Fic: Resolution (Daniel/Vala) (PG)
Title: Resolution
Author: Divine Joker
Rating: PG
Spoilers: A tag ending to ‘Continuum’.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making money... in fact, losing it by spending time on this. But it was worth it.
A/N: Billions of hugs and kisses to triciabyrne1978 and lc59 for the speedy beta and wonderful insights into my creative process. Enjoy.
Stepping out from the shade of the Tok’ra building, Daniel realized that his feet were itchy. He hated it when that happened, mostly because it meant living through it, or untying the laces of his boots, satisfying the itch and then tying them up again.
He sighed. He always had considered himself somewhat of a martyr. He found that the company he kept had the sacrificial willingness of saints; and the courage to go with it. Recent additions to the team were not excluded from that generalization. Vala seemed to have developed an uncanny ability to give more of herself than even Daniel had realized she possessed.
Daniel shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun and looked down the steps in front of him to see Sam and Jack, shoulder to shoulder, talking animatedly about the possibility of a moon-base. The hot breeze was scalding his skin and he sighed. Checking over his shoulder, Daniel reminded himself that Vala’s decision to stay and help was a very good one.
Dropping his head, he turned back to follow his friends into the scorching desert on the way the Stargate. Teal’c turned to look at him, his silent glance encompassing Daniel’s pace and posture. They took a few more steps and then Teal’c addressed him.
“I believe that Vala Mal Doran will have many insights to offer the man who was Ba’al’s host.”
Daniel’s mouth quirked into an agreeable grin. “Oh, I agree,” he said, tucking his hands in his pockets and shuffling a small errant pile of sand flat with his passing foot. “She’s a much different person than she was when we first met.”
“She is much different than when she first came to us, my friend.” Teal’c’s voice was soft and agreeable. “I believe that her staying on Earth had made all the difference in her life.” His dark eyes followed him for a few more moments and then with that supremely smug tip of his mouth, he added, “And I know that the company she keeps is greater for her than anything else.”
Knowing that his friend wasn’t really expecting an answer to his statement, Daniel thought that maybe it deserved one. Teal’c had always been the personally insightful one, and he hadn’t missed the target on his analysis of Vala. Still, there were too many things going on in his head for him to answer a thought like that anyway.
Ahead of them the wormhole opened and Sam paused to tap in their IDC. She said something to Jack who shook his head and moved to follow her through the event horizon. One last glance and Daniel followed in their footsteps, his thoughts staying on the planet, with Vala and her desire to comfort the former host.
*******
It was only three days and already Vala could feel herself losing control of the situation. She’d spent the first hours by his bedside as he lay unconscious; sharp shudders and screams from nightmares finally loosed after millennia of being a helpless witness. She knew it, could feel every jerk of fear and the tearing of his throat as he screamed.
Now, he was awake - as much as he could be - and coherent and leaning on the Tok’ra for everything that they could give him. She felt extraneous even though her experiences would be so much more personal and closer to his own.
She didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. Vala had volunteered to stay on the planet because she thought that the Tok’ra could respect her desire to help and sympathize with the man.
Goa’uld or no Goa’uld, the Tok’ra still tended to be arrogant and stubborn in the ways that they tried to rehabilitate former hosts.
Frustrated and depressed, Vala picked up her bag and left the base without so much as a notice to the guards. Daniel had taught her to use her talents where she could - this had been one of those times, but it seemed that she was no longer needed.
What would happen when she got back home?
Home, she smirked sardonically. She hadn’t had a home since she’d left her mother behind. Constantly moving had left her unbalanced and she’d finally regained that with the guidance of her friends on Earth.
Her intel wasn’t useful anymore. With Adria dead, the Ori being pushed back and the Goa’uld finally quashed, Vala was just another body on Earth, at the SGC.
What would happen?
The shift of the sand beneath her feet, the burn of the sun on her cheek brought her back to awareness. She was standing before the ‘gate, her hands grasping her shoulder straps as she stared ahead. Taking a deep breath she accepted the inevitable. Life was unstable; do what you can.
Slapping the address for Earth in the DHD, Vala trudged up the steps and into the deep blue of space, emerging with a sharp breath and the sounds of the klaxons blaring her arrival.
“Nice to see you, Vala.” She looked to see Mitchell in the control room, leaning over Walter’s shoulder to the microphone. She waved in his general direction. “Weren’t expecting you for a while yet.” She shrugged in silent answer and made her way down the ramp with a dejected hang to her shoulders. The soldiers at the door took her weapon and let her pass through with a respectful nod to her. She smiled in appreciation and took a deep breath. She walked through the halls, her heavy boots making an echo along the thick walls.
