The Games People Play Chapter 22--The Mistakes We Make
Title: The Mistakes We Make
Author: Lionchilde
Summary: AU "..Daniel, who'd been sitting on the floor with his back against the door, tumbled inside to land with a thump..."
Rating: G
Length: Around 2100 words
Category: Angst
Pairings/Charaters: Daniel/Vala; team friendship; Sam/Jack
A/N: Part 22 of The Games People Play. The series follows current cannon to the end of 10x09, Company of Thieves. Takes place around Thanksgiving. Written for fic101.
The Mistakes We Make
"Sweetheart…?" Daniel called with a few light, tentative taps on the door. There was no answer at first, and he tried again. "Vala, please, I--I want to apologize."
Finally, he heard her footsteps, and a moment later the door opened. He started to speak, but she flung the door shut in his face again. "Come on, Vala!"
"I think you've said enough, Daniel!" she told him sharply.
"Look, I'm sorry. Please let me in so we can talk about it," he attempted, sighing.
"Go away!" she yelled back.
Daniel leaned forward, letting his head hit the door in frustration, but didn't reply. He stood there silently for several minutes, but finally pulled himself erect as the door across the hall opened and a trio of teenagers spilled out. They paused at the sight of him and he smiled, leaning an elbow casually on the door.
"Just…waiting for my girlfriend…" he explained.
"You'll have a long wait!" Vala called from behind the door.
"She's…taking a bath," Daniel coughed.
Their only response was to look at one another and laugh. They walked off toward the stairs, and Daniel covered his face with his hand. After a few moments, he looked up again with an expression of sudden inspiration and hurried off in the direction of the elevator.
On the other side of the door, Vala heard him leave and bit her lip. She spun, her hand moving to the doorknob, but froze again, stilling the momentary impulse to go after him. Letting her hand fall away, she whirled around and stalked back to the bed, flinging herself down with crossed arms.
"You really wanted to apologize, didn't you, Daniel?" she muttered. "Fine, then. Be that way. See if I open the door the next time, either."
Blinking back sudden, traitorous tears, she glanced around the room for something else to focus on. Sam had left the remote control atop the television, and she got up quickly to turn on the TV Guide channel. Most of what was playing seemed to be sentimental holiday drivel, and although she might have enjoyed it at another time, she was definitely not in the mood tonight.
She gave an annoyed huff and started flipping though the channels anyway, in the end arriving at the same conclusion she'd reached a few minutes before. There was nothing to watch. Throwing herself back on the pillows, she ran a hand through her hair, then closed her fingers to give it a hard tug in frustration.
"Sam would know what to do," she told herself, her gaze turning hopefully toward the phone on the bedside table. Then she drew in a heavy breath, realizing that Sam was more than likely to be angry with her as well. If she was honest about it, Vala had to admit that Daniel had been right to say that she owed their friends an apology.
Taking a reluctant breath, she sat up again and reached for the handset. She'd scrawled the number to Sam's room on the back of a napkin earlier and fished it out of her pocket, then slowly dialed and closed her eyes, waiting for the other woman's familiar voice.
"Hello?" it came on the third ring, a good indication that Jack was still in the room.
"Sam, it's Vala," she began hesitantly.
"Hey, Vala. Everything all right?" her friend asked in concern.
Vala's eyes widened. "Aren't I the one who ought to be asking you that? I mean, you're in the hospital with a broken leg, and I--I really screwed up, Sam. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I know you were just trying to help…" Sam assured her, then her friend's voice faded, but Vala clearly heard her whisper, "Wait--no, just a second, she's upset."
Vala pressed her lips together and glanced at her lap, feeling her cheeks redden at her friend's unexpected empathy. A second later, Sam came back on the line, asking, "Now, what's going on with you and Daniel?"
"What…? How did you know?" Vala asked.
"I can tell something's wrong. It wasn't all that hard to figure out," explained Sam in an amused tone.
