Chapter Two
Daniel lay still, conscious of Vala who was still sleeping curled up close against him. Her hand was tangled in his T-shirt from where she'd clenched her fist every time that the thunder boomed overhead. They'd both lain awake for a long time on the previous night – he'd never realised before, how much storms seemed to frighten her.
Vala had gradually molded herself closer and closer against Daniel, until she was wrapped almost entirely around his top half and left leg. He guessed that she couldn't have been that comfortable, but she'd still managed to fall asleep eventually. A mane of long hair spread across his arm and shoulder and she had almost buried her face in his neck, a side effect of all that wriggling about during the night.
The storm had blasted itself out but the air didn't seem to have cleared much – it was still pretty heavy and stifling in the little cave. The fact that he was almost blanketed by a Vala-duvet probably wasn't helping. Daniel could feel a cough coming - he tried to stifle it so as not to wake his team mate, but only succeeded in starting a choking fit. He struggled up, head banging and hand over mouth.
Vala slid onto the ground – she rolled onto her back, rubbing her eyes.
"Morning," Reaching for the water, Daniel coughed out a greeting.
"Let me, darling," Vala got to the bottle first and opened it, holding it carefully against his lips as he took a deep draught.
"Thanks." Daniel flopped back against his backpack. "Any pain killers left?"
"Some." His team mate pulled a sheet of tablets out of her own supplies and popped a couple of them into her palm. "Down in one, darling." She winked, handing him the bottle of water again.
He knocked the pills back quickly.
Meanwhile Vala was checking his ankle. It still looked very red and swollen, but no worse than it had appeared the day before. She took her own bottle and freshened the tissue which lay across the poor, bruised joint. "Does that feel a little easier?" she asked, gently replacing the makeshift cool pack.
Daniel nodded. "Yeah." It didn't feel better by much, but she was trying so hard, and being so considerate that he didn't want to put her off. He frowned as he watched her wince and stretch her shoulders awkwardly. "How are you feeling?" he enquired, concerned.
"Oh," flapping her hands around and grinning like a Cheshire cat, Vala attempted to distract him. "I'm fine darling. Just landed a little too roughly on my very pretty backside yesterday. My back aches a little, that's all." Actually it ached quite a lot, as did her shoulders and her posterior, but she wasn't going to admit that. Not when she was the one in charge. The one who was doing the looking after, for once.
"Do you hear that?" Daniel cocked his head to one side suddenly. He could hear a trickling, tinkling sound from close by the cave.
Frowning, Vala crawled to the entrance and peeped out. Then - "Oh I say!" She grabbed her half full water bottle, upending it into Daniel's almost empty one. Then without another word she shot out of the cave entrance and disappeared. When she returned she was grinning.
"It's a little stream! The storm must have made it overnight," she told him, rummaging in her pack for the water treatment tablets which they always carried, and dropping two into her flask. She swirled them around. "It's a bit sandy, but I'm sure it will taste just – just lovely!" Vala wiggled the container in her hand and smiled engagingly at Daniel.
The invalid wasn't so sure about the taste of very sandy and treated water but in an emergency an injured archaeologist had to take what he could get.
Vala was thinking privately that the sandy water would be useful for bathing sprained ankles and sore heads – as long as Daniel had enough drinking water, that was the main thing. She took a swig from her bottle. "That is positively vile, darling!" she spluttered, handing it over to her team mate who dubiously swallowed a mouthful.
"Agreed. Tastes like someone's washed their Alliance socks in it." Daniel pulled a face and handed it back to her. "We can use it in an emergency though."
"Do you think that the other's will come today?" Vala ran her fingers through her hair to try and get it looking half way decent. "Mitchell and Muscles, I mean. Do you think they'll come back and look for us?"
"I guess so." Daniel winced as he changed position. "Depends what other teams are around for back up. Or whether they're going to wait and see if we can make it to the Stargate ourselves." He paused. "You could go. There's no reason that you should be stuck here too. You could make a run for it and get help."
"But who would care for you?" Vala looked horrified, like he'd asked her to chop her own arm off. "You're injured. I couldn't leave you, darling. You're not implying that you want me to leave, are you? That you want to be left on your own? Am I doing a bad job of being a nurse? Because I think that I'm coping quite admirably, actually, and I'm trying at all times to think of what Carolyn would do in this situation. And before, you know, I used to do some work with healing. With a person who healed. A person, I mean, who healed other people. I was quite good at helping, you know. I was their assistant. Before - before - you know."
"Before what?" Daniel thought that he already knew the answer. Vala had never shared this part of her past with him before. She was so closed off about her previous life, and told so many exaggerated stories that generally he just let her tales drift over him. But this seemed different – like the truth had escaped without her meaning it too.
There was a long pause. Vala looked away from him and began to draw patterns on the sandy floor of the cave.
