Daniel groans as he hits the floor hard. Again. Sam stands over him, bouncing on the balls of her feet, and grinning as she offers him a hand back up. Daniel drags himself to his feet, head thumping in time with his heartbeat, and accepts the water bottle she offers him. Swallowing greedily, he tries to will his hangover away, to little effect.
"Ready?" asks Sam.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" accuses Daniel, reluctantly putting down the water and squaring up to the evil genius currently kicking his ass.
The smile drops from Sam's face and she's suddenly deathly serious, "You stripped an unconscious woman naked, Daniel," she reminds him, and sweeps him off his feet in one lithe move. "So, yeah, I'm enjoying this."
Daniel blinks up at her from the flat of his back, and holds his hands up in surrender, "Her suit absorbed zat blasts!" he defends his actions.
"Leaving it on would have given her a tactical advantage," Sam concedes, helping him back up. "Which is the only reason I'm still speaking to you."
"Sam, I-" Daniel isn't sure what to say and stupidly, in his hungover state, offers his friend the same lie he told Vala, "I kept my eyes shut the whole time?"
Sam's eyes narrow, and she calls him on the lie, "Bullshit."
She grabs hold of his shoulder and arm, and Daniel finds himself flying over her head and crashing down into the mat. He groans, and rolls over to stare at the ceiling. He quite likes the floor. Maybe he'll just stay here until this torture session is over.
"I'll never do it again," he promises fervently.
"It was absolutely the right thing to do," admits Sam, sitting down next to Daniel and offering him the water bottle. Daniel props himself up on one elbow to drink as she continues, "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Yeah," signs Daniel. "I know what you mean."
Sam looks him in the eyes, assessing him, and then nudges his elbow out from under him, causing Daniel to topple flat again, "Again with the lies."
Daniel lies in a puddle of cold water and announces, "I'm just gonna stay here."
"We're done anyway," Sam tells him, and Daniel's head snaps up in alarm. "Training," she reassures him. "We're good."
"Thank God," groans Daniel, pushing himself up to sit next to her. "Listen, Sam…"
"Leave it, Daniel," recommends Sam. "Just thinking about it pisses me off. Let me try and forget it happened."
"Okay," Daniel agrees quietly.
They sit together silently. Daniel finds himself dwelling on the sensation of Vala's skin, soft like silk, under his fingertips, the sight of her, the scent of her, and has to force himself to concentrate on Latin declensions instead. Mea, meam, meae, meā… Sam'll kill him if she has any idea of what he's thinking. Vestrī, vostrī, vestrōs, vostrōs, vestrōrum, vostrōrum, vestrīs, vostrīs…
"Unauthorised Off-world Activation!" Walter announces over the PA as the alert sounds.
Sam gets to her feet and offers Daniel a hand up, he waves her off, saying, "I'm gonna go get changed."
"It could be my Dad," Sam tempts.
"I'm coming," Daniel says hurriedly, taking her hand. "I'm coming."
It isn't Jacob. By the time the Tok'ra contact them, almost a full week has passed, and Daniel has settled back into his normal routine of research interspersed with off-world missions. If he sometimes finds himself staring into space with a worried frown, he tells himself that the galactic stakes have never been higher, what with Replicarter, Anubis and his supersoldiers, and the Free Jaffa rebellion coming to a head. When he catches a glimpse of a too-thin woman with raven-black hair from the corner of his eye, he pretends his heart skips a beat from dread, not hope.
He still runs for the control room at every unauthorised activation alarm, but he did that before Vala blasted her way in and out of his life. It's not because they have yet to hear from the Tok'ra. It's not.
Daniel's getting good at lying to himself. Vala would be proud.