Vala nodded. "Oh. Well, um, he's been a bit angry since Jack called. I don't think we're speaking at the moment."
"Wow," Sam began. "Y'know, that really doesn't sound like Daniel. As mad as I've ever seen him get, I don't think he's ever not been willing to talk."
"Well, I sort of stopped talking first," replied Vala.
Sam snorted in amusement. "What did he say?"
"I admit that he had a point, Sam--but he was just so condescending!" she exclaimed. "He yelled at me because he'd 'told' me not to get involved with your relationship with Jack, and he demanded that I apologize! He didn't ask or suggest, he ordered!"
"Ouch. Vala, I'm sure he didn't mean to do that. Daniel and Gen…Jack have been through a lot together. They tend to be very protective of each other, and--" she broke off, her voice fading again as she asked, "--what? Well, you do. Okay, just…Vala, Jack wants to talk to you," she finished with a sigh.
"Okay," Vala winced, waiting apprehensively for him to take the phone.
"So, Daniel let ya have it, huh?" he began.
"Yes, he did," she replied with emphatic nod. "I've been duly chastised, and I really am very sorry."
"Well, good. You should be. Y'know, that was way over the line. But I think since Daniel's already told you that, we can move on to the part where we all kiss and make up," Jack said.
"I like the kissing part," Vala grinned.
"I bet you do. You kiss Daniel. I'll kiss Carter," the general retorted.
"Sam?" Vala corrected with a slight laugh.
"Huh?" asked Jack.
"You meant to say Sam, I think," Vala reminded him.
"Yeah. That's what I said. Carter," Jack deadpanned.
Vala started to laugh again when a knock at the door drew her attention. She turned toward it, her stomach tightening in apprehension, but she squared her shoulders and didn't move. "Right."
"That Daniel?" Jack asked, having heard the sound.
"I assume," Vala nodded.
"C'mon, why don'tcha go talk to 'im," Jack suggested.
Vala drew in a breath and slowly let it out again. "All right. Tell Sam I'll give her a call later." she agreed.
"Will do," Jack promised, hanging up.
Vala sat with the phone in her hand for a moment, then set it down and pushed herself to her feet. Daniel knocked again as she reached it, and she stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Yes?"
"Vala, there's a half gallon of chocolate ice cream out here," Daniel cajoled.
"What?" Vala felt her face redden. Another time the ice cream ploy might have worked, but she was already smarting under his paternalistic manner. Even if she could understand his instinct to protect his friend, he should have confronted her as an equal. Instead he'd given orders, as if she were a little girl to be punished. She'd been inclined to take Sam's word that he didn't think of her that way, but this seemed to indicate that he did, and it only served to revive her irritation.
"I'd hate to have to eat it myself…"
She yanked open the door furiously, and he blinked in surprise, taking a half step back. She glared dangerously, but said nothing, reaching forward to snatch the container from his hands. Before he could move, she hurled the door shut again, nodding firmly as it echoed with the impact.
"Aw, c'mon, Vala, that's--that's--that's just childish!" he complained. "At least talk to me!"
"I'll be glad to talk to you, darling, as soon as you learn to start treating me like an adult. Until then, I'm going to act exactly the way you seem to think of me," she told him.
"What?" he asked in a tone so full of genuine surprise that she almost opened the door again.
"You've been scolding and treating me like a child all night, Daniel. Now you think you're going to bribe me to open the door with sweets?" she shot.
"Whaddaya mean, 'treating you like a child'?" he asked, shocked.
"If I have to explain it to you, it doesn't matter much, does it?" she sighed in disgust.
Stalking away from the door, she dropped the ice cream on the table, then went in search of a plastic spoon. They'd brought some for the yogurt that Sam had kept in the room's mini-fridge, and she took the last one back to the bed and sat down. Daniel continued to knock, and after a few bites of ice cream, she set the carton back down. She stared at the door for a few seconds, fighting the urge to get up and let him in, then grabbed the remote control and focused her attention on the TV.
