All's Well That Ends Well

spacegypsy1

Chapter Four

~0i0~

"My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness."

― André Breton

The dark and stillness of the cave seemed to close in on them as they stalled in place after Daniel's declaration of love.

Shouldering his gun, the light shot upwards illuminating the couple in an eerie circle of light. With a sinking feeling he swallowed, gathered what courage he could muster and rushed his words out, "Vala, you don't have to love me, I understand..."

"Shut up, Daniel." Her words were soft and sweet, and came as her lips pressed against his throat. "Give me time to answer," she said in between moist kisses that traveled upwards, finally coming to rest just to the edge of his bottom lip.

"I'll do whatever it takes to be with you Vala." He ducked his head to bring her kiss home.

"Wait." She murmured stepping away.

Dropping the duffel he carried, Daniel demanded, "Vala! Do you or don't you love me?"

"Well, you see..."

He interrupted not wanting to hear more, "Answer me this, do you want to make love, have sex with me?" He knew he'd lost his mind, but he was determined to figure out just what she wanted. And willing to forego what he wanted.

Moving forward Vala didn't answer, only shinned her light into the vacuous space.

Following close behind he continued his deluge of inquisition. "So, the flirting and all? It's because you wanted to have sex with me?"

Spinning around she blinded him with the light on her weapon. "Well, of course it is!"

His hand shot up to block the brightness from his face. "Okay." He said much calmer than he felt. "You are not in love with me, but you want to have sex with me. Fine. I can deal with that. Sex it is!"

Again she turned her back to him, pointed her light ahead and continued to walk. "I can't."

"What!"

"I can't have sex with you." She said matter-of-factly.

Baffled, Daniel stopped and stared at her back as she moved ahead. "Beee... cause?"

Vala stopped, dropped her chin downwards and sighed despondently and loudly.

Walking up behind her he placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. You don't have to... I... I'm sorry. I thought..."

Placing a hand over his, she spoke gently. "I'm not on birth control. I want you so very, very much. Daniel, I'm crazy in love with you."

"Oh. Oh! Really?" Slipping his arm fully around her front he pulled her against him. "Crazy in love, eh?"

"Um hum."

"So all this craziness was to keep me from ravishing you - because we're stuck here and to avoid having little Daniels and Valas coming into this madness?" He drew a steadying breath. "You're absolutely sure you can't get the hyperdrive working in the Tel'tak? So we can go home where I can ravish you, and you can ravish me?"

"Yes to the first part and I'm positive about the ship... unless..."

"Unless what?" he asked hopefully.

"Unless we find another ship I can salvage parts from." Suddenly she stiffened. "What was that?"

"What?" Alert, he listened closely.

"Chanting, Daniel. I hear chanting. I hear Jaffa chanting!"

"Jaffa! Damn I'm slipping, of course!" Letting her go, he moved ahead cautiously, speaking low, "It's coming from back there." He pointed even though he knew she probably didn't see it.

"In the dark and scary and large and unexplored cavity?"

"Yeah. You have your M and M's so let's go check it out. They had to get here somehow."

"Probably dumped here by some System Lord. And also stuck here. Let's walk into the midst of a band of renegade Jaffa, who apparently from what you've said, have been here for quite some time. Most likely unaware of the demise of the Goa'uld. Still with symbiotes. And, besides they'll eat my M and M's. So, yes, darling, let's go meet them, that's a great idea!" She marched off, passing him.

"My God I love you!" He said and followed her.

Vala turned and walked backwards, grinning, shielding her eyes from his light. "I know. But I love you more."

"Not likely." Daniel turned the light on his P90 off and within seconds put on the lower beam of his flashlight, whirling it about to indicate that Vala turn forward.

"Yes. Because, darling, I've been in love longer than you."

"Nope. Now move back. I'll take point."

"Oh gods, you're not going all protective on me just because you want to have sex with me, are you?" She complained while she did as he asked.

"Absolutely."

"Well, you'll get us both fired with that attitude." She snapped out, then stuck her tongue out at his back.

"We'd actually have to get back to get fired!" He grouched.

"Hmph! We'll probably get killed anyway!"

"So, no worries. And keep quiet, will you?"

Silence followed.

~0i0~

Daniel cautiously rounded a corner and halted signaling for Vala to stop. Firelight from multiple fires flickered around an enormous open area. Shadows danced on the cave walls. And something glistened intermittently when the light moved across it.

Gaze locked on the spot he watched carefully for a few more passes. Stifling a gasp Daniel began pushing Vala back moving with her until they were far behind the corner.

"If," he said in a whisper, flashlight illuminating the small space where they stood, "we dumped some of the cargo can we get eleven adults, six kids and three babies in the Tel'tak?"

Vala's brows dove in confusion at the same time she nodded. "Of course, it's carried troops, for heaven's sakes. You know like those Saw-deans in the can that Mitchell always talks about."

