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Dr. Daniel Jackson sighed as he looked up from the Tablet he’d been reading. The ever present thorn in his side, the reason he was not currently on the way to Atlantis waltzed in to his office. Vala Mal Doran would never do anything so prosaic as walk if she could help it. And she could help it now. It was after the day shift was over and the night shift at Stargate Command was lighter, unless they had scheduled teams to return from off world. There were no returns tonight, so fewer tight assed military officers to remind Vala that this was “A Military Facility and give respect by walking”. Vala was anything but tight assed, though Vala did have a nice ass.
“What do you want?” Daniel asked as she came around the counter towards him.
“What is this holiday, Halloween about?” Vala asked as she hopped up to sit on the counter next to him.
“Halloween comes from the Irish Gaelic Samhain, which is pronounced ‘Saw een’ and not ‘Sam Hain’ as some English speakers are wont to say,” Daniel started his explanation. Irish folklore, not his area of expertise, but the idea had fascinated him as a child. “The festival was mentioned in Irish texts as early as the 9th century with references to opening the entrances to burial mounds which were seen as gateways to the Underworld. Bonfires and sacrifices have always been associated with the festival. Little was know up to the early modern era for practices but it was a ‘liminal’ festival, where the bounderies between this world and the Otherworld were thin and faries and the spirits of the dead could cross over. So people started handing treats and setting places for dead loved ones to join them at meals. Other dressed as the Faries to get treats.” He paused to take a breath.
“As fascinating as all that is,” Vala took advantage of the break int the lecture to ask her actual question. “What I was asking is what would one do at a Halloween Party? Sargent Harriman is throwing a Halloween party on Friday and I wanted to go but I know nothing of how these things go on this planet.”
“Oh,” Daniel shifted from the historical to the modern. “Well, other than drinking copious amounts of alcohol while dressed in costume, I don’t know what Sargent Harriman has planned. I haven’t been to that kind of party in years.”
“Then I want to go,” she said. “It sounds like the most fun I will have on this planet. Well, next to that time I was in your bed.”
“Nothing happened that night,” he insisted.
“But the look on your face when you found me there was quite priceless,” she said with a wink. “Shall we go to this party?”
“You go, I’ve got work here,” he said looking back down at his tablet.
“It’s not for another couple of days,” she said. “And remember if I’m out of range for mare than an hour you…” she made a falling motion.
“Right,” Daniel said as he pinched the top of his nose and shook his head. She had been cooped up for months on this base. As had he. He hadn’t been to a Halloween party since college. Maybe they both needed this. “Fine. We’ll go.”
Vala squealed with delight and hopped down off of the counter and then walked over to him and kissed his cheek. “I’ll figure out our costumes.” She waltzed out of the office before he could talk her out of costumes.
Two days latter, Daniel entered his room at the SGC to see tall brown boots beside his bed with tan breeches, a white linen shirt, a pair of brown suspenders and leather accessories – belt, shoulder holster and arm bracer- that matched the boots. If that was Vala’s idea of a costume, it could be much worse. He changed out of the military clothes he wore and into the costume.
Daniel went to Vala’s room and knocked on the door. She opened it and draped herself in the doorway to mimic a Forties Pin Up pose. She was wearing a black sheath dress with white insertion lace around the sweetheart neck. Her hair was curled. There was something familiar about the way she looked. Some character from a movie or something.
“Ah, there’s my Rick,” Vala cooed.
The name tickled his memory. A movie that Jack had forced the team to watch. The Mummy. Of course, he was Rick O’Connell and Vala was Evelyn Carnahan. It was both appropriate and ironic.
Several hours latter, Daniel, slightly tipsy but by no means drunk, and Vala, who while she had kept pace with several stalwart Marines was anything but drunk, exited the Jeep that an Airman drove them back to base in. They walked into Cheyenne Mountain and cleared the normal security before crossing to the extra SGC security and took the elevator down to their floor.
Ever the gentleman, Daniel walked with Vala to her door. They stood awkwardly for a minute before Vala pulled her key card out of her decolletage. She swiped it in the card reader and opened the door.
“Want to come in?” she asked.
Daniel thought for a moment. The evening had been fun. A not bored Vala was quite different from a bored one. A not bored Vala was someone Daniel could see being with. And she was quite attractive. He had noticed it on the Prometheus even if he had ignored it.
“Why not,” he said as he followed her in.
The door had no sooner shut than Vala was kissing him. But not in an aggressive way. More as a question. Daniel kissed back in answer. Her hands were busy with trying remove the shoulder holster. Unfortunately the angle wasn’t conducive to unbuckling the harness. That was all it took for Daniel’s head to clear. He had enjoyed the kiss but it wasn’t appropriate. Not because of SGC regulations, but because he had started to care for Vala but he wasn’t sure if she returned the feeling. In her more serious moments, like after being burned in the Ori Galaxy, he caught glimpses of her true feelings. But then she’d turn and be un-serious and the glimpse was gone.
Daniel stepped out of her embrace. She stepped back as well. The moment was gone. She hoped they would find another one someday.
“It was a good party,” Daniel said. “But I got to be up in the morning to brief SG 17.”
“I understand,” Vala said. She looked him up and down saucily one last time. “That Egyptologist look is good on you.”
“Thank you,” Daniel said.
“It would look better on my floor,” she said with a wink.
With a shake of his head, Daniel left her room. Vala sagged down on to her bed, ready to have good dreams about that kiss and Daniel being the dashing hero.