After scanning the channels twice, she was about to decide that there was still nothing on, when she caught sight of something animated and heard a familiar-sounding voice. She almost didn't believe it when she recognized the bald-headed boy in the yellow and brown striped t-shirt. Charlie Brown raced determinedly toward the football, which of course wasn't there when he reached it, and as he flipped onto his back, Vala finally caved.
Daniel had stopped knocking by then, and she leaned against the door, holding her breath while she listened. She didn't hear anything, but she moved back anyway and pulled it open. Then, she barely jumped back in time to avoid being landed on as Daniel, who had apparently been sitting on the floor with his back against the door, tumbled inside and landed with a thump.
She started to laugh at his stunned expression, then felt her eyes fill with tears again. "You are so Charlie Brown," she sniffled.
He blinked up at her, then slowly got to his feet. "Hi, Lucy," he said with a shaky laugh, reaching to lay a hand on her cheek.
"Hi," she replied, raising her own hand to cover his.
He smiled, then his gaze flicked away uncomfortably. "Vala, I overreacted. I didn't realize how I sounded. And ice cream was meant as a peace offering, nothing else. I don't--think of you as anything less than an equal partner. I'm sorry. But you scared Jack--I mean really scared him."
"I know," she admitted with a heavy sigh. She turned away and took a few steps, then halted and stared down at the floor. "I've never had a real girlfriend before. A girl who was my friend, you know?"
"Yeah," he nodded, walking up behind her.
"And I thought--Mitchell and Sam lied to us to get us to apologize. Isn't that the same thing?" she asked.
Daniel bit his lip in consideration. "I think…the difference is that what Sam and Mitchell lied about wasn't something that could hurt or frighten anyone. What if Mitchell had said something like that? Told you I was dying so you'd agree to see me, hoping we'd apologize and work things out?"
"Oh, I'd kill him!" she declared, then paused. "Oh. I see what you mean."
"Your heart was in the right place. And…as Mitchell and Teal'c pointed out to me, I have a long history of pairing good intentions with…really crappy methods," Daniel told her.
"You, Daniel?" she laughed ironically. "Oh, I never would have guessed."
"Yeah, big shock there, huh?" he chuckled, slipping a hand onto her shoulder.
Vala turned, slipping her arms around his neck. "So, I guess we really make a pair, darling," she observed, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I guess we do," he agreed as his arms encircled her waist.
Vala closed her eyes and neither spoke for a while, then she frowned with sudden realization. "Daniel?"
"Hmm?" he asked.
"The ice cream's going to melt," she reminded him.
***
The team celebrated Thanksgiving in Sam's hospital room. Turkey dinner was provided by the cafeteria, after which they gathered around the small TV to watch a re-airing of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
"Well, you Tau'ri certainly have interesting holiday traditions," Vala observed as the Peanuts gang gathered around a ping pong table in Charlie Brown's backyard to eat toast and popcorn.
"It's not usually like that, Vala," Sam laughed.
"Yeah, usually you got a big ol' turkey, ham, all the fixin's. Piles of pie for dessert. A Jell-O mold…" Cam trailed off.
"What's a Jell-O mold?" Vala wanted to know.
"It's Jell-O," replied Jack. "In a mold."
"Well, that explains it," Vala retorted.
Daniel shook his head. "You take Jell-O while it's still liquefied and add fruit and stuff, then you pour the whole thing into a shaped mold and let it set."
"Oh," nodded Vala. "Why?"
"I…have no idea," admitted Daniel.
"As I said. Strange holiday traditions," Vala repeated.
"Thanksgiving's not just about the food," Daniel laughed. "Despite what Mitchell will tell you."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, Jackson?" Cam frowned.
"Nothing," Daniel shook his head.
"No, what? C'mon, you think I don't know there's more to Thanksgiving than…"
"Mitchell," Daniel cut him off with a laugh.
