Work Text:
The art gallery was a maze of open corridors and echoing spaces and was not usually Sam’s thing, but Ba’al seemed to be enjoying himself. It was, at least, one place where his formal suits didn’t look too out of place, although Sam was very glad he hadn’t gone with the all-leather look. Anything that drew attention to them set her nerves on edge.
Sam looked across the room at him, to see Ba’al standing with his hands clasped behind his back and a short man talking enthusiastically to him.
Uh oh. She wandered over, as casually as possible, just into hearing range.
‘…as you can see his style is clearly influenced by Henri Matisse,’ the man said cheerfully, gesturing wildly at the painting. ‘The similarity of the brush strokes is truly amazing.’
Ba’al was nodding thoughtfully and Sam had to cover a smile. She had her doubts Ba’al even knew who Henri Matisse was, never mind be acquainted with his brush strokes.
‘Although,’ the man continued. ‘In this case the characteristic colours have been used to give the subject a godlike appearance.’
Stopping in her subtle ambling around within earshot, Sam wondered whether she should interrupt the conversation before it went any further. If the statement itself hadn’t set off warning bells then the sudden tilt of Ba’al’s head definitely spelt trouble.
‘And which God would that be?’ he inquired in a lightly curious tone. Sam had the urge to bang her head against the nearest wall.
His companion’s explanation stuttered to a confused halt. ‘Sorry, what? I’m afraid I don’t understand…?’
Ba’al arched an eyebrow, his expression still curious, but Sam could see the glint of mischief in his eyes. ‘You said he has a Godlike appearance; to which God were you referring?’
It would, Sam thought, be kind of amusing to see the poor man’s response. However, there was also the risk of Ba’al hinting at highly classified information… or starting a religious brawl. She started walking over with more purpose.
‘Um…’ The man blinked. ‘Uh, I wasn’t, I mean… Just that he generally looks Godlike. With the lighting.’
A small smile was tucked in the corners of Ba’al’s mouth as he went to answer and Sam placed a hand on his shoulder.
‘While I am not convinced the lighting has much to do with it, I must admit,’ Ba’al said, ‘he does have a remarkable resemblance to Anu-‘
‘Hey, sorry to interrupt.’ She smiled brightly at the other guy, before turning back to Ba’al. ‘I’ve seen a brilliant painting just around the corner; you should really come and see it.’
‘Ah, Samantha.’ Ba’al’s predatory smile tipped her off that he wasn’t going to take the hint. ‘My friend here believes-‘
‘I heard,’ Sam said through gritted teeth. ‘It certainly does make the subject look Godly. Now, I really think you’ll like this other painting.’ Sam linked her arm through Ba’al’s and tugged, smiling again at the now bewildered looking man. ‘Nice meeting you.’
‘Yes,’ Ba’al agreed. ‘I-‘
Sam walked determinedly around the corner, dragging Ba’al with her. Once out of sight he starting laughing and she surprised herself by joining in.
‘Did you,’ Sam paused as she tried to catch her breath, ‘have to do that?’
Ba’al smirked. ‘How else was I to get him to cease talking?’
Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, Sam replied; ‘You could have just excused yourself and walked off, or something.’
‘I could have,’ Ba’al admitted, ‘but where would be the fun in that?’ His gaze wandered around the room. ‘And as for your own strategy, I sincerely hope you didn’t truly want me to look at any of these.’
The sweeping gesture he offered her covered just about every painting in sight. All of which, now that she bothered to look, were contemporary art of various colourful shapes.
‘Uh, no.’ Sam examined the nearest one; an orange circle next to a blue circle. ‘Not really…'
‘Good.’ Ba’al raised an eyebrow. ‘They are all a little… dull for my taste. And yet still an improvement on that one back there my Tau’ri friend was so enamoured with.’
‘Yeah.’ Sam leaned against him. ‘It was a bit ugly, wasn’t it?’
‘And that was the resemblance with Anubis,’ Ba’al agreed, sending Sam into a fit of giggles as they walked past the contemporary art and into the next gallery.
No sooner as they were past the doorway did Sam find herself grinning again. Perfect.
‘And that,’ she said, pointing. ‘Has got to be you.’
With a slightly suspicious look, Ba’al turned to the painting in question and his eyebrows shot up. Sam smiled to herself; it was a fairly simple painting of a nice open sandy beach, where the male subject was approaching the water wearing a three-piece suit, complete with shined shoes.
‘I would not do such a thing,’ Ba’al argued, loudly. ‘It would be a crime to deprive the world of a nice view of my perfect-‘
‘Shhh.’ Sam elbowed him in the ribs. ‘People are staring.’
His brown eyes danced with amusement. ‘You started it.’
‘I know…’ Sam rolled her eyes, thinking; note to self, don’t start arguments with Ba’al in public.
Ba’al glanced down at his watch. ‘Ah. Regrettably, I need to go to work.’ He sighed. ‘Perhaps I should find a way to liven the place up today, it is getting rather boring.’
‘Perhaps you should find a new job if it’s that bad,’ Sam shot back.
