Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 92

Chapter 92 - Night Time Conversations

The door of the field station closed behind him with a hiss of restored pressurization, and Daniel let out a relieved sigh as the heater kicked in, basking in the warmer air for a moment before plodding over to the nearby couch and all but collapsing into it.

“Well, I had fun.” Vala offered happily, and Daniel glanced down the RV style rooms interior to see the current bane of his existence already nibbling idly on one of sticks of jerky that she had grabbed from the cafeteria.

“You just enjoy my suffering.” Daniel groused, almost sure at this point that the body swapped woman took some sort of odd enjoyment out of it.

Vala held two of her fingers an inch apart. “Little bit.” She dropped her hand and shot him a smug grin. “But that’s mostly because I warned you that my body doesn’t do well with the cold and you ignored me.”

“I didn’t ignore you.” Daniel corrected tiredly. “I just figured the standard cold weather gear would be enough.”

“Yes.” Vala said drawled. “The men's cold weather gear.”

“It’s the same thing!” Daniel whined, wondering if it was too late to ask the person staying in the next field station over if they would mind her sleeping on their couch for a night.

“It is not.” Vala returned smugly. “I checked with Samantha once I heard we were heading somewhere covered in ice, and she said the newest issued gear for women has something called a thermal base layer.”

Daniel felt his eye twitch as the odd suspicion hit that Sam had purposefully decided not to mention that to him as revenge for the time he had kept them on KS7-675 for a full week to investigate the planet’s ice covered ruins.

“Okay fine.” He groused. “I should have listened to you.”

“There, see. Was that so hard?” Vala said as she walked over to stand in front of him. “Now come on.” She continued, patting his knee almost consolingly. “Legs up so we can get my body's feet out of those no doubt damp socks.”

Grumbling slightly, Daniel followed her instructions, because as annoying as it was to admit she was right, his feet were in fact both damp and cold enough that he didn't want to put up with it.

It took less than a minute for Vala to get his footwear fully removed, at which point she began to do an expert job of massaging the blood flow back into his chilled appendages.

“How are you so good at that?” He groaned, the sheer bliss of warmth returning to this feet enough to lift the general feeling of grumpiness that had been dogging him then past couple of hours.

“They are my feet.” Vala pointed out with a giggle. “Though truthfully, you can thank good old Camulus for expert massage skills. You see, part of the way he liked to lord his authority over Qetesh, was by making her give him massages.”

The last wasn't said in the tone Daniel had come to associate with things Vala would rather forget. So he decided it probably wouldn't hurt to probe a bit deeper into things.

“I'm surprised Qetesh was willing to put up with that.”

“Oh she wasn't.” Vala admitted with an almost self deprecating laugh. “It was one of the few circumstances that she forced me to take over for.”

That made Daniel blink in surprise, as he'd never heard of a Goa'uld giving up control like that outside of a single circumstance.

“I thought the only time Goa'uld did that was when their hosts were pregnant?”

“Never lived through that one thankfully.” Vala muttered as she finished with his feat and plopped down next to him on the couch. “And while I can't say anything about the rest of the Goa'uld, I know old Qetesh figured out some years before she took me over that she could pass off experiences she didn't like onto her hosts.”

Daniel was very tempted to dig deeper into what kind of experiences those were given what Vala had just suggested about the subject. However the little voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Sha’re was warning him that would likely be one step too far for the normally defensive woman.

“So what did you think of the outpost?” He digressed.

“Not the nicest Ancient ruin I've seen.” Vala confessed with a shrug as she leaned back on the couch. “There's this one on Travista that's just a bunch of giant crystals.” She scrunched up her face. “I think it might have been a music hall or something given the buildings lit up and resonated in tune whenever someone sang.”

That wasn’t the answer Daniel had been expecting, and it must have shown on his face given the amused look Vala shot him.

“What? People have been searching out Ancient ruins for thousands of years. You don’t think there are a bunch more known then you’ve found?”