"What?"
"Pass the extra pie."
Author: Lionchilde
Summary: AU "..Daniel, who'd been sitting on the floor with his back against the door, tumbled inside to land with a thump..."
Rating: G
Length: Around 2100 words
Category: Angst
Pairings/Charaters: Daniel/Vala; team friendship; Sam/Jack
A/N: Part 22 of The Games People Play. The series follows current cannon to the end of 10x09, Company of Thieves. Takes place around Thanksgiving. Written for fic101.
The Mistakes We Make
"Sweetheart…?" Daniel called with a few light, tentative taps on the door. There was no answer at first, and he tried again. "Vala, please, I--I want to apologize."
Finally, he heard her footsteps, and a moment later the door opened. He started to speak, but she flung the door shut in his face again. "Come on, Vala!"
"I think you've said enough, Daniel!" she told him sharply.
"Look, I'm sorry. Please let me in so we can talk about it," he attempted, sighing.
"Go away!" she yelled back.
Daniel leaned forward, letting his head hit the door in frustration, but didn't reply. He stood there silently for several minutes, but finally pulled himself erect as the door across the hall opened and a trio of teenagers spilled out. They paused at the sight of him and he smiled, leaning an elbow casually on the door.
"Just…waiting for my girlfriend…" he explained.
"You'll have a long wait!" Vala called from behind the door.
"She's…taking a bath," Daniel coughed.
Their only response was to look at one another and laugh. They walked off toward the stairs, and Daniel covered his face with his hand. After a few moments, he looked up again with an expression of sudden inspiration and hurried off in the direction of the elevator.
On the other side of the door, Vala heard him leave and bit her lip. She spun, her hand moving to the doorknob, but froze again, stilling the momentary impulse to go after him. Letting her hand fall away, she whirled around and stalked back to the bed, flinging herself down with crossed arms.
"You really wanted to apologize, didn't you, Daniel?" she muttered. "Fine, then. Be that way. See if I open the door the next time, either."
Blinking back sudden, traitorous tears, she glanced around the room for something else to focus on. Sam had left the remote control atop the television, and she got up quickly to turn on the TV Guide channel. Most of what was playing seemed to be sentimental holiday drivel, and although she might have enjoyed it at another time, she was definitely not in the mood tonight.
She gave an annoyed huff and started flipping though the channels anyway, in the end arriving at the same conclusion she'd reached a few minutes before. There was nothing to watch. Throwing herself back on the pillows, she ran a hand through her hair, then closed her fingers to give it a hard tug in frustration.
"Sam would know what to do," she told herself, her gaze turning hopefully toward the phone on the bedside table. Then she drew in a heavy breath, realizing that Sam was more than likely to be angry with her as well. If she was honest about it, Vala had to admit that Daniel had been right to say that she owed their friends an apology.
Taking a reluctant breath, she sat up again and reached for the handset. She'd scrawled the number to Sam's room on the back of a napkin earlier and fished it out of her pocket, then slowly dialed and closed her eyes, waiting for the other woman's familiar voice.
"Hello?" it came on the third ring, a good indication that Jack was still in the room.
"Sam, it's Vala," she began hesitantly.
"Hey, Vala. Everything all right?" her friend asked in concern.
Vala's eyes widened. "Aren't I the one who ought to be asking you that? I mean, you're in the hospital with a broken leg, and I--I really screwed up, Sam. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I know you were just trying to help…" Sam assured her, then her friend's voice faded, but Vala clearly heard her whisper, "Wait--no, just a second, she's upset."
Vala pressed her lips together and glanced at her lap, feeling her cheeks redden at her friend's unexpected empathy. A second later, Sam came back on the line, asking, "Now, what's going on with you and Daniel?"
"What…? How did you know?" Vala asked.
"I can tell something's wrong. It wasn't all that hard to figure out," explained Sam in an amused tone.
