Chapter 2 – Something's not right.
Daniel is standing at the door to her room at 0630 the next morning, knocking and getting no answer. He frowns and goes over their conversation from the night before. He wonders if she might have gone home with whoever she got a ride with, but quickly dismisses it as a possibility. He can't come up with a reason why she wouldn't have done that, except for the fact that the thought makes him slightly uncomfortable. Slightly. Only slightly.
The team meets for breakfast at 0700, so it's a bit early for her to be in the commissary, but he heads that way anyway. Maybe he will run into her on the way, he thinks.
They meet in the hallway, Vala coming from the direction of the commissary with a muffin in one hand, and a bottle of orange juice in the other.
"Vala, there you are!" Daniel exclaims. "Are you not joining the team for breakfast?" he asks, glancing at the items she is holding.
Vala takes a bite of the muffin to have something to do so she doesn't have to look at him. "Mmmhmm," she mumbles around the food and shrugs a bit.
"I wanted to talk to you about last night." He starts off. "We got ready to leave and I was really worried when I couldn't find you." He said a bit miffed. "Why didn't you tell me wanted to go, and who did you get a ride with?"
"I DID tell you I was leaving, but you were so enthralled by your new friend," she put a little emphasis on that word, "that you didn't even know I was there, much less that I had left, Daniel. It took you two hours to realize I was no longer there. I got back to the base safely and you know I can take care of myself, so there was no need to worry."
"Look, I really didn't mean to ignore you. I rarely find someone that I have so much in common with and I was enjoying having someone to talk to." Daniel tried to explain.
"Like we never talk", Vala mumbled under her second bit of muffin and a swig of orange juice as she tried to get by him to go back to her room.
"You not coming to the team breakfast?" he asks again.
Vala searches for a valid reason to not go but comes up empty. She nods her head and makes a U-turn in the hallway. Daniel waits for her to catch up, so they walk side-by-side.
Vala makes it a point to keep taking bites of her muffin, which is getting rather small by now, so she doesn't have to keep up with his conversation.
They go through the line and Vala makes a plate full enough to keep her mouth busy for a while and thinks about how bad she is going to hurt if she eats it all. Cam and Teal'c walk in as Daniel and Vala are putting their plates down on their table. Vala digs into her food, looking at her plate the whole time. Cam and Teal'c sit down and Vala notices Teal'cs plate is just as full as hers is. She closes her eyes and contemplates the misery to come. Thank goodness her uniform jacket covers her waistband. Maybe it will help if she can undo the button later.
The usual banter happens between the team members, led by Cam, as usual. Vala laughs where she is supposed to, harasses Cam and Teal's every chance she gets, and starts a mini food fight with Teal'c by tossing grapes at him, which he tosses right back, but keeps her eyes averted from Daniel and does not address him directly. She wonders if anyone notices.
Everyone notices. Cam glances at Daniel once or twice with an accusatory look, like he's asking Daniel what he's done now to upset her. Daniel frowns and shrugs at him. Teal's just files the information away for future contemplation.
They all get up and turn in their trays and go their separate ways for the day. Their next mission is tomorrow morning, so they all go to read over the mission briefing and plan what needs to be packed.
Vala goes with Daniel to his office to start the day, but instead of plopping down in the chair and swinging it back and forth as she normally does, she stands in the door and asks if he has any work she can help him with. He looks around his desk, hoping he can say yes, but everything he is working on is in Ancient, so he has to tell her no. That usually does not deter her, and she'll spend the day spinning in the chair, popping her gum, reading magazines and poking him on occasion to make him jump. But today, she just says OK and leaves.
Daniel stares at the door with a frown, but realizes he'll never figure her out, so he gets started with the items on his desk.
Lunch goes pretty much the same way that breakfast did and after Vala leaves ahead of the rest of team, Cam stares after her and says "Jackson, Princess is not happy with you, what have done to make her mad this time?"
Daniel sighs and says, "Don't worry about it, we'll work it out."
"Well, you better, we go off world tomorrow and I don't want this makin' things uncomfortable."
"It won't." Daniel assures him.
The mission only lasts the day, and they are back at the SGC by 2000. Nothing interesting was found on the planet and Vala was polite to Daniel, even if she only spoke to him when necessary.
SG-1 didn't have another mission scheduled for few days, so SG7 asked Cam and General Landry if they could borrow Vala for a diplomatic mission they had the next day. Vala was familiar with the planet they were going to, and they wanted her to talk to the locals about a trade agreement that had caused a few misunderstandings on both sides.
SG7 checked in at 2200 with the news that things were going well and would be wrapped up the next morning, so they would be staying overnight.
When they arrived through the gate the next morning with the news that the locals were now happy and the misunderstandings had been smoothed over, Vala was all smiles and had the skip back in her step, which was a big relief to both Cam and Daniel. Teal'c filed this information away for further contemplation.
The next day, Vala pops into Daniel's office "Daniel, I was working with Dr.," she stops when she realizes Maggie is there with Daniel and they are both looking quite closely at something the computer monitor. Their heads are almost touching as they lean closer and stare at one of the symbols. Maggie has her hand on Daniel's leg as she leans almost out of her chair so she can get closer to the monitor.
"Oh, never mind, I can come back later," she says and quickly exits.
Daniel jumps out and follows her out the door. "Vala!" he calls. "Wait".
She stops in the hallway and takes a breath before she turns around. "It's nothing, really. Dr. Allsup noticed this piece," she hands him a small object "when he was going through the items brought back this week and he thought you'd like to see it. So, here it is. Sorry I interrupted".
"You didn't interrupt anything, Vala. That symbol we were trying to interpret is very faded and hard to see." Daniel explained.
"Ok. I'll see you later," and she turned went into Dr. Allsup's office.
An hour later, Daniel and Maggie walk down the hallway, past the open doorway to Dr. Allsup's office. They were laughing and talking so loudly that Vala heard them before she saw them. She couldn't remember seeing Daniel look so happy or smile that big. She tried to remember the last time Daniel had smiled at her, but all she could remember was him being irritated with her. She could only remember him being happy when he was digging in the dirt and discovering something new, or when one of his theories was proven correct.