His eyebrows rose in surprise as he realized that she was serious, and he laid the book aside, curling an arm around her. "Okay. Tell me the idea."

"I think books should be free!" she declared.

Daniel blinked. "Huh?"

She grinned and gave an enthusiastic nod. "Isn't that a marvelous idea? Then we could have all the books we wanted and you wouldn't have to complain about the credit card bill or the fact that I forgot to pay you back the last time."

"Right," he smirked.

"Really. I'm not joking!" she insisted.

"I can see that," he nodded.

"So, what do you think?" she asked.

"You'd put all the publishing houses out of business. There's a lot of money in publishing, you know," he said, holding back a smile.

"Oh. Hadn't thought of that," Vala frowned. "They wouldn't like me very much, would they?"

"Probably not," agreed Daniel.

"Well, that's never stopped me before," she shrugged.

"No, I wouldn't say it has," he commented with another smirk.

She glanced at him and let her eyes widen in a profession of innocence. "What?"

"Nothing," Daniel shook his head. "So, would you mind telling me what's brought on this sudden attack of altruism?"

"Well, books are such wonderful things. You can open a book and go to a whole other world, or another time, or meet someone who died hundreds of years before you were born. And there are so many that I don't think I could ever buy all the ones I want--and of course stealing them isn't an option…" she smiled.

"So, the solution is to make them all free," he felt his lips beginning to twitch upward in amusement.

"It makes perfect sense," Vala nodded. "Doesn't it?"

"Well, how would you give the books away?" Daniel frowned.

Vala thought for a moment. Then her eyes lit up as she arrived at what she thought had to be a viable method. "What if there was a marketplace? A huge book market where people could go and find the ones they wanted--only instead of paying with money, all you had to do was bring your old books back when you were finished with them. You know, sort of like you and Sam when you borrow books from one another."

"Okay, but then how do you pay for the buildings, or the salaries of the people who have to run the place?" Daniel asked, trying very hard to keep a straight face.

"Well…" Vala bit her lip in consideration. "I know! What about something like those…fund drive things on public television. They're annoying, but they must be effective if Sesame Street has been on for more than thirty years.

"That's not a bad idea," he admitted.

"What about some sort of a membership fee? It wouldn't have to be very much; just a nominal amount so that anyone could afford it," Vala mused. "With enough people it would start to add up, wouldn't it?"

"Then you'd have to have a membership card," Daniel remarked, shifting slightly to reach for his wallet on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Ooh, it could be like a credit card!" exclaimed Vala excitedly. "I like that idea. The card could be linked to a personal account, and when you borrow books, there's a record kept so that they don't get lost or stolen. You're a genius, darling! What are you doing?"

"Maybe it could look something like this," Daniel suggested as he rifled through his wallet and finally extracted his library card.

"What's that?" Vala's brow puckered.

He handed her the card, and she stared at it for a long moment. "It's a library card. Pretty much exactly what you just thought up. There's a lending library in just about every major city or town in the country."

Vala looked up at him in surprise, then suddenly boosted herself up on her elbow and grabbed the pillow beside him. Daniel started to raise his hands, but she moved too fast and managed to get in a hard swat to his face before he could stop her.

"You were teasing me!" she cried as he grabbed the pillow away.

"It was a good idea," he laughed.

She scowled down at him for a few seconds, then broke into a grin. "So, can we go to the library?"