Vala nodded. "Oh. Well, um, he's been a bit angry since Jack called. I don't think we're speaking at the moment."
"Wow," Sam began. "Y'know, that really doesn't sound like Daniel. As mad as I've ever seen him get, I don't think he's ever not been willing to talk."
"Well, I sort of stopped talking first," replied Vala.
Sam snorted in amusement. "What did he say?"
"I admit that he had a point, Sam--but he was just so condescending!" she exclaimed. "He yelled at me because he'd 'told' me not to get involved with your relationship with Jack, and he demanded that I apologize! He didn't ask or suggest, he ordered!"
"Ouch. Vala, I'm sure he didn't mean to do that. Daniel and Gen…Jack have been through a lot together. They tend to be very protective of each other, and--" she broke off, her voice fading again as she asked, "--what? Well, you do. Okay, just…Vala, Jack wants to talk to you," she finished with a sigh.
"Okay," Vala winced, waiting apprehensively for him to take the phone.
"So, Daniel let ya have it, huh?" he began.
"Yes, he did," she replied with emphatic nod. "I've been duly chastised, and I really am very sorry."
"Well, good. You should be. Y'know, that was way over the line. But I think since Daniel's already told you that, we can move on to the part where we all kiss and make up," Jack said.
"I like the kissing part," Vala grinned.
"I bet you do. You kiss Daniel. I'll kiss Carter," the general retorted.
"Sam?" Vala corrected with a slight laugh.
"Huh?" asked Jack.
"You meant to say Sam, I think," Vala reminded him.
"Yeah. That's what I said. Carter," Jack deadpanned.
Vala started to laugh again when a knock at the door drew her attention. She turned toward it, her stomach tightening in apprehension, but she squared her shoulders and didn't move. "Right."
"That Daniel?" Jack asked, having heard the sound.
"I assume," Vala nodded.
"C'mon, why don'tcha go talk to 'im," Jack suggested.
Vala drew in a breath and slowly let it out again. "All right. Tell Sam I'll give her a call later." she agreed.
"Will do," Jack promised, hanging up.
Vala sat with the phone in her hand for a moment, then set it down and pushed herself to her feet. Daniel knocked again as she reached it, and she stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Yes?"
"Vala, there's a half gallon of chocolate ice cream out here," Daniel cajoled.
"What?" Vala felt her face redden. Another time the ice cream ploy might have worked, but she was already smarting under his paternalistic manner. Even if she could understand his instinct to protect his friend, he should have confronted her as an equal. Instead he'd given orders, as if she were a little girl to be punished. She'd been inclined to take Sam's word that he didn't think of her that way, but this seemed to indicate that he did, and it only served to revive her irritation.
"I'd hate to have to eat it myself…"
She yanked open the door furiously, and he blinked in surprise, taking a half step back. She glared dangerously, but said nothing, reaching forward to snatch the container from his hands. Before he could move, she hurled the door shut again, nodding firmly as it echoed with the impact.
"Aw, c'mon, Vala, that's--that's--that's just childish!" he complained. "At least talk to me!"
"I'll be glad to talk to you, darling, as soon as you learn to start treating me like an adult. Until then, I'm going to act exactly the way you seem to think of me," she told him.
"What?" he asked in a tone so full of genuine surprise that she almost opened the door again.
"You've been scolding and treating me like a child all night, Daniel. Now you think you're going to bribe me to open the door with sweets?" she shot.
"Whaddaya mean, 'treating you like a child'?" he asked, shocked.
"If I have to explain it to you, it doesn't matter much, does it?" she sighed in disgust.
Stalking away from the door, she dropped the ice cream on the table, then went in search of a plastic spoon. They'd brought some for the yogurt that Sam had kept in the room's mini-fridge, and she took the last one back to the bed and sat down. Daniel continued to knock, and after a few bites of ice cream, she set the carton back down. She stared at the door for a few seconds, fighting the urge to get up and let him in, then grabbed the remote control and focused her attention on the TV.