Some airmen passed her and smiled in greeting, and she found that she could name all but one, who seemed a little shell shocked and must therefore be a new recruit.
“Nice to see you back, Vala,” the senior airman said as he allowed her to pass.
“Thanks, David. How was your daughter’s birthday party?” She smiled, turning as she kept walking to catch the answer.
“Had a blast, thanks.” He tipped his hand in gratitude and then showed the airmen where to go before turning the corner and disappearing.
Suddenly her feeling upon leaving the Tok’ra planet were gone, the weight of depression dissipating with every step she took away from the gate room.
Vala knew that she didn’t have to revert to being the theif from the Prometheus three years before. She was a new woman now; and she’d worked damn hard to get there. On top of the many things that she had learned here on Earth, giving up a hard fought lesson was more heartbreaking than not learning it in the first place.
This was a lesson she knew. Going back wasn’t always easier, even if it seemed to be safer.
“Vala!”
She turned to see Mitchell standing at the end of the hall, leaning around the corner to yell at her.
“Sam’s having a bar-b-que tonight. 7 o’clock. See you there.” And then he disappeared, leaving Vala smiling at the walls.
*********
She saw a base vehicle, Daniel’s car and a rented car that must have been Jack’s. Everyone was here.
Good, she thought. Nothing to shake off the Tok’ra-are-obnoxious-snobs feeling than with friends who could commiserate.
Teal’c greeted her at the door with a beer in one hand - for her - and a hamburger in the other - for himself.
“It is good to see you again, Vala Mal Doran,” he said with his head tipped in his typical bow of deference. She’d grown to love the big lug like a brother - a silent, impassive and often time’s inscrutable sibling, but someone to rely upon nonetheless. She grabbed his arm and gave him a half-aborted hug around his bicep, laying her cheek on his shoulder.
Vala knew that he put up with her touchy-feeling expressions because it made her feel good and he secretly didn’t mind, so for his sake, she didn’t bother with them when they were on base.
“Vala! Welcome to the party!” Jack stood in in the back room room, right by a set of French doors leading out into the backyard. He lifted a beer to her and then turned his back and disappeared out onto the deck, some words drifting back to her sounding vaguely like a threat to the other person standing on the patio.
Daniel came in a moment later with a scowl on his face before shouting back into the yard, “I’ve earned my spot there, Jack.” There’d been no real malice in the tone and Vala could tell that Daniel had been thrown off the grill and banished to the kitchen for some other duty. He shook his head before looking up to meet Vala’s eyes and smile happily in greeting. “Hi.”
Vala bit her lip and smiled. “Hey.”
She followed him to the bright room and slid behind him towards the sink, ostensibly to get a glass for her beer - she’d rather drink it from the bottle, but she needed some reason to bypass the gloriously sunny back yard and stay inside with Daniel. As she sidled by him, avoiding the open door of the dishwasher, the entire front of her body brushed against his back for a short, sweet moment.
She could tell that he’d been startled by the contact; a slight fumble of cutlery echoed in the kitchen and then fell silent. Vala avoided raising her eyes to his when she saw him turn to her out of the corner of her eye. She pursed her lips thoughtfully as she contemplated the glassware before her, one hand rising to rest her chin on her thumb as her teeth tugged on the nail of another finger.
“Why’d you do that?” he asked his voice staggeringly soft.
Vala hadn’t thought that he’d actually address her actions. She’d been hoping that she could slowly build up courage over the evening before getting to the point where he would confront her.
“What’re you talking about?” she deflected, thinking quickly.
He turned and stepped up to her, his shoulders seeming a little bigger this close to her. Her fingers itched to touch. Vala quashed the urge, arguing that she was only supposed to be teasing him; not *talking* to him. In her not-so limited experience with Daniel’s reactions to her actions, she’d discovered that Daniel didn’t confront, he evaded.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Vala. You don’t want a glass for your beer,” he explained, reaching over her head to close the cupboard.
The movement brought him right up against her, leaving her pinned against the counter with her open bottle of beer her only defence. Vala could barely suppress the shiver than raced along her skin as they stood in their silent face off.
His eyes closed for a short moment and Vala thought that he might back down. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. His voice started low and she had to bend closer to him to hear.
