All's Well That Ends Well

Spacegypsy1

Chapter Two

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

~Marilyn Monroe

~0i0~

Vala stopped in her tracks when she walked into the mess hall. "Oh. Hello."

Head snapping up, Daniel stared confused by her sudden appearance. He looked away, then back again. "Hey. Ah. Want some Coffee?"

Vala shrugged.

"Have a seat. I'll get the coffee. We have a while before we leave." Daniel stood and Vala sat.

When he returned Vala sat there ram-rod straight, hands in her lap, and face as blank Teal'c's most stoic expression.

Sighing, Daniel looked across the table watching her a moment. "Wanna talk about it?"

She blinked, "What?"

"What's bothering you."

"Oh, that. I couldn't sleep. What's bothering you?" Cocking her head to the side she plastered a false smile on her lips.

"Me? Nothing. I... er... couldn't sleep." Daniel picked up his coffee and sipped it, eyes cast down.

"Well, then we're both okay." Vala said opening the small creamer and dumping it into her cup. "And, we have an adventure ahead of us. And we can get some sleep on the way."

A long silence followed as they drank their coffee intermittently lifting their gaze to each other, before immediately looking away.

Finally, cup empty, Daniel cleared his throat. "How's Harry?"

"Who? Oh, him. Pfft. Okay, I guess. He's a little smothering. I had a bit of a talk with him, didn't go well, he only hears things he wants to hear. And, I think that... well... oh never mind." All of a sudden she stood. "I forgot something. I'll see you when we leave."

A little smothering, eh? Daniel thought, grinning. Maybe this adventure was going to go much better then he thought. They'd have almost twenty four hours alone before they reached the Unas site. Maybe we could talk. Maybe I could talk. I need to talk to her.

~0i0~

The only talking, once they left the ship in the Tel'tak, was Vala showing him the settings she'd coded in, reminding him how to read the nav station. To which he rolled his eyes, exasperated. Then she walked off without a word.

His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. Daniel turned from the console staring speechless at her retreating form. She retrieved a blanket and a pillow from storage, laid down on the long bench, pulled the covers over her head and grew quiet.

She slept a good three hours while Daniel drummed his fingers against the boards, turned intermittently in her direction, rolled his eyes often, return to stare out the view screen. His mind went down many roads in those hours, finally coming to focus. What did he think would happen? That she'd settle down and open up to him? That she would show some sign of the changes he was feeling? Had he showed some sign? Damn it, no.

Great. Just great. "VALA!" He called, loud and irritated.

She shot up, obviously startled. "What happened?"

"We need to talk."

"About?"

"Ah, er, about, about this Harry thing."

"There is no Harry thing. Besides, why do you care!?"

"Because."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense. Thank you so much for waking me up from a particularly delightful dream to interfere in my life! Daniel you are not my big brother!"

"Nor do I want to be your big brother!" He stood and started towards her.

Vala raised a brow and pointed emphatically toward the console. "You need to keep an eye on that."

"Why?"

"Why?" Fluffing her hair, Vala asked in a tone of disbelief.

"Yes. You locked the coordinates in. It's on auto. Why do I need to keep an eye on it? I, well, I'd rather keep an eye on you."

Throwing the covers aside, Vala scrunched her brows in reaction to his statement and sat up thinking she misunderstood. "Daniel, darling. There is nothing going to happen to me while I'm over here, sleeping. You're worse than Mitchell. I didn't get any sleep last night. I have another eight or so hours after I drop you off. Flying alone. I need to sleep."

"You've been sleeping. What kept you up all night? What's going on?"

Twisting, she flopped back on the bed, covered her face with her hands and groaned. "It's called amnesia. Oh posh! That's not right." Removing her hands from her face she raised them straight up towards the ceiling in frustration. "It's called insomnia. Common malady. Especially when one has issues."

He'd come to stand by her, hands in his pockets. Determined to not back down now. He had to know. "Do you love him?"

She jumped up so fast he had to take a step back to make room for her to land on her feet, inches from him. "Harry? No. And I was awake all night because I think he's gotten the wrong idea. No matter how many times I try to make him understand. He won't listen! I actually think he's, well, serious, and that he might, actually, be going to ask me... to... to..."

"He's going to ask you to marry him." He stated as fact.

"How do you know that?"

"Because he came to me to pick out which engagement ring I thought you might like."

"Oh? Did you?" Her eyes softened and she smiled.

"Did I what?"

"Pick out one."