"Sar... never mind. I think I might have just found a place you can procure some parts."

"What?" She said loudly.

His hand covered her mouth. "Shh. There's a Tel'tak back there. Probably flew it in and kept going. I figure some fifteen, twenty years ago. I think those trees were planted then. The ship's battered, almost to pieces. It's hidden. They must have ran, escaped from some Goa'uld."

Thinking about the space she and Daniel had just crossed she nodded. "Could have flown it in." Vala mumbled around his hand.

Removing his hand he cupped her neck and laid his forehead against hers. "Let's hope it fared better mechanically than ours. This planet is doomed, a few more months, maybe a few years and the mother of a meteor is going decimate the planet or send it out into the cosmos in pieces. We both know that."

"Alright, Daniel. We would have to be ready to get off the planet and past this atmosphere shortly after the tail passes in order to escape being pulled back into it. But before we go in there to sell our plan, kiss me."

"Now? Here?"

"Yes."

"Don't you think we're jumping the gun?"

"Is that like the Tau'ri chicken before the egg thingie?"

"Sort of."

"We're only going to kiss, not add a baby to the list, Daniel."

He didn't bother replying, instead he took her mouth in a heart stopping kiss.

"Ready?" He asked mouth still lingering near hers.

"I'm not sure I can walk." She laughed lightly.

As one they turned and found themselves face to face with six Jaffa, hand tooled spears pointed.

"Hello," Vala said, "we're peaceful explorers who crashed on your lovely, yet doomed planet. The Tau'ri has wiped out the Goa'uld System Lords. The Asgard have self extinguished themselves. The Tok'ra have perfected separating Goa'uld from host and most importantly, there is a way to eliminate the symbiote from Jaffa with a 100% survival rate. Oh! And the free Jaffa have taken over Dakara. Is your hyperdrive salvageable?"

~0i0~

At spear point Vala and Daniel were escorted into the inner circle of the Jaffa who had sought shelter deep into the cave.

"We don't have time to convince you. We have to see if your hyperdrive is intact, repair ours. Then we have little time to get everyone into the ship and get out of here. You have to trust us." Daniel pleaded, looking from man to man. "You know it's getting worse. Help us and we can all have a chance at survival."

Daniel recounted a bit of Teal'c's story and the struggle of the free Jaffa. At one point, a few children wandered into the circle, curious. When the Jaffa remained unconvinced Daniel nodded towards the children. "They deserve a chance at survival and freedom."

The Jaffa spoke Goa'uld amongst themselves unaware both Daniel and Vala could understand every word. The two kept from reacting as the group discussed whether or not to trust these two strangers with their wild tales. They each recounted that there was no alternative and since they outnumbered their supposed rescuers they were ready to get their families off this planet.

"Your children deserve to be a part of the new world." Vala said in Goa'uld. "I know you can detect the Naquadah in my blood. I was a host, freed and I joined the Tau'ri to fight the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld are gone. All of the System Lords. Please. We have to hurry."

As one, the Jaffa all stood, the leader, Mon'tu called out to his people to begin packing up and to hurry. "Take them to your ship, they can help prepare." He told Daniel. Mon'tu motioned for two of his men to follow Daniel. Then he looked at Vala. "Come, we will pull the needed items for your ship."

Daniel and Vala exchanged a node before separating.

~0i0~

The ship had suffered serious damage, but mostly to the hull, with numerous breaches. She wondered how they made it through the planet's atmosphere.

The Jaffa leader fired questions at Vala all the while assisting her in removing every crystal and part that remained viable and handing them off to the three Jaffa who stood silently watching.

Vala, in turn, answered his questions giving him a more detailed version of her earlier statement. All of the men seemed dubious so she launched into Teal'c's story, embellishing here and there for dramatic effect.

That seemed to do the trick. They stripped the ship in record time and hustled to meet up with the rest.

~0i0~

Once the repairs were completed they all waited expectantly for the barrage to stop.

Tension could be felt as the Jaffa eyed the Tau'ri weapons. Children became restless. The women eyed Vala suspiciously.

"You have the mark of Moloc. Do you know of Ishta?" Vala asked one of the women who nodded, still wary. "Ishta lead the Hak'tel resistance and was involved in the death of Moloc. She is a friend of the Tau'ri."

When she got no response other then the lift of a brow Vala pulled out a pack of cookies and offered one but the woman looked away. Popping a cookie in her mouth, Vala moaned in pleasure and tried again.

This time the woman took one and nibbled a bit, her expression immediately changed. "Mi'ka," she said.

Vala looked at the pack of cookies. "Cookie? That's not..."

Mi'ka pointed to herself and both women laughed.

"I'm Vala." Splitting open the package she passed out cookies and relaxed.

"Vala, we're heading out to make sure all is quiet. You might wanna get up here and fire it up." Daniel yelled as he and Mon'tu headed out.

''On my way!"

~0i0~ TBC