[Daniel] Embracing the Quiet

[fikgirl]

Who: Daniel
When: Day 46, late morning (one week after the luau)
Where: Camp Crash, the cook fire
Invited: Everyone!
Status: Incomplete

Comments

[Daniel]

[fikgirl]

Experience was a bitch of a teacher. It never occurred to Daniel to question or challenge Chloe's assertion, and that alone told him just how spectacularly weird and unsettling his life was, both pre- and post-island. Chloe's island-assisted transformation was not a secret. She wasn't the same woman who first crashed on the island, not that any of them hadn't been changed by their experiences here. But Chloe had been attacked by the Wraith, left in an aged shell and then somehow, rejuvenated. Daniel's mind could jump to a million theories and suppositions, all of them possibly wrong, but every single one of them hinging on that haunting color of her eyes.

It wasn't natural, it wasn't normal, and it was linked to whatever had saved Chloe from death by the natural cause of old age. Whether it was island inspired or something odd about the Wraith that even McKay didn't know about yet, there was no way of telling. However it wasn't such an odd leap to assume that whatever "fixed" Chloe could cause a bad reaction in others: pheromones, virii, nanites, any number of things. Unlikely, considering that no one else had "reacted" but fear wasn't reasonable and Daniel wasn't above believing in intuition. On the other hand, it was also possible that it was Chloe's subconscious trying to deal with the horrors of the island, but either way it was all very real to Chloe.

And it scared her. This person, whoever he was, was extremely important to her.

(And she believes it could happen.) That spoke volumes and Daniel wasn't going to argue with her conviction. Everyone here had some unusual tie in the world, something odd that would be unbelievable outside of the island, and whatever it was that Chloe couldn't tell him, it was related to her eyes and terrified her.

Daniel shifted, unfolding his legs so that he could pull her in closer to his side. He hugged her closer, "I don't think it's ridiculous. It's enough of a possibility that it scare you and that means that there's something to it that's very real."

He hooked a thumb under her chin and lifted her head so that he gazed into those brilliant green eyes, "When we get out of here," Daniel kept it positive, always when and never if even though many were beginning to doubt rescue, "if you want to find out what happened to you exactly, then that will be possible. You'll have access to the best medical minds in the US and elsewhere. If you're that worried about being a danger to someone who means so much to you, we'll see if that can't be remedied."

"I know what it's like to be separated from someone so very important to you and being unable to do anything about it. I wouldn't want you and your friend to feel that." He thought of Sha're briefly, trapped inside her own body with a Goa'uld in her head. He thought of Sarah, standing in the same room with Osiris and his former lover the equivalent of light years away from him. Skara and Kasuf, ascended; Jack frozen in Antarctica and political leaders fighting for a piece of ice while he wrung his metaphorical hands.

No, Daniel didn't wish that particular feeling on anyone.

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

Chloe smiled, though she suspected it wasn't a very convincing smile.

Daniel meant well, but his offer wasn't going to fly. She couldn't very well explain the problem--if it turned out to really be a problem and not just her own fears--without giving away Clark's secret. He was the only one she might endanger, and explaining that would reveal his alien heritage. She couldn't do that.

Chloe sighed and her free arm around Daniel. Now she had both arms around him. She laid her head against his shoulder. It was easier to talk to him without looking at him. Easier to lie about it. "I appreciate that," she said. "Really. Maybe that will help. I hope so."

She sat quietly for a moment, braced for more questions or a challenge to her lie. It didn't happen; whether Daniel believed her or just didn't push, Chloe didn't know. She didn't care either, choosing instead to just enjoy the contact with Daniel and the heat of the sun on her bare skin.

That thought made her smile. Daniel must have seen or felt it. He asked, "What's so funny?"

"You're sitting here holding a naked woman in plain view of the camp. Who'd have thought it?"

"But you're not naked," Daniel said.

"Yeah?" Chloe lifted her head to meet Daniel's gaze. "I'm not?" She wasn't wearing a thing except the necklace she'd found in the TARDIS. Her tan lines had vanished since then.

"Are you decently covered?"

"I...well, yeah," Chloe said. The black bars the necklace generated did keep her "naughty bits" (as George called them) concealed. "But--"

"Then you're not naked."

"But I'm naked under there."

Daniel shrugged. "And we're all naked under our clothes. A difference that makes no difference is no difference." He smiled. "And I take it by your banter that you're feeling better now?"

Chloe didn't answer immediately. She took a moment to consider the question. She wasn't sure she was entirely done with this issue. The fears wouldn't be entirely laid to rest until she knew for sure whether there was anything to them, but she was no longer feeling grief-stricken and guilty.

She nodded. "Yeah, I am. I'm not entirely back to normal, but--yeah, I feel better. Thanks for helping, Daniel."

"You're welcome." Daniel looked like he wanted to say something more but didn't know what.

"Listen," Chloe said, and then fell silent for a long moment. "Like I said, I'm not quite myself again yet--but soon. By tonight I'm sure I'll be good as new. You, ah, you feel like getting lucky tonight?"