“You’ve used your body to catch many a guys attention,” he started, one hand stuffing itself into his pocket; but he still wouldn’t look at her. Vala could feel her heartbeat reach for her throat and wondered if she even wanted to hear what he was getting off of his chest. “It’s your actions that I watch for in you, though,” he admitted softly, before turning and leaving Vala standing alone in the kitchen.
********
A couple of hours later, after laughter, friends and a little bit of prideful banter, Vala found herself with her beer on Sam’s back porch. Her legs were swinging off the cedar planking as she watched the sun set over the houses and power lines. It was one thing she’d witnessed on many worlds. Just like her, sunsets did not always end the same. There was always something different in colour, smell or sight and she liked the variety. But there was a nice correlation between being happy and seeing some of the prettiest sunsets she could ever remember.
“Do you know what I meant?”
She felt him sit down beside her, the back door still open and the murmur of friends and alcohol filtering out into the dusk air. Daniel’s thigh pressed along hers and he handed her another beer, cold from the fridge. Idly, she looked at hers, realized she’d been nursing it till it was warm and gratefully took the offered one.
“It took me a while to figure out, but yeah, I got it.” She took a long pull and then looked over at him. “I’ll admit that I’ve found life is easier when I bypass the meaningful stuff. If I live life by the seat of my pants, it won’t hurt the next time I move on.”
Daniel pursed his lips and cocked his head. “I can see that.”
A loud burst of laughter was followed by an indignant response from Jack. Vala smiled; Mitchell had no qualms about embarrassing or harassing senior officers off duty - especially if that officer was Jack O’Neill. Sam was still laughing and Vala thought, maybe, there was the soft rumble of a Jaffa chuckle under the loud human reactions.
“You’re not moving on.”
Daniel said it as a statement, a reality that he had long ago accepted; one that she had only accepted that afternoon.
“No,” she said, feeling a weight lifting from her heart. “I’ve found myself a home now. Maybe the meaningful stuff will come a little easier.”
Daniel paused for a moment and then sighed. “Well, how about I help you get started?” He raised one arm and looped it over her shoulders, pulling her tight against his body. He was silent for a long moment while she settled against him and then he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “This is me loving you. Get used to it.”
She swallowed her threatening tears, and bit the inside of her cheek. “I’ll try, Daniel.” She raised her head to look him in the eyes, need for him to see her honesty. “I’ll really try.”
Author: Divine Joker
Rating: PG
Spoilers: A tag ending to ‘Continuum’.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making money... in fact, losing it by spending time on this. But it was worth it.
A/N: Billions of hugs and kisses to triciabyrne1978 and lc59 for the speedy beta and wonderful insights into my creative process. Enjoy.
Stepping out from the shade of the Tok’ra building, Daniel realized that his feet were itchy. He hated it when that happened, mostly because it meant living through it, or untying the laces of his boots, satisfying the itch and then tying them up again.
He sighed. He always had considered himself somewhat of a martyr. He found that the company he kept had the sacrificial willingness of saints; and the courage to go with it. Recent additions to the team were not excluded from that generalization. Vala seemed to have developed an uncanny ability to give more of herself than even Daniel had realized she possessed.
Daniel shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun and looked down the steps in front of him to see Sam and Jack, shoulder to shoulder, talking animatedly about the possibility of a moon-base. The hot breeze was scalding his skin and he sighed. Checking over his shoulder, Daniel reminded himself that Vala’s decision to stay and help was a very good one.
Dropping his head, he turned back to follow his friends into the scorching desert on the way the Stargate. Teal’c turned to look at him, his silent glance encompassing Daniel’s pace and posture. They took a few more steps and then Teal’c addressed him.
“I believe that Vala Mal Doran will have many insights to offer the man who was Ba’al’s host.”
Daniel’s mouth quirked into an agreeable grin. “Oh, I agree,” he said, tucking his hands in his pockets and shuffling a small errant pile of sand flat with his passing foot. “She’s a much different person than she was when we first met.”
“She is much different than when she first came to us, my friend.” Teal’c’s voice was soft and agreeable. “I believe that her staying on Earth had made all the difference in her life.” His dark eyes followed him for a few more moments and then with that supremely smug tip of his mouth, he added, “And I know that the company she keeps is greater for her than anything else.”
Knowing that his friend wasn’t really expecting an answer to his statement, Daniel thought that maybe it deserved one. Teal’c had always been the personally insightful one, and he hadn’t missed the target on his analysis of Vala. Still, there were too many things going on in his head for him to answer a thought like that anyway.