"Nooo," He stretched the word out with incredulity before scowling and then clearing his throat. "I was a bit taken aback by the whole thing. They all looked like something you'd like."

Placing a hand on his cheek, Vala whispered. "Expensive?"

"Very."

Vala sat, scooted her feet back under the covers, plopped down, and pulled the covers over her head, mumbling, "That's nice. Now go away, so I can sleep."

"Vala." he pleaded.

One hand come from under the covers and she pointed towards the pilot seat.

"Fine!" He said and headed to the cockpit, mumbling under his breath.

"What? What was that?" She called from under the covers.

"Noth..." Daniel was knocked off his feet when the ship spun sideways following a loud thud.

Vala was tossed to the floor producing a thump and a groan. Her eyes scanned the front screen. She shot upwards and ran for the controls.

The ship spun again sending her careening into Daniel and they both slammed into the bulkhead.

He let out a yelp, shoved Vala aside and crawled towards the pilot seat, calling back, "You okay?"

Vala, also on her hands and knees now, scrambled past him and pulled herself into the seat. "I think so." She answered, fingers dancing over the controls, desperately trying to get control of the ship. "Uh oh."

Daniel gained the seat opposite her and hit one of the emergency beacon switches to send it out with their coordinates. "Uh oh, what?"

"Meteor. Tail. We've tumbled right in it. And heading for that." Vala pointed out the view screen where a planet appeared and seemed to be hurtling towards them, or they, actually, towards it. They exchanged worried looks for a few seconds then, with coordination long honed from years working together, they fought together to gain control of the spinning ship as it was tugged along by the meteor's powerful debris.

It took a good five minutes before the ship settled.

"Daniel, hold us steady don't move up, down, or anywhere. Just keep this speed. I'm going to see if I can get the main power back on, see what our situation is, get some better control and some nav. And, darling. You better hook up that fancy shoulder belt Jack insisted on adding to every SGC ship. Just in case." She rolled out of her seat and headed towards the bank of panels.

After a good ten minutes, Daniel yelled out, "Damn, I can barely hold it steady! Hurry up or we're going to be part of the rocks that hit that planet. Great, just great!"

"Oh, pooh! We'll be fine. I have a plan. Plan A, Plan B and I'm working on a Plan C. I've got the power up. Nav is a bit wobbly, but we have it when it's in and not when it goes out. Controls are, well, controllable." She slipped back into the pilot seat and patted Daniel's shoulder." I'm going to try to match the speed of the flow, and go with it. Not a good idea to try to break free."

"It's headed for the planet, as in ground, crash, boom, death!"

"Well, Daniel, if we break out now, we'll get slammed with the dust and big rocks. Big rocks. Big, big rocks. I think I can ride the pull it has on us and then shoot down just a notch once we're close enough to skip out, you know low but not actually... ground, crash, boom and then land. Or if not land, sort of crash just a little, hopefully without the boom, ground, death."

"Shit!" Daniel shook his head, puffed out a disgruntled breath and stared aghast at Vala.

"Have faith, darling."

"Okay. Right. I trust you."

"Daniel?"

"Hmm?"

"I, ahm, well, didn't sleep with Harry. Not that you care. I don't really like him, much."

"I care, Vala. Right now, though, I think we need to focus on that large green ball we're rushing towards."

"I care too, Daniel. For you, I mean, that... So. Well. It's strange, that we could never say that until..."

"Death do us Part?"

~0i0~

The landing wasn't so bad, it was the two mile skid across rocky ground, littered with large trees that produced the bad parts – like trees snapping and rolling over them, noises that sounded like the ship was being peeled apart, all accompanied by screams, yells, curses, moans and groans.

The Tel'tak came to a sudden and jarring halt at the foot of a towering mountain, just in front of a stand of trees, halfway between a large clear lake and a narrow gorge. The meteor shower was left behind.

"Ah." Vala relaxed. "Told you we needed those supper doodle safety belts."

"Super Duper."

"That too." Vala undid her belt and stood. "I didn't see any towns, cities, villages. Did you?"

Daniel looked cock-eyed at her. "You had your eyes closed the whole time!"

"I peeked. Every once in a while. You?"

Dropping his head he sighed. "I had a few reactive eye closings. Mostly watched in horror. Saw not a sign of civilization, though." Undoing the seat belt Daniel turned sideways in his seat and looked up at her. "How far did we travel after I sent the beacon?"