[Daniel]

[fikgirl]

Daniel would have been worried if Chloe had shook off what upset her so throughly so easily, but he didn't comment. Chloe had enough on her mind, and he didn't need to point out the obvious to her.

"Hmm, tonight," Daniel frowned, pretending to seriously ponder her proposition. He scratched his temple thoughtfully and skimmed his free hand down her back playfully. "I think that I might be able to free some time up in my schedule." Then he grinned down at her, "I'd have to be a complete idiot to turn down that offer."

Another thought occurred to him and Daniel sobered a bit, "Chloe, you know I didn't come down here with any ulterior motives, right? This wasn't a ploy to get in your pants. Again."

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

Chloe grinned, and if it wasn't her usual sunny smile it was close. "Yeah, like I'd believe that. That is so your M.O. I mean--clearly turning Faith down again and again for weeks on end was just part of your cunning plan to seduce her."

"It's not like you could have just said yes. Or just not said no. Or just walked up to her and said 'gimme some lovin'," Chloe added.

The smile faded a little and Chloe rested her head on Daniel's shoulder again. "Seriously, I know that. I asked because I want to get into your pants. Again."

She placed one hand on Daniel's inner thigh. Her desire was mostly theoretical at the moment. "Or I will by tonight, anyhow, when I'm feeling better. So don't worry that I'm feeling pressured or obliged or...whatever. I want to do this."

Now she looked at him again. "So bring your A-Game, bunky."

[Daniel]

[fikgirl]

"Bring your A-Game, bunky?" Daniel echoed. "I must be so out of touch with the under thirty crowd. Do you really talk like that? I mean, I speak over thirty languages and I don't even think that I can translate that." A smile twinkled in his eyes and tugged at his lips the entire time he 'complained' to Chloe.

"Yeah, I noticed that."

Daniel raised his eyebrows, "That I'm out of touch?"

"That you speak lots of languages. What language were you speaking?"

'English,' sprang automatically to his tongue, but half a second before he could blurt it out, Daniel recognized what it was to which Chloe referred. He tilted his head, thoughtfully, trying to recall without having to rely on a mental replay. Because, right now a mental replay would lead to a dip in the icy cold bathing hole because it was as close to a cold shower as he could get. Daniel lazily stroked the base of Chloe's neck where his thumb rested against her sun warmed skin. "Dutch. And Arabic. A mixture of both, actually. You know, I can honestly say that I've never been asked that before."

"Maybe no one else was ever curious enough," Chloe shrugged. "Why Dutch and Arabic? What did you say?"

"Um ... it doesn't translate well into English, and sounds a lot better untranslated," Daniel chuckled, answering the second question first. He paused a moment before continuing, "I grew up listening to Dutch, Arabic and English. Sometimes they still all blend together in my head."*

* My little fanon about Daniel given what we know of his parents, and his grandfather.

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"I'm going to miss being able to talk to anyone anywhere when the TARDIS isn't around any longer," Chloe said.

"But anyway," Chloe said, looking at Daniel with a mischevious smile, "let me translate my incomprehensible slang."

"When I say, 'Bring your A-Game,'" Chloe said, pressing a fingertip into Daniel's stomach and running it up his shirt to his chest, "I mean I want your best efforts. Make it worth my while to make it worth your while."

"Not," Chloe added, just to see him blush, "that I have any complaints, mind you. You've been amazing so far."

[Daniel]

[fikgirl]

Daniel chuckled, feeling his face warm which he suspected was Chloe's intention all along. He smoothed his hand and over the smooth skin of her leg and thigh, giving the latter a light pat. Ever cognizant of Chloe's current unbalanced, if recovering, state of mind, his hands and actions didn't stray beyond the unwritten boundaries between playful touching and outright seduction. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Miss Sullivan.

"Not that it's been so terribly hard when," his opposite hand rubbed idle circles on her back, "I have such good inspiration."

One good compliment deserved another, though Daniel doubted that his would make Chloe blush. Still he had to try.

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

Chloe's smile broadened until she giggled. "I can't believe you walked into that one," she said. "If Faith were here she'd have made a very obvious double entendre about how terribly hard things could be."

She looked at Daniel. "But I would never."

"Of course not," Daniel said drily. "Perish the thought."

Chloe laughed and unwrapped herself from Daniel. She leaned back, propping herself up on her outstretched arms, and tilted her face up to the sun. It shone brightly even through her closed eyelids.

"Thanks for coming over here," she said to Daniel. "It helped. A lot. But if I'm going to...entertain you properly tonight, I need to get back to my sun worship. I'll catch up to you after dinner tonight?"

[Daniel]

[fikgirl]

"Far be it from me to distract you from your sun worship," Daniel threw her a wink. He climbed to his feet, his eyes raking over Chloe's body. The censor bars hid all the more interesting parts, but he had a damn good memory. He grinned in open appreciation, "I'll see you later, then."

Daniel turned and headed back toward the cookfire, only once or twice glancing back over his shoulder at Chloe.