‘Why find a new job when I can make the current one more interesting? There are so many ways I could improve your simple Tau’ri engines, I have already shown you one of them.’
Oh yeah. Sam remembered that all too well; not that she was sure it had been an improvement per se, not when it had felt like it was about to explode at any moment. Supposedly, he couldn’t do that to another engine, not when he didn’t have any naquadah, but then, she had only his word that he didn’t.
‘Our engine design is fine,’ Sam said, then winced. ‘Okay, maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you need to go around changing it.’
‘No? We’ll have to see about that.’ Ba’al quirked an eyebrow at her and turned to go, presumably (hopefully) to change clothes before going to work.
‘Ba’al.’ Sam caught hold of his wrist as he turned, ‘Behave, okay?
He gave a slight bow. ‘As always, my queen.’
He left and Sam stared after him, shaking her head.
She really needed to talk to him about those endearments again, not that she would get the chance if he really was bored enough to start taking serious risks. If he wasn’t joking about messing up someone’s car… no. He was joking. Ba’al was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.
Sam sat down on a bench in the centre of the gallery and looked up at the beach painting. It was possible Ba’al had a point with that. She chewed her lip thoughtfully; maybe one day she’d take him to a beach, that would definitely be fun.
‘Sam!’ The voice cut through Sam’s thought sending a stab of panic through her.
She was one her feet and looking for the nearest exit (had to get away, had to get Ba’al away, had to warn Ba’al) before she remembered that he’d left and was therefore safe from Vala. And Daniel she realised, as he caught hold of her arm.
‘Whoa, you okay?’
Relax, Sam told herself and managed to smile at Daniel. ‘Yeah, sorry. Wow, you made me jump there.’
‘Sorry.’ Vala beamed at her. ‘I didn’t know you were a fan of art, Sam!’
Oh boy. She wasn’t really… but then it hadn’t been her idea to go there.
‘I was just passing by,’ she shrugged, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder. He’d left already. ‘So I thought, hey, why not. I didn’t know either of you guys were really big on art either.’
Museums were far more up Daniel’s ally, but really, she’d expected him to be poring over his latest translation at the SGC. Landry-enforced days off didn’t tend to stop Daniel from working; it was a trait she shared with him.
‘Oh I love art,’ Vala declared and winked. ‘It was always good to keep up with what pieces were in fashion.’
Sam tried not to smile back because Daniel was scowling at the ceiling, but she had a feeling that some of Vala’s old habits were never going to fade. It frustrated the hell out of Daniel, and even though Sam could understand that… it was part of what made Vala, Vala.
‘See anything you like?’ she asked, and gave in to the urge to wink back.
‘Oh yes,’ Vala replied, ‘lots of nice… expensive paintings.’
‘Very nice paintings,’ Daniel agreed, ‘that are going to stay exactly where they are.’
‘But its great we bumped into you,’ Vala continued, as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘because I was just saying that we should contact you and Cam, organise one of those team nights, maybe invite Muscles…’
Teal’c was on off world, with the Free Jaffa, but Sam wouldn’t put it past Vala to dial in specially to call him to a team night.
‘Actually, that’s what I was saying,’ corrected Daniel and smiled at her. ‘What do you think?’
‘I think it sounds great,’ Sam found herself saying. It did sound great; it had been a while since they’d had a team night. ‘But, I was going to go back to the SGC, I had a simulation I was going to run on-‘
‘I bet it can wait until tomorrow,’ Vala said, fixing a wide eyed puppy dog look at Sam.
‘It could wait until tomorrow, right?’ Daniel, to Sam’s surprise, pulled the same expression. Spooky. She wondered if he was doing that on purpose.
‘Um…’ Sam said, looking into the two faces peering at her. This was probably not a fight she was going to win, and she didn’t really mind that. ‘Actually… it can wait for tomorrow. What did you have in mind?’
Vala visibly brightened, taking a step forward. ‘We hadn’t decided yet, Daniel wanted to contact you and Cameron first.’
A familiar but subtle buzz ran through Sam… one caused by the naquadah in her blood and her heart jumped into her mouth. Oh God. Surely Ba’al hadn’t come back; he had work, he was supposed to be at work.
‘What?’ Vala’s expression morphed into one of alarm. ‘What is it?’
Vala. Sam wanted to kick herself; Vala was standing right next to her, Vala who had been host to Qetesh.
‘Oh, I…’ Sam fumbled. ‘I just thought of a good way to maximise the power output of our newest naquadah generator.’
Daniel laughed. ‘Wow, Sam, I thought we were about to be attacked or something.’
Sam ducked her head. ‘Sorry.’
‘So…’ Vala said. ‘About the team night, we still need to get Cameron on board, but I was thinking…’
Sam tried to listen to what Vala was saying, but at the back of her mind a little voice whispered; what if Vala and Daniel had arrived just that little bit earlier? What would she have done? What could she have done? Sam fought to ignore it. They hadn’t. They’d had pretty good timing and now she was going to spend the rest of the day relaxing with her team. It was fine.
But what about next time?