Ahead of them the wormhole opened and Sam paused to tap in their IDC. She said something to Jack who shook his head and moved to follow her through the event horizon. One last glance and Daniel followed in their footsteps, his thoughts staying on the planet, with Vala and her desire to comfort the former host.
*******
It was only three days and already Vala could feel herself losing control of the situation. She’d spent the first hours by his bedside as he lay unconscious; sharp shudders and screams from nightmares finally loosed after millennia of being a helpless witness. She knew it, could feel every jerk of fear and the tearing of his throat as he screamed.
Now, he was awake - as much as he could be - and coherent and leaning on the Tok’ra for everything that they could give him. She felt extraneous even though her experiences would be so much more personal and closer to his own.
She didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. Vala had volunteered to stay on the planet because she thought that the Tok’ra could respect her desire to help and sympathize with the man.
Goa’uld or no Goa’uld, the Tok’ra still tended to be arrogant and stubborn in the ways that they tried to rehabilitate former hosts.
Frustrated and depressed, Vala picked up her bag and left the base without so much as a notice to the guards. Daniel had taught her to use her talents where she could - this had been one of those times, but it seemed that she was no longer needed.
What would happen when she got back home?
Home, she smirked sardonically. She hadn’t had a home since she’d left her mother behind. Constantly moving had left her unbalanced and she’d finally regained that with the guidance of her friends on Earth.
Her intel wasn’t useful anymore. With Adria dead, the Ori being pushed back and the Goa’uld finally quashed, Vala was just another body on Earth, at the SGC.
What would happen?
The shift of the sand beneath her feet, the burn of the sun on her cheek brought her back to awareness. She was standing before the ‘gate, her hands grasping her shoulder straps as she stared ahead. Taking a deep breath she accepted the inevitable. Life was unstable; do what you can.
Slapping the address for Earth in the DHD, Vala trudged up the steps and into the deep blue of space, emerging with a sharp breath and the sounds of the klaxons blaring her arrival.
“Nice to see you, Vala.” She looked to see Mitchell in the control room, leaning over Walter’s shoulder to the microphone. She waved in his general direction. “Weren’t expecting you for a while yet.” She shrugged in silent answer and made her way down the ramp with a dejected hang to her shoulders. The soldiers at the door took her weapon and let her pass through with a respectful nod to her. She smiled in appreciation and took a deep breath. She walked through the halls, her heavy boots making an echo along the thick walls.
Some airmen passed her and smiled in greeting, and she found that she could name all but one, who seemed a little shell shocked and must therefore be a new recruit.
“Nice to see you back, Vala,” the senior airman said as he allowed her to pass.
“Thanks, David. How was your daughter’s birthday party?” She smiled, turning as she kept walking to catch the answer.
“Had a blast, thanks.” He tipped his hand in gratitude and then showed the airmen where to go before turning the corner and disappearing.
Suddenly her feeling upon leaving the Tok’ra planet were gone, the weight of depression dissipating with every step she took away from the gate room.
Vala knew that she didn’t have to revert to being the theif from the Prometheus three years before. She was a new woman now; and she’d worked damn hard to get there. On top of the many things that she had learned here on Earth, giving up a hard fought lesson was more heartbreaking than not learning it in the first place.
This was a lesson she knew. Going back wasn’t always easier, even if it seemed to be safer.
“Vala!”
She turned to see Mitchell standing at the end of the hall, leaning around the corner to yell at her.
“Sam’s having a bar-b-que tonight. 7 o’clock. See you there.” And then he disappeared, leaving Vala smiling at the walls.
*********
She saw a base vehicle, Daniel’s car and a rented car that must have been Jack’s. Everyone was here.
Good, she thought. Nothing to shake off the Tok’ra-are-obnoxious-snobs feeling than with friends who could commiserate.
Teal’c greeted her at the door with a beer in one hand - for her - and a hamburger in the other - for himself.
“It is good to see you again, Vala Mal Doran,” he said with his head tipped in his typical bow of deference. She’d grown to love the big lug like a brother - a silent, impassive and often time’s inscrutable sibling, but someone to rely upon nonetheless. She grabbed his arm and gave him a half-aborted hug around his bicep, laying her cheek on his shoulder.
Vala knew that he put up with her touchy-feeling expressions because it made her feel good and he secretly didn’t mind, so for his sake, she didn’t bother with them when they were on base.
“Vala! Welcome to the party!” Jack stood in in the back room room, right by a set of French doors leading out into the backyard. He lifted a beer to her and then turned his back and disappeared out onto the deck, some words drifting back to her sounding vaguely like a threat to the other person standing on the patio.
