Meat n' Greet
The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.
Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. They are also told they must read ( Read more... )
Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. They are also told they must read ( Read more... )
He looked the woman over again warily. Was he going to get slapped or something? Daniel felt like he'd just had the feet knocked out from under him, and he hadn't a clue what he'd even done to earn it. It was a perfectly good question. As far as he knew, there was only one Goa'uld healing device on this entire ship and it was supposed to be sitting in a lab. What just happened?
Where do you think I got it?! Oh well, that was easy. From the lab we just put this in. Daniel almost blurted it out and stopped himself in time.
"Santa Claus, not Earth Santa person," Daniel gasped out. Wait, what? Daniel's mouth shut. He leaned forward, searching her eyes. "Have we met?"
He was sure they hadn't. He'd never forget a face like hers. Unless she'd been to one of his lectures, but then again, most of his students weren't exactly on a first name basis with him.
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"Same thing," she replied irritatedly at the correction, "fat man in a red suit who doesn't actually exist!" Her irritance was cut off short though, the way he searched her eyes for some kind of recognition was disconcerting. Being torn between the pleasure of the intimate moment and the realisation that he really didn't remember her hit her simultaneously.
"You don't remember me? Daniel, it's me, Vala." Perhaps Athena or the Trust had got to him too, but why would they? She ventured a small smile and a quip to lighten the conversation "I'm guessing you've been here a while. They don't appear to have hairdressers."
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Daniel was getting that distinctly uncomfortable feeling when you met someone and you were apparently supposed to know who they were, they even remembered your name after five years but you couldn't even begin to remember theirs.
"Vala," Daniel repeated, unable to fully hide his relief. It did save him the trouble of avoiding having to say her name himself, and saying it blind. The old tactic of trying to out wait the other person for a name drop. In his experience, it never ended well. One hurdle down. Daniel felt like he was maneuvering through a mine field of social graces. It didn't mean much considering she still expecting him to remember her. Daniel ran over ever single lecture, every single base personal and came up just as blank as before. "I'm sorry, I don't. I've had a busy um...two years. A lot of faces."
That sounded lame, even by his standards, but back on home, he'd essentially vanished off the face of the Earth when it came to the known world outside the SGC. Although admitting he'd just spent a year on another planet didn't seem like a big deal with confidentiality now. Not if Vala was being serious about this Earth Santa business. He'd never heard of anyone refer to the figure quite like that, like a foreigner. Maybe she was like Eva. She knew aliens existed. Okay, so planets were okay, aliens were okay to mention. The Stargate was still off limits.
Maybe he could find out more before he apparently pissed her off some more. And maybe get the device back. Daniel frowned, a hand going up to touch his hair. Was it messy or something?
"I guess so. What's wrong with my hair?" He'd gone for a trim right before his last mission through the Stargate. They took an inch off. Jack had taken one look at it when he came back and asked if he'd even gone to get a hair cut. Smart ass.
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"I'm sure that on another day I'd find your stories of Earth culture myths infinitely fascinating, Daniel. I'll pencil you in my diary, perhaps we can discuss the rabbit that delivers chocolate too. But right now I'm far more concerned with getting off this ship, preferably wearing something slightly more flattering than this abomination!"
Her voice escalated in irritation as the tirade ran on, especially given his response about how she was just another face to be forgotten. "Look," Vala took a breath, calming herself and trying to make sense of it all without losing her temper, "it's obvious you haven't the faintest idea who I am, probably due to either memory loss or some absurd scientific anomaly but trust me, we know each other.. and very well."
"Intimately, you might say," Vala added as an afterthought with little pause.
She wasn't really sure where that last part had come from, it had passed her lips before she'd had chance to even think about it. Oh well, no use in retracting it now. What harm could it do? He had taken her on that 'not a date' date recently, it was only a matter of time.
"As for your hair, well it's floppy." She bit back the urge to say she preferred it short. "It's... nice?"
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"It always been this way." Actually, it was a little longer back when he first started college, but he wanted to forget he thought that was a good idea. But this hair length was good. Besides, he couldn't see himself with the military cut everyone else had. Not going to happen.
He could understand her impatience. She'd just woken up here and got felt up by tentacles in twenty minutes or less. Anyone would be irritated. But as her rant went on and the sarcasm got more biting, Daniel started to look less and less bewildered and more frustrated and annoyed. He was just trying to help! It wasn't like he had all the answers off the top of his head all the time. He didn't want to be here anymore than she did.
"Well, I'm sorry, I don't happen to have every answer ever," he said. " If you ever find a way off, you'll have to let me know, because I haven't. Otherwise I wouldn't be here either."
Now about that healing device...
Daniel was about to ask about it again when he was suddenly derailed. He might as well have gotten smacked. What?! There wasn't any memory loss. He was absolutely certain. He didn't remember her at all, nope, no Valas there, and he was beginning to suspect it was because this was the first time he met her. Unless. If people could be pulled from the future, like Doctor Song and John Smith..
Uh oh.
Intimate. From late Latin intimātus. That didn't help any. Intimate could mean anything, Daniel thought. She almost purred it. Intimate was... intimate. A very close, warm relationship. Very personal, very private. Maybe sexual. Crap. Oh crap. The only person before Sha're had been Sarah. He was still with Sha're. What kind of intimate were they talking here?
"...What do you mean by intimate?" Daniel asked. He sounded a little nervous. Actually he sounded like he was about to put his hand into an unknown hole in a temple wall and was waiting to see if it was trapped.
