Truth & Lies
Briar Elwood
29: Lose
It had supposed have to been a simple recon mission, just one on a particularly cold planet. The team had split up and a few minutes later, a snowstorm hit. Cameron had tried to contact the others and tell them to head back to the 'gate, the storm was too strong, but it so happened the storm was so strong that it was messing with their radios. Of course, Daniel and Vala had assumed that Cam would try to tell them to head back home but that was proving to be a problem. They were lost.
Daniel glanced over worriedly to Vala as the two of them trudged through the snow and howling wind. She walked a little ahead of him, arms clutching her body, teeth chattering loudly. Back at the SGC she had stubbornly proclaimed she was used to extreme temperatures and could deal with a 'little snow,' therefore refusing to wear as much layers as the rest of them. The linguist could obviously tell she was now paying for it. With a sigh, he unzipped his top layer, sliding it off and on top of her shoulders. She stopped abruptly, turning her neck to frown at him. He ignored the look and walked on.
She complained a lot, of course, insisting she didn't need it as much as he did, but he refused to take the coat back. So they resumed their silence, Vala with a little more pout, but a lot less teeth chattering.
"Hey…" Daniel said suddenly, stopping. Vala stopped beside him. "Does this…does this look familiar to you?"
She glanced around skeptically. "I don't know. Should it? Are we going in circles?"
Daniel shook his head. "I think…I think the 'gate should be right past that line of trees over there."
Vala looked to where he was pointing and shrugged. "Yeah…I think you're right."
With a new lift to their steps, Daniel and Vala scurried over to the line of trees, pushing past them energetically…and stopping as soon as they were past. Daniel's shoulders slumped.
"I guess I was wrong," he muttered apologetically, rubbing his arms unconsciously. Vala's lips pursed, taking off his coat.
"Take it," she demanded. Daniel shook his head.
"No, Vala."
She pushed it at him. "Take it, Daniel. Now."
"Vala, I can deal with it."
She dropped the coat and grabbed his wrist, holding it in front of both of their faces. "Look at your hand, Daniel. It's no longer pink, it's no longer red, it's no longer purple even, hell, it's not even blue! It's past white, it's transparent. I can see your veins. That is not good."
Daniel sighed heavily, wrenching his hand from her. "At least its not numb," he murmured. Vala rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, and that'll be next! Then it'll turn black, and then it'll fall off. I don't know about you, but I like you with all of your body parts. I don't want you to lose them."
Daniel raised an eyebrow at the subtle innuendo but chose to ignore it and, instead, knelt down in the snow. Vala frowned at him, utterly baffled.
"What are you doing?" she asked sharply as he began to pack snow together. "Daniel, now is not the time to start a snowball fight."
"I'm building a shelter," he answered readily.
"With snow?"
"Have you never been stuck outside in a snowstorm before, Vala?"
She shook her head. "I've been in plenty of snowstorms but I've always been able to get out pretty quickly."
"It'll keep out the wind and snow," Daniel explained. "We'll make it big enough for the two of us, but just barely, body heat'll play a factor too, and it'll insulate the body heat. I don't understand how, exactly, it works, I'm sure Sam could tell you, I just know it does. Up in the Artic, people live in houses made of ice. They're called igloos and, apparently, they're actually pretty warm. Course, their clothes are big animal furs too…"
Vala stared at him, surprised, for a moment, before dropping to her knees as well, helping to build their shelter.
Not too long later, they had three walls and somewhat of a ceiling composed. Daniel stood up, brushing his now numb hands off on his pants, looking very pleased with himself. Vala stood up beside him, giving their shelter and sideways look.
"It's kinda lopsided," she observed. Daniel rolled his eyes.
"We're not going for a beauty prize, here, Vala. We're going for a survival prize." With that, he fell back to his knees, crawling inside. Vala followed, having to slide on top of the archeologist, as it was so cramped.
"Make it big enough for the both of us, huh?" she commented. "Yeah, that worked."
"I said barely," Daniel hissed, although obviously uncomfortable with the fact Vala was quite literally lying on top of him. "We'll share body heat."
"And you're okay with this?" she asked disbelievingly. Daniel pursed his lips at her.
"Are you complaining?"
"No, of course not, it's just usually you—"
"We're talking about survival here, Vala. I'm willing to sacrifice my dignity temporarily to stay alive."
Vala stuck her tongue out at him before settling herself more comfortably on his chest. Daniel rolled his eyes and nestled his head into the snow below it, staring at the top of Vala's head, watching as her breathing slowed.
"Vala?" he whispered, thinking she'd fallen asleep. There was no answer. A little louder: "Vala? Hey, you awake?" Still nothing.
"You…you remember when we were talking about regrets the other day? Well, I…I've got a lot. I mean, I wonder things like, would Earth be better off if I hadn't opened the Stargate, was it my fault Sha're, Sarah, and Janet died, if it weren't for me, would the Ori have found this galaxy and the like. But then…then there are the other things. Like you." He paused, swallowing. "I love you, Vala. I'm just…afraid. Afraid I'll lose you, like I've lost every other woman whom I've loved, like I lost my parents. And afraid you're just playing with me, that this whole flirty, sexual thing that you do is just…just your way of having a laugh at my expense. I mean, it looks like it. Most of the time, you don't really do anything to make me think that could be wrong.
"But there are times, rare, special times where it seems you aren't playing around. Like you're just hiding it, most of the time. Times where it seems you might have dropped your defenses. I don't know, maybe you're scared as well. Maybe something happened in your past to make you not want to commit, or maybe you just don't think you have a chance because I push you away every time I'm in danger of getting myself in too deep. Sometimes it looks like you're still a little girl…in love with a boy she thinks she can't have."
Daniel closed his eyes, sighing. "It'd be so much easier if I knew. Knew whether you are sincere or not." He opened his eyes to gaze at her face again…to see tears slipping from under her eyelids. "Vala?"
She opened her eyes, propping her chin up on his chest with a soft smile. Daniel scowled.
"Did you ever actually fall asleep?"
She shook her head. Daniel's scowl deepened and he turned his eyes away, embarrassed. A cold, tender hand touched his chin, nudging it back to face her. A few more tears were sliding down her cheeks.
"That was sweet," she told him. He harrumphed, stubbornly looking past her. "I do love you, Daniel."
He glanced at her, unsure. Vala shifted her weight and leaned her head in closer, brushing his lips with hers. Daniel kissed her back, tentatively at first…
But, of course, it didn't stay too cautious for long.
Daniel closed his apartment door with a heavy sigh, still reliving the moment. The storm had passed after a couple of hours and they had managed to regain radio contact with the rest of the team, making it back home within the hour. They had been surprised at first, at Daniel and Vala's new attitude towards each other but they soon were all proclaiming they had guessed it all along. Vala moved in with Daniel and life went on. Until now.
The back of Daniel's head thumped on the door behind him and he closed his eyes.
"Afraid I'll lose you…"
A/N: Oo. That was REALLY long. At least for this story, right? Who loves you????
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