“I’m more surprised the Goa’uld didn’t destroy it.” Daniel told her honestly, since a lot of the ones they had discovered over the years had suffered from similar fates.

“Oh they certainly tried.” Vala waved off. “But the crystal absorbed energy, so all shooting the place did was put on a pretty light show.”

At this point Daniel was practically itching to take a team there and investigate. “Do you remember the gate address for Travista?”

She grinned before reaching over and booping him lightly on the nose with a finger. “Tell you what, treat me nicely and I’ll take you there for our honeymoon.”

Given their current circumstances that brought several images to mind that Daniel would rather have done without. And he almost unconsciously clenched his legs together as memories of going places with Vala’s body that he really would have rather avoided having to go flashed across his mind.

“No.” He said firmly.

“Aw come on.” Vala pouted overdramatically as she pulled herself back to her feet and sauntered over to the small kitchen sink where she began to bat the faucet back and forth playfully. “You’re in me, I’m in you, in some cultures that’s enough for us to be already married.”

“In some cultures a man and woman spending the night together under the same roof is enough for them to be married.” Daniel countered, taking the chance to begin divesting himself of the rest of the now overly warm cold weather gear. “But that’s not how we do things here.”

Vala turned back to him with a saucy smile that looked absolutely out of place on his former features. “Maybe not, but it was how my people did it.”

Daniel paused, leaving his coat hanging off a single arm as he met the woman’s gaze with a stare that practically dripped skepticism. “Really?”

“Honest to whatever gods your people follow.” Vala returned primly.

He held Vala’s gaze for nearly a full minute, somehow seeing none of the minor tells he’d gotten used to seeing when the woman was lying.

“Mind.” She finally continued just as Daniel was beginning to honestly worry that he might have once again accidentally married someone. “These were the same people who offered sixteen year old me up to Qetesh’s priestesses solely because my father was an untrustworthy outsider.”

“Solely because?” Daniel repeated, the slight lilt she added to the words enough to make him suspect there was a bit more to the story then that.

Vala’s eyes flicked to the side and she grimaced slightly. “Well, I also kind of stole the village headmaster's daughter's fiancé. But in my defense, I was sixteen, and he was the son of the town blacksmith.”

It was the type of pettiness that Daniel had encountered depressingly often in his travels through the stargate. Which, when added to the obvious tinge of spite he was hearing in Vala’s voice, was why he suspected the alien woman was actually being completely truthful.

Taking a moment to pull off the rest of his coat and set it on the couch, he offered Vala a smile of commiseration. “At least things turned out alright for you in the end.”

“Better than they did for that village at least.” Vala agreed happily, expanding further once she saw the confused look on Daniel’s face. “It was wiped out by Athena a few years after I was taken.”

“Oh.” Daniel muttered, not sure what else to say to that.

Vala pursed her lips, looking over Daniel in a way that for some reason made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. “So, before we go to bed, what would you say to trying out a full body massage?”

Letting his head drop, Daniel let out an annoyed groan. “No.” 

Walking past him to plop down on the edge of the bed, Vala held up a hand and wiggled her fingers suggestively. “Are you sure? I'm really good with my fingers.”

Grabbing a small pillow from the corner of the couch, Daniel halfheartedly threw it at the aggravating woman. “No! And I don’t want you crawling into my bed while I’m asleep again either!”

Walking up to find his own body cuddled next to him had been uncomfortably odd for a number of reasons he really didn’t want to delve too deep into.

“But Daniel.” Vala pouted, her lip quivering in an obviously exaggerated manner as he turned away to set up his own bed for the night. “Sometimes I get lonely.”

“Then hug your pillow!” He snapped, giving a silent prayer to any actual gods or ascended that might be listening that this whole mess would be over soon.

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Author’s Notes: The sad thing with that last part is that if Vala just out right admitted to Daniel that sometimes she gets nightmares from her time as a host, he would have grudgingly allowed it. On the up side, at least Daniel has learned what it's like to be the little spoon. :D