After scanning the channels twice, she was about to decide that there was still nothing on, when she caught sight of something animated and heard a familiar-sounding voice. She almost didn't believe it when she recognized the bald-headed boy in the yellow and brown striped t-shirt. Charlie Brown raced determinedly toward the football, which of course wasn't there when he reached it, and as he flipped onto his back, Vala finally caved.
Daniel had stopped knocking by then, and she leaned against the door, holding her breath while she listened. She didn't hear anything, but she moved back anyway and pulled it open. Then, she barely jumped back in time to avoid being landed on as Daniel, who had apparently been sitting on the floor with his back against the door, tumbled inside and landed with a thump.
She started to laugh at his stunned expression, then felt her eyes fill with tears again. "You are so Charlie Brown," she sniffled.
He blinked up at her, then slowly got to his feet. "Hi, Lucy," he said with a shaky laugh, reaching to lay a hand on her cheek.
"Hi," she replied, raising her own hand to cover his.
He smiled, then his gaze flicked away uncomfortably. "Vala, I overreacted. I didn't realize how I sounded. And ice cream was meant as a peace offering, nothing else. I don't--think of you as anything less than an equal partner. I'm sorry. But you scared Jack--I mean really scared him."
"I know," she admitted with a heavy sigh. She turned away and took a few steps, then halted and stared down at the floor. "I've never had a real girlfriend before. A girl who was my friend, you know?"
"Yeah," he nodded, walking up behind her.
"And I thought--Mitchell and Sam lied to us to get us to apologize. Isn't that the same thing?" she asked.
Daniel bit his lip in consideration. "I think…the difference is that what Sam and Mitchell lied about wasn't something that could hurt or frighten anyone. What if Mitchell had said something like that? Told you I was dying so you'd agree to see me, hoping we'd apologize and work things out?"
"Oh, I'd kill him!" she declared, then paused. "Oh. I see what you mean."
"Your heart was in the right place. And…as Mitchell and Teal'c pointed out to me, I have a long history of pairing good intentions with…really crappy methods," Daniel told her.
"You, Daniel?" she laughed ironically. "Oh, I never would have guessed."
"Yeah, big shock there, huh?" he chuckled, slipping a hand onto her shoulder.
Vala turned, slipping her arms around his neck. "So, I guess we really make a pair, darling," she observed, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I guess we do," he agreed as his arms encircled her waist.
Vala closed her eyes and neither spoke for a while, then she frowned with sudden realization. "Daniel?"
"Hmm?" he asked.
"The ice cream's going to melt," she reminded him.
***
The team celebrated Thanksgiving in Sam's hospital room. Turkey dinner was provided by the cafeteria, after which they gathered around the small TV to watch a re-airing of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
"Well, you Tau'ri certainly have interesting holiday traditions," Vala observed as the Peanuts gang gathered around a ping pong table in Charlie Brown's backyard to eat toast and popcorn.
"It's not usually like that, Vala," Sam laughed.
"Yeah, usually you got a big ol' turkey, ham, all the fixin's. Piles of pie for dessert. A Jell-O mold…" Cam trailed off.
"What's a Jell-O mold?" Vala wanted to know.
"It's Jell-O," replied Jack. "In a mold."
"Well, that explains it," Vala retorted.
Daniel shook his head. "You take Jell-O while it's still liquefied and add fruit and stuff, then you pour the whole thing into a shaped mold and let it set."
"Oh," nodded Vala. "Why?"
"I…have no idea," admitted Daniel.
"As I said. Strange holiday traditions," Vala repeated.
"Thanksgiving's not just about the food," Daniel laughed. "Despite what Mitchell will tell you."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, Jackson?" Cam frowned.
"Nothing," Daniel shook his head.
"No, what? C'mon, you think I don't know there's more to Thanksgiving than…"
"Mitchell," Daniel cut him off with a laugh.
"What?"
"Pass the extra pie."