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She was about to answer his question about their relationship with an ambiguous reply. One that would neither confirm or deny anything with any clarity for him, deliberately of course, this was too easy. Hang on a minute, was he wearing his old glasses too? The ones she broke when she sat on them? None of this was adding up at all. Vala squinted in confusion.
"Your glasses too. Daniel, I broke those glasses, you replaced them."
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....He wasn't doing himself any favors either. Vala's plantsuit wasn't making things easier, which wasn't something she had any control of.
"It's been like this for a few years. I've never had it short." Daniel said, deciding his hair was a much safer topic than the topic of their intimacy. If he had it his way, he'd never listen to the other guys' advice on it too. "What's the Prometheus?" It almost sounded like a ship. Maybe something naval? As far as he could see, he had no reason to deal with something like that.
"No, you definitely didn't break these. Believe me, I'd remember that," and the pissiness that followed would've been known all the way to the topside of the base if she had broken them. Bad enough he got them damaged every now and then on a mission. It wasn't like he enjoyed having to replace them. And his optometrist was starting to get suspicious. How did she break them-
Waitwaitwait. Back on topic, Jackson. She was running him in circles, and it astounded him he hadn't realized it until now. Focus. What he stayed for: the healing device. Daniel held up a finger to stop Vala. "Look, this is great and all, nice to meet you, now could you answer the question? Where did you get that?"
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"The spaceship? Property of the SGC? Granted it was a little basic, well compared to Goa'uld, Asgard or Ori ships, but it..."
Vala realised there was little point to any of this, nothing seemed to register with him at all. It was almost like he was from a parallel universe? Could Stacy do that?
But there was that question again; the one that practically accused her of stealing the healing device. Parellel universe or not, some things obviously never changed.
"I stole it." Vala offered chirpily with a hint of wryness and an eyeroll, well it was decidedly easier than running around in circles trying to prove her innocence, experience had taught her that with Daniel. Especially a Daniel that didn't know her. "Well that or it was in my locker. You choose."
It wasn't so much that he'd put her back up by accusing her, it was more her annoyance that he was still focusing on it, despite everything. Okay, maybe it was simply because he'd put her back up.
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Daniel gaped at her, taken aback. He expected her to tell him something else, at least give him a story about how she'd found it. Not this cheerfully blase' answer.
Was she even actually from the pods? Daniel looked her up and down again, eyes narrowed. Just because she was here didn't mean she'd just awoken, she could've come down with the others. There was absolutely no way he knew everyone on board. There were just too many people. Not everyone covered the plant suit like he did. And frankly, the fact that she'd done everything but answer his first question at first was pretty suspicious. Even if she apparently knew him or the Goa'uld.
As much as he wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt, Daniel drew the line at priceless artifacts. And just as much so at 'hard-to-come-by-Goa'uld' artifacts. It occurred to Daniel this could easily be solved by going up to the labs and checking himself. It also occurred to him that he had no guarantee Vala would still be here when he got back. Stacy was a big place.
"Uh, well." Daniel took time to regroup. "I hate to break it to you, but there's only one of those on this entire ship. And we just brought it back today. I'd like it back. Please."
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"Going with the 'I stole it' option, then," Vala added, mocking the predictability of it all. "Fine! Have it then." She thrust it towards his hand forcefully. It was no great loss, after all.
"Good luck operating it without me."
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Daniel shrugged. Guess so, yeah, he was going with the "Vala stole it" option. Seeing as it was highly likely that's what happened.
"I didn't want to have to call security, so thank you. For not making it harder on yourself," Daniel clarified. It was going to be his trump card if she'd refused. He didn't want to have to press charges or anything, and he wouldn't have, but getting security involved in anything usually got messy. "Is that why you stole it? You thought you could make it work?"
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"Forewarned is fore..fore.. well fore something anyway." Damn it, why did she have to screw up on an Earth phrase now? Correct her at your peril, Daniel. "Oh and for the record, I can make it work. But maybe I'm lying about that too."
Vala turned on her heels as haughtily as she could muster. Really she just wanted to get away from him. Her entire world had just come crashing down around her, and she needed space to let it all sink in and review her options. All that time spent gaining his trust, and for what? To end up right back at the beginning again.
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It wasn't like someone made her steal it. Something was going on here, something more than just getting caught. He got the feeling it was extremely personal. Before he could say anything else, she ditched him. Just like that, she turned on her heel and left, making sure to leave her extra bombshell behind. Could she really make it work?
This was quickly growing out of his control. Daniel had to wonder if he even had any control to begin with over what was happening in front of him. He was leaning towards a very heavy 'no, not really'. Mostly just the illusion of control, but wasn't that life in general. Right then, Daniel wished especially Teal'c were here. If anyone knew how to diffuse any situation, it was Teal'c. He might be the resident linguist and anthropologist, but there were times when having a mastery of language didn't make any difference. Like right now.
Daniel hurried to catch up to Vala. "Wait. Wait, stop." He planted himself directly in her path. "Look, it's no harm done. I'm not getting security involved. If you really wanted to work with it that badly, all you had to do was ask. You can still see it if you want," Daniel hurriedly added. "And I'm sorry I don't remember you."
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"So am I." Was all she said in reply, and then she really did make her exit, making it quite clear to him that this conversation was over. She had to, her resolve was close to breaking and there was no way she was going to let herself get upset.
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