Daniel came in a moment later with a scowl on his face before shouting back into the yard, “I’ve earned my spot there, Jack.” There’d been no real malice in the tone and Vala could tell that Daniel had been thrown off the grill and banished to the kitchen for some other duty. He shook his head before looking up to meet Vala’s eyes and smile happily in greeting. “Hi.”
Vala bit her lip and smiled. “Hey.”
She followed him to the bright room and slid behind him towards the sink, ostensibly to get a glass for her beer - she’d rather drink it from the bottle, but she needed some reason to bypass the gloriously sunny back yard and stay inside with Daniel. As she sidled by him, avoiding the open door of the dishwasher, the entire front of her body brushed against his back for a short, sweet moment.
She could tell that he’d been startled by the contact; a slight fumble of cutlery echoed in the kitchen and then fell silent. Vala avoided raising her eyes to his when she saw him turn to her out of the corner of her eye. She pursed her lips thoughtfully as she contemplated the glassware before her, one hand rising to rest her chin on her thumb as her teeth tugged on the nail of another finger.
“Why’d you do that?” he asked his voice staggeringly soft.
Vala hadn’t thought that he’d actually address her actions. She’d been hoping that she could slowly build up courage over the evening before getting to the point where he would confront her.
“What’re you talking about?” she deflected, thinking quickly.
He turned and stepped up to her, his shoulders seeming a little bigger this close to her. Her fingers itched to touch. Vala quashed the urge, arguing that she was only supposed to be teasing him; not *talking* to him. In her not-so limited experience with Daniel’s reactions to her actions, she’d discovered that Daniel didn’t confront, he evaded.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Vala. You don’t want a glass for your beer,” he explained, reaching over her head to close the cupboard.
The movement brought him right up against her, leaving her pinned against the counter with her open bottle of beer her only defence. Vala could barely suppress the shiver than raced along her skin as they stood in their silent face off.
His eyes closed for a short moment and Vala thought that he might back down. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. His voice started low and she had to bend closer to him to hear.
“You’ve used your body to catch many a guys attention,” he started, one hand stuffing itself into his pocket; but he still wouldn’t look at her. Vala could feel her heartbeat reach for her throat and wondered if she even wanted to hear what he was getting off of his chest. “It’s your actions that I watch for in you, though,” he admitted softly, before turning and leaving Vala standing alone in the kitchen.
********
A couple of hours later, after laughter, friends and a little bit of prideful banter, Vala found herself with her beer on Sam’s back porch. Her legs were swinging off the cedar planking as she watched the sun set over the houses and power lines. It was one thing she’d witnessed on many worlds. Just like her, sunsets did not always end the same. There was always something different in colour, smell or sight and she liked the variety. But there was a nice correlation between being happy and seeing some of the prettiest sunsets she could ever remember.
“Do you know what I meant?”
She felt him sit down beside her, the back door still open and the murmur of friends and alcohol filtering out into the dusk air. Daniel’s thigh pressed along hers and he handed her another beer, cold from the fridge. Idly, she looked at hers, realized she’d been nursing it till it was warm and gratefully took the offered one.
“It took me a while to figure out, but yeah, I got it.” She took a long pull and then looked over at him. “I’ll admit that I’ve found life is easier when I bypass the meaningful stuff. If I live life by the seat of my pants, it won’t hurt the next time I move on.”
Daniel pursed his lips and cocked his head. “I can see that.”
A loud burst of laughter was followed by an indignant response from Jack. Vala smiled; Mitchell had no qualms about embarrassing or harassing senior officers off duty - especially if that officer was Jack O’Neill. Sam was still laughing and Vala thought, maybe, there was the soft rumble of a Jaffa chuckle under the loud human reactions.
“You’re not moving on.”
Daniel said it as a statement, a reality that he had long ago accepted; one that she had only accepted that afternoon.
“No,” she said, feeling a weight lifting from her heart. “I’ve found myself a home now. Maybe the meaningful stuff will come a little easier.”
Daniel paused for a moment and then sighed. “Well, how about I help you get started?” He raised one arm and looped it over her shoulders, pulling her tight against his body. He was silent for a long moment while she settled against him and then he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “This is me loving you. Get used to it.”
She swallowed her threatening tears, and bit the inside of her cheek. “I’ll try, Daniel.” She raised her head to look him in the eyes, need for him to see her honesty. “I’ll really try.”