She laughed, "Hmm, way far, way across, and since the Nav station was down along the way, I have no idea where we are. I'll start checking all the supplies. Of which we have a room full since we were bringing things to both sites. We should be fine for quite a while. Which of course it will take most of – if not all of 'quite a while' to be located. I set the emergency beacon on. So if they get close, well, here we are."

Nodding, Daniel stood. "Do we have a cloak?"

Shrugging, she cocked her head, looking confused. "I'm not sure. Why?"

"Because IF there is any civilization here we don't need to be perceived as the invading aliens."

"Fine. I'll get to work on that and you can check our supplies."

~0i0~

Vala couldn't figure out what was wrong with the cloak and that had her growing more and more disgruntled.

Daniel chose to spend time away telling himself he needed to check out the area, but truthfully, he knew he mostly wanted some time to clear his head full of confusion about Vala.

Then, after three days of hiking in different directions, Daniel spotted smoke not too far off.

He decided to take the grueling hike up the mountain for a better view. And a curious Vala decided to tag along. Both took out their monoculars, studied the area and discovered a village no more then a few clicks away from where the Tel'tak had landed.

Vala leaned forward as if it would bring her closer. "Hmm, looks rather sparse."

"Right." Daniel agreed. "There seems to be some thatched like huts. A central fire pit. Pretty much your basic early..."

"Don't." Vala said, a bit strongly.

He turned to scowl at her. "What?"

"Don't lecture me on which time period, histories, what mythological or astrological events or languages are most likely!"

"Fine!" He stood, jammed the monoculars in his jacket and started down the mountain. He stopped after only a few steps and looked back. Vala followed, mouth set firm and eyes looking anywhere but at him.

Tension reigned as they exchanged a few words about there predicament agreeing they needed to hide the Tel'tak, somehow.

Vala explained they had power enough, just not anything that would get them out of the gravity and into space. Adding that, sadly, there wasn't any hyperdrive anyway. She suggested moving it into the large overhang under the mountain until she figured out what was wrong with the cloak.

Daniel insisted there was no way into the overhang because of the stand of trees that stood in front, leaving little room.

But, no. She took that ship over the trees, straight up, and backed it straight down, slowly leveled it while inching back into the opening under the mountain.

God, I love her, he thought surprising himself. Unable to stop a grin, he looked at her. "You never cease to amaze me."

"It's nothing. Really. Now. Mmm. How long do you think it will take before they realize we're MIA?" She asked as she shut down the ship.

"Not much A, more like M.I.S." He said, laughing.

"I don't know that one." She sighed with disappointment. "I'll never learn it all, will I?"

"I made that one up. Missing in Space."

"Oh! That's not fair!" Vala shot him a glare, and took out towards the cargo hold.

"Don't get mad! I was... Vala!"

She'd shut the heavy door in his face.

"It was a joke! I will never, ever figure you out!" He yelled, frustrated.

"I'm retracting my previous statement about Harry!"

Now he stood just outside the metal door. "Of course! I think the big square ring is the one you should pick. It cost the most!"

"Perfect!"

All grew quiet.

Leaning his forehead against the door Daniel lightly tapped with one knuckle.

"What?" Vala called softly.

"I'm sorry."

The door slid open. "I know. Me too. I'm feeling a bit wonko." She held up a pack of cookies. "This will help."

Laughing, he took one, then unexpectedly, he pulled her into a hug.

Face buried in his chest she mumbled. "I think we need a real vacation. Where we can't crash on some distant planet. Or have bad guys chasing us. Or where we argue. Just you and me. We have issues, darling."

"Sure. We need to plan that."

Again, they quieted as Daniel held her, and Vala snaked her arms around his waist. They stood silent, hugging.

Resting his chin on the top of her head Daniel spoke, softly. "We need to set up a camp."

"Why, we can live in here in the ship." Vala sighed, dreamily.

"I think... I think we need to spy on the village. I think we need to set up a hut like how they live. Mimic how they dress. We have no idea how long we'll be here. It would be safer. That is, if they don't have blue skin and squiggly antenna."

"Like on Star Trek?"

"Sure. I guess." He wasn't ready to let her go, but he did relax his hold on her. "I'll hike out and do a little recon closer to the village. Would you try again, see if you can get the cloak working?"

She let him go, pulled back, looked him in the eyes, then she smiled, nodded and turned away, walking towards the panel. "Go. Be careful." She didn't look back at him. Just closed her eyes, and thought, Oh, gods, I'm in love Daniel. I've gone way past wonko.

~0i0~TBC