The Drive-In

A/N: Thanks to LavenderDBrown for the idea!

"DanielJackson." Teal'c stood in the doorway of Dr. Jackson's office, waiting for permission to enter.

"Hey, Teal'c. Come on in." Daniel didn't look up as he completed the last line of translation on an artifact SG-12 had brought back. Finished, he turned to his friend. "How's it going on Dakara?"

"It does not go well on Dakara. It goes poorly. Gerak continues to gain support." Teal'c's emotions were betrayed by the twitching in his jaw and Daniel knew his friend was very unsettled by this turn of events.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Teal'c. How about you and I go do something together?" Daniel hoped to distract his friend and help him relax.

"It is my understanding that there is an Indiana Jones marathon at the drive-in theater this evening. I have had the desire to attend a drive-in theater since watching the special on PBS about the 1950's." Teal'c knew Daniel hated the Indiana Jones movies. He always ranted throughout the movies how unrealistic it was.

Daniel closed his eyes and sighed. Teal'c's a good friend. Teal'c's a good friend. Teal'c's a good friend. He hoped repeating it several times would convince him it was worth sitting through those movies again. He opened his eyes and glanced at his friend. Teal'c face was almost expressionless, but Daniel noted the twitch at the corner of his lip as he tried to control his amusement.

"Sure. Sounds fun." Daniel glanced at his watch. "If we're going get there before dark, we need to leave in about an hour. How about I meet you at my car then?"

"It is agreed, DanielJackson. I shall go inform Vala Mal Doran."

"Vala?" Daniel's voice squeaked in shock. "What's she got to do with this?"

"You cannot be that distance from her for the amount of time we will be gone. She will need to accompany us to the drive-in." Teal'c was now highly amused.

Daniel tossed his glasses on his desk and scrubbed his face with both hands. "Okay, I guess she'll have to go. But, and make this clear to her, she cannot leave the car while we're there."

"I shall endeavor to make the restriction clear to her." Teal'c nodded at Daniel and left for Vala's room.

XXXXXXXXXX

Daniel turned off the engine and sent up a silent prayer that Vala would behave herself. He glanced around and noticed that the drive-in was only about half full. Good, that means fewer people for Vala to shock.

"DanielJackson, I believe now would be an acceptable time to obtain some refreshments from the concession stand."

"Sure, Teal'c." Daniel had a short mental battle with himself about whether it would be better to leave Vala alone in the car – no way Teal'c would stay with her – or risk exposing her to the rest of Earth. Vala alone? Sighing deeply, he turned to Vala, "I guess you'd better go with us. BUT, please be on your best behavior. The rest of my world is not ready for you." Daniel had second – and third - thoughts about going into public with two aliens and shuddered.

"Why, Daniel, you know how well behaved I am! I'm shocked that you would feel it necessary to remind me!" Vala fluttered her eyelashes in Daniel's direction and winked at Teal'c.

"Just get out of the car."

Inside the snack bar, Vala stared open mouthed at the array of food Tau'ri consumed while watching a movie.

"I need to visit the men's room for a few minutes. DON'T touch anything!" Daniel gave Teal'c a glare that told him to guard Vala and not let her move from that spot.

"Teal'c, what is that?" Vala pointed to the popcorn machine that was spewing puffy white kernels.

"I believe that is termed popcorn."

"How do they make it?"

"Small seeds are placed into a heated environment and they explode into the snack you see before you." Teal'c knew she was going to turn this into something suggestive when he saw the gleam in her eye.

"So they apply heat and friction to something small and it expands until it explodes into something wonderful and yummy." She gave Teal'c a sideways grin as her eyes slid down his body.

Yep, she did it. "I believe that is correct. They then usually apply melted butter to the expanded product and consume it."

Vala's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm not even going to touch that! There are children in the room."

Daniel joined the aliens at that time. "So, did you two decide what you'd like?"

Teal'c, with his years of experience of Earth foods, knew what he liked. "I believe I would like a Coke, a box of Gobstoppers and a box of Nerds."

Daniel raised an eyebrow at Teal'c, and then nodded. "Vala, what would you like?"

"I didn't have any dinner before we came, so I'd like some real food. What are those?" She pointed to a glass box that held rotating metal bars with tubes of meat skewered onto them under heat lights.

