E Pluribus Unum

"At least I won't have to wear those awful, dull BDUs anymore," Vala cheerfully proclaimed as Sam Carter pushed her wheelchair down the hallway of the SGC. "Your people's clothes aren't that wonderful themselves, but anything's better than those monotonous BDUs. Seems to me the Tau'ri need a fashion sense."

"Some Tau'ri have a 'fashion sense,'" Marla retorted, determinedly keeping her eyes off of the alien woman in the wheelchair. "Maybe very few, and maybe not your kind of fashion, but, believe it or not, some of them are as obsessed with their clothing as you."

"I'm not obsessed," Vala protested. "I'm passionate."

"Yeah, right," Marla muttered under her breath. "All past experience would speak otherwise." One of the four bags she was carrying on one arm for the alien woman to whom she was speaking threatened to slide to the floor, and she quickly readjusted her position to better hold it. She just barely caught it. "As will current experiences."

"Darling, this is now all the clothing I own." Vala raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think I'm allowed to be extravagant this once?"

That drew a small smile from Carter, who glanced at Marla. "She's right, ma'am."

Eyes narrowing only vaguely in her subordinate's direction, Marla replied, "There's more clothing in these four bags than I have in my entire wardrobe."

"That is sad, Marla," Vala said, shaking her head. "Very, very sad."

No, it's realistic for a military woman, Marla thought, but didn't say. And she purposely ignored Vala's use of her first name—it wasn't the first time today she'd had to do it. As much as it annoyed her that Vala was deliberately trying to provoke her, she was going to give Vala absolutely no satisfaction by displaying it.

Instead, she glanced at her wristwatch, gladly realizing that she had somewhere to be other than here in the next fifteen minutes. "Sad or not, me and my bland wardrobe have work to do." Again, she swiftly altered the position of her arm, preventing another bag from sliding off. "I'll carry these wherever you need me to, but I've got to go."

"Oh, so soon?" asked Vala.

She can't be so desperate for companionship that she'll try and keep me here. "Paperwork waits for no one," Marla responded aloud.

"I've got work to do too, Vala," Carter put in. "Sorry. I'll take you back to the infirmary."

Though she probably tried to keep it otherwise, Vala's still stitch-covered face visibly fell at the thought of returning to the infirmary where she'd remained for the past week. Despite that, her voice was steady as she said, "Oh, alright."

For a moment, Marla considered making some sort of suggestion as to where Vala might be able to go… But before she could voice any opinions or ideas, the thief's face quickly brightened and her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Actually, I think I have a better idea."

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The lab was empty when Sam first pushed Vala's wheelchair in, and so she was hesitant to leave. With a little bit of prodding, Vala convinced the astrophysicist that she would be perfectly fine by herself for a few minutes. And coincidentally, she didn't even have to sit alone for those few moments.

Less than a minute after Sam left, Daniel reappeared in his lab/office.

With her broken arm, Vala was unable to move around in her wheelchair alone, so she stayed in the spot where Sam had originally left her: right by the door, facing it.

So she got a good view of Daniel's startled face when he walked in to find her—one of his greatest annoyances—sitting there, idly waiting for him to return. If she could've been sitting on the table seductively, she would've, but just grinning seductively when he walked in would have to suffice for her in her current state.

And his face at that sight was quite a sight in itself.

"Vala!" he exclaimed, almost jumping. "What're you doing here?" He seemed… jittery to Vala at the moment. A bit shaken up.

She almost wanted to ask what it was, but she thought the attempt would be fruitless and besides, she absolutely couldn't resist smilingly taking the opportunity he opened for sarcasm. "Breathing, Daniel," she said. "What else?"

That seemed to calm whatever it was bothering him at least a little bit. Rolling his eyes and setting the folders in his arm down on his desk, he went on, "I thought you were off-base with Sam and Jameson."

"I was," Vala replied. "We just got back."

"From where?"

"We went shopping at what Sam called a 'mall,' I think," Vala responded, carefully craning her neck just to try and keep her eyes on Daniel as he moved along a massive bookshelf, selecting a few specific volumes that looked worn beyond use. "Very interesting, though I still think you Tau'ri have next to no fashion sense as a people. Most of the clothes in that place were absolutely hideous."

As he was facing away from her at the bookshelf, Vala couldn't really see Daniel's face, but it looked like he smiled lightly at her words.

Raising her eyebrows, Vala cocked her head slightly to one side and continued, "Though I have to say, some of it has promise."

Daniel glanced back over his shoulder at her. "I take it that means you actually found some of our boring, fashion-less clothing worthy enough for your wardrobe?"

She nodded. "Yes, actually."

"How much did you get?"

"Oh, just a few things here and there," Vala eluded, averting the question.

Fixing her with a fairly harsh stare, Daniel raised an eyebrow at her. "Vala, how much is 'a few things'?"

She gestured lightly with her good arm. "Oh, only about four bags full or so."

After widening briefly in surprise, Daniel's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Who paid for all of that?" As if believing she might have somehow taken it from him, Daniel's hand hovered over the pocket Vala knew from past experience he kept his wallet in.

"Oh, I think Marla paid for it all," she said dismissively. To be perfectly honest, she hadn't really paid that much attention.

At first, Daniel looked relieved and his hand resumed drifting across the volumes on his shelf. Then he turned back towards her a frown creasing his face. "Marla?" he asked. "Who's Marla?"

Does no one know her first name? Vala thought. That woman is truly sad. "Colonel Jameson," she said aloud.

That seemed to surprise Daniel. "Oh, really? She really paid for it?"

"Yes, really," she replied. "And I learned from this little outing that you Tau'ri have odd currency." Taking it from her pants pocket, Vala fingered a coin she'd stolen from Jameson earlier that day. "Your coins are so small, and I've never seen anything like this 'paper money' of yours before."

As he turned around and laid the various books he'd selected from the shelf on his desk, Daniel saw the coin Vala fingered. He opened his mouth to say something—probably chastisement of some sort for stealing it—but closed it again when he saw exactly what kind of coin it was.

And from that look, Vala surmised it was likely next to worthless. She pouted internally. It just figured the one coin she managed to snatch was valueless.

One of her nails scratched over the words on the smooth, shiny copper metal. The pictures on either side were somewhat odd in her thinking, but most of the words were simple, at least. Except one phrase. "Daniel, what is this 'eh-ploor-i-boos-un-oom' that's on all of the money?"

He looked up with a light smile on his face. "It's not 'eh-ploor-i-boos-un-oom.' It's pronounced 'ee plur-i-bus oon-um.' It's an old language we call Latin and translates into 'Out of many, one.' It's one of our country's mottos, used to signify our different people groups coming together as one nation."

"Out of many, one," Vala said, trying the phrase on her tongue. "I like that. Kind of like me: one unique, special person out of so many."

Some sort of reply or more probably a snappy retort formed on Daniel's lips, but he caught himself before it came out, likely thinking better of it. Instead, he sat down silently behind his desk and opened an exceptionally large tome that he'd just laid there.

A temperate silence hung between them for a moment. Gently turning her head so as not to harm her still-mending collarbone, Vala looked at Daniel, bending over close to that big, dusty book with that oh-so-familiar "thirst for knowledge" look on his face. And after that moment, Vala abruptly decided like she usually did that she was bored and bothering Daniel was probably the only thing that would keep her interested at the moment.

"So, Daniel, what're you doing now?" she started. Pestering questions were always easy to come by.