"Before what?" Repeating his earlier question, Daniel leaned forward and gently pulled at her arm.
"Her." Vala didn't look at him, but carried on tracing pictures. "Before her."
Silence. She undoubtedly meant Qetesh. Daniel tugged her harder on her arm.
Eventually Vala looked across at him. She was trying hard not to look sad, but her beautiful, stormy eyes gave it away.
"Then I'm a lucky man," gently he squeezed her shoulder. "Having you to look after me."
Vala smiled and punched his arm. Then looked speculative. "Perhaps I should sneak off up to the Stargate," she mused. "I mean, if it is unguarded, I wonder if we could find a way to get to it and escape?"
"Vala….." warned Daniel, in his 'what madness have I planted in her head' voice.
"I'll be careful!" waving her hand dismissively, his team mate crept up to the front of the cave. "Well, would you look at that! The stream's all vanished away." She popped her head carefully out of the opening. "It's terribly hot out there, darling, I shall undoubtedly get burned to an ember."
"Cinder." Daniel threw his bandana at her, which he'd pulled from his rucksack. "You'll be burned to a cinder."
"Same thing." Vala tied the headscarf in place.
The archaeologist's heart did a sudden little judder in his chest. She looked very sweet and – he swallowed – quite sexy with his bandana wrapped around her gorgeous black tresses.
"Right! Wish me luck!" and without another word Vala plunged out of the cave and vanished.
Daniel opened his mouth to yell after her, before thinking better of it. The last thing that he wanted to do was give away either his or her position to the enemy. He swigged back another mouthful of water and tried to settle himself more comfortably. Pulling out his radio, he checked that it still worked. There was only static when he switched it on however, so he turned it off again, sighing.
Daniel moved his right leg carefully. The painkillers had alleviated the pain slightly, he hoped that the ankle wasn't broken. He poked at the bruise above his right eye. "Ouch." Laying back on his rucksack again he moved around until he felt comfortable and close his eyes. He must have dozed off, because he was awoken by Vala crawling back into the cave.
She was breathless, red faced and dripping with sweat. Pulling the bandana off she ran her hand through her damp hair, and used the headscarf to wipe her face.
"It's so hot." Vala was still panting hard, having trouble catching her breath.
Daniel handed her the water bottle, concerned.
She coughed hard before taking a quick drink. After a few moments her breathing settled. "It's so hot!" repeating her earlier statement, she laid herself flat out on the earth, kicking off her boots. "It must be a hundred degrees of something or other out there! Really, I mean it darling. And the sun just burns you. Look!"
The skin on her arms did indeed look redder than when she had left the cave. Rumaging around in her backpack she pulled out a tube of sun lotion and rubbed it in.
"Er –." Daniel pursed his lips. "Stable door – horse?"
"Stable door? What are you talking about?" Vala launched herself unexpectedly onto his lap and laid a hand against his forehead. "Are you delirious again darling? Because I can assure you that I didn't see one single horse out there, or a stable to put him in!"
Daniel smiled. "No, it's just a Tau'ri saying. You're putting the sun cream on after you've been in the sun."
"Better late than never." Vala ran her hand softly down his face, a strange look in her eyes. Her lips parted slightly.
Daniel found he was suddenly unable to draw his own gaze away from his team mate's. "Vala…" he began, slowly.
"I know." Sighing, she clambered off of his lap. "Seriously though, Daniel, there is something wrong with the weather out there! Perhaps it's because there are no clouds today." She paused, musing. "It's almost like the sun burns every part of you that it can get hold of, including inside your nose and mouth when you breathe."
"Did you get to the Stargate?" Daniel asked, thinking that he already knew the answer.
Vala shook her head, sadly. "I walked for ages – ages and ages, and eventually managed to crawl up the cliff, where it's not quite so steep." Indicating a large hole in her BDU's and a sore-looking grazed knee beneath, she frowned. "I don't think that I like cliffs very much. Anyway – the Stargate is surrounded by bad guys. At least a dozen of them. And there's a very sad and sorry looking MALP sitting there as well, all dented and broken. I suppose that Mitchell sent it through to see if it was safe to come back."
They both sat in silence for a while. Daniel sighed eventually, took his glasses off with one hand and rubbed his eyes with the other.
"It'll be alright, darling," Vala nodded, trying to cheer him up. "It'll just take Mitchell and Muscles a bit longer, that's all. They'll have to think up a better plan for coming back to find us. Perhaps they'll send the Hammond. Oh!" She clasped her hands together, smiling widely, eyes bright. "Perhaps Samantha will come and save us!"
"Perhaps." Daniel slipped his glasses back on and leaned back. Yes, they'd just have to sit and wait. And hope that the Alliance didn't find them first.
TBC...