"I believe that those items are hot dogs. They are placed within a bun and consumed with various condiments." Teal'c clasped his hands behind his back.

"All right, I believe I'll have two of those and a small container of popcorn…oh, and something to drink." Vala turned to Daniel, satisfied with her choices.

Daniel told them to stay where they were while he went up to the counter and purchased their food.

After they had returned to the car, Daniel turned to Vala. "You know, I really thought you'd do something incredibly stupid in there, but you behaved very well. Thank you."

"You know, Daniel, I can be nice sometimes – when I want to." Vala winked at Daniel and then turned her attention to her food.

She picked up the first hot dog in its bun and gave it a speculative examination. She glanced at Daniel out of the corner of her eye to see if he was watching her. He was, although he was trying not to look like he was. Grinning to herself, she began licking the mustard off the hot dog – very slowly. Her tongue swirled around the end of the hot dog and she closed her eyes and moaned slightly.

Daniel's mouth dropped open and he blushed brightly. "Um, Vala, what are you doing?"

"Enjoying myself." She slid the hot dog into her mouth, closed her eyes again and slid it back out.

Daniel continued to stare at her, unable to pull his eyes away. Teal'c sat in the back seat and watched, amused as Vala teased his friend.

Daniel shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his own food and drink untouched. Vala continued to taunt Daniel with her licking until she finally bit, hard, into the end of the hot dog and began chewing. Daniel jumped, as if he'd been bitten and moved his hand protectively between his legs.

Vala almost choked as she tried not to laugh at him with a mouth full of food. "You know, these hot dogs are rather tasty. I believe they may become my favorite Tau'ri food."

Daniel blanched and turned to his own food.

XXXXXXXXXX

Vala behaved herself through most of the first movie. She found herself intrigued by the Indiana Jones character and his adventures in attempting to recover the lost ark – Daniel explained the significance of the ark to her. Toward the end of the movie Vala began to notice that some couples in neighboring cars weren't paying a lot of attention to the screen. They seemed to be engaged in other activities.

Daniel detected when her attention left the movie and began wandering. He groaned to himself when he realized what she was seeing in the cars around them. He had so hoped he wouldn't have to deal with this.

Vala jumped in her seat when one couple disappeared from view. She looked back at Teal'c, who had also been watching her, her eyes large with surprise. Teal'c raised one eyebrow slightly, nodded and one corner of his mouth twitched in amusement.

Vala slid over as close to Daniel as she could get with the gear-shift knob between them. Daniel eyed her cautiously.

She turned her attention back to the screen to see Marion kissing Indy, carefully searching for uninjured areas of his face. When they slid down out of camera view, she glanced over at Daniel.

He was sitting up as straight and stiff as he could in the car, staring straight ahead at the movie screen. As her hand snaked slowly toward his leg, he grabbed it with his hand and flung it back to her side of the car.

"We are not playing that game here in public." Daniel's tone of voice got through to Vala. He was serious and wouldn't allow the teasing she had in mind.

"Teal'c, this movie's almost over. As soon as it is, we're going back to the base. I sure cannot sit through two more of these."

Teal'c knew when his friend had reached the end of his patience and nodded in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXX

Back on the base, Daniel stormed into his quarters and slammed the door. Vala, immediately behind him, opened his door and entered, uninvited.

"I have GOT to remember to start locking that door," Daniel mumbled to himself. Turning to Vala, he spat out, "What do you want?"

Looking down at the floor, Vala responded, "To apologize."

Stopped at the unexpected turn in the conversation, Daniel just stood there.

"I'm sorry, Daniel. I know I can be…a little…forward, sometimes. I just don't know how to behave around you." She looked up into his confused blue eyes. "It's just that we seem to have some chemistry between us and I've always acted on that with others before. I know you're not like most other men and I'm just not sure what to do about that."

His anger defused by her sincere – he hoped – apology, he stammered, "Well, I, um… Vala. Sex isn't a casual game for me. It only has meaning when there's a relationship that goes along with it."

Vala considered what he had just said. "Do you think we could have a relationship?"

"I don't really think so. You're just too much work!" Daniel thrust a hand over his hair.

Vala grinned broadly at Daniel and took a step toward him. "You know the best things in life are the things we work the hardest for."