Rating: R <---- PLEASE NOTE THE RATING!!!
Genres: Romance (Daniel/Vala, mention of Sam/Jack and Cam/Lam), Non-Graphic Sex, some slight Agnst. VERY FLUFFY ENDING!!
Summary: Feeling real hope for the future for the first time since the Ori threat began, Daniel and Vala find moments to explore what "home" and "love" mean.
Spoilers: up to "Memento Mori".
Length: almost 3,250 words -- about 8 pages
Notes: Sequel to "Ribs", "Date with a Pirate Princess", "Date with a Martian Stuntwoman", "Date with a World Traveller", "Date with a Wild Child", and "Allies". Final installment in this AU series (unless I get the urge to write another :P).
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DISCLAIMER:

Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, Samantha Carter, Cameron Mitchell, Teal'c, Hank Landry, Jack O'Neill, Thor, Dr. Bill Lee, Bra'tac, R'yac, General Hammond, Nicholas Ballard, Skaara, Oma Desala, Lya, Heimdall, Hermiod, Kvasir, the Tau'ri, the Jaffa, the Asgard, the Ori, the Priors, the Tok'ra, the Furlings, and Stargate SG-1 ©/TM Stargate (II) Productions, Kawoosh Productions, The SCI FI Channel, Showtime/Viacom, Sony/MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This is not a licensed story, and no profit is being made from it by the author. Oh, and Disney World is ©/TM The Walt Disney Company.

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After they unloaded the limo, Vala began to head into the base, but Daniel grabbed her hand, gently leading her back to where his suitcases sat. "Grab my other suitcase from Jack and follow me," he told her, then, carry-on slung over one shoulder and a suitcase in each hand, began to make his lopsided way to his car.

Vala hurried after her boyfriend, heart racing -- and not just because of the weight of his luggage coupled with her own suitcase and carry-on. Was he just using her as a pack-mule, or was he ... she didn't dare even think about it. She couldn't bear the disappointment.

"He paused a moment to catch his breath after piling his luggage into his trunk. She started to feel let down anyway, despite not even contemplating the possibilities. Then he said the magic words that made her feel as though she had indeed sprouted a pair of batwings.

"We'll have to put your stuff in the back seat."

He loaded the car with her suitcase and carry-on, then opened the passenger-side door.

She looked at the door hesitantly. "Don’t I have to get permission ...?"

He shook his head. "I checked with Landry when we were on Thor's ship, while you were talking to Sam. Landry said he couldn’t believe he'd forgotten to tell you that you could come and go as you please now, without clearing it with him first. You have the same rights and privileges as any other member of SG-1."

She beamed, and got into the car. He leaned in to kiss her, then shut the door and came around the other side.

"So when do you want to start driving lessons?" he asked her as he started the car.

She blinked. "Driving lessons?"

He shrugged. "You don’t have to, but after flying a Goa'uld ship, it should be a piece of cake for you, I think. Just promise me that you'll obey the rules of the road, okay? No speeding or crazy stunts?"

She nodded vigorously.

She was quiet the whole drive, eagerly taking in the sights through the window, memorising the route, in preparation for the day she'd drive it herself.

"Vala? You’re so quiet! You all right?" Daniel asked.

"Mm? Oh, yeah," she assured him, smiling. "Just a bit worn out, I guess. Pretty eventful weekend, 'ey?"

He laughed. "Yeah, especially the end there."

"And you were afraid you wouldn’t get anything important done...."

"Heh, I didn't. You -- and the Asgard and the Nox and the Furlings -- were the ones who came up with a plan of attack."

She ginned. "I did contribute something, I suppose."

"Seriously, though, Vala, I'm really proud of you. I've been focusing so hard on finding Merlin's weapon, I ... I didn’t stop to consider that there might be other ways to defeat the Ori. I was so concerned with the offence, it didn’t occur to me to think defencively. But you ... you're really good at thinking outside the box, you know that? You destroyed the Ori beachhead, and with your brain instead of brawn ...." He shook his head. "You’re amazing, you know that?"

She ducked her head, blushing, then straightened her shoulders, chin up. "Says the man who speaks 23 languages, was the one to figure out how to work the Stargate, and who was once -- no, twice -- an ascended being. Face it, darling, we're two of the most amazing people in the Milky Way Galaxy, and that's all there is to it."

He laughed, wishing he could kiss her right then.

They didn't go straight to his apartment, instead stopping at a hardware store, first, Daniel telling her to wait by the cashier and face the windows. Puzzled, she did as he asked. She began to grow bored, but fought the urge to wander. She tried to guess the number gumballs in the gumball machine, then to count the holes in one of the ceiling tiles, then to hum the Jeopardy theme song, which Teal'c had informed her was exactly thirty seconds. She was going through it for the sixth time when Daniel tapped her shoulder and led her back out.

They struggled to get the luggage up the short flight of steps outside his apartment. Then he turned to her, holding his fist out, palm-down. She started at him quizzically. He grabbed her hand and pressed something into it.

At first, all she saw was a collection of plastic baubles, some gem-like and some jewel-like, some round, and some shaped like hearts. Then she noticed a pink-cloisonné skull-and-crossbones. She also saw a flat, metal heart -- turning it over, she saw that it was etched with the Pirate Princess skull-and-crossbones logo, and studded with six rhinestones, three on each side.

Only after all that did she noticed that it was all attached to a metal ring that held two keys.

She looked up at Daniel, eyes wide and somewhat disbelieving,

"Mi casa e su casa," he told her. "My home is your home."

She still just stood there, staring.

He arched his brows, suddenly looking uncertain. "Er, unless you don’t want--"

She threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. "Thank-you." She let go just as quickly, holding him at arm's length. "But are you sure about this? I mean, it's all pretty sudden--we've only been dating a week and going steady for a little less than a day."

He smiled, drawing her close and brushing a lock of hair from her brow. "When I met Sha're, she had just been given to me as a bride, and our marriage was a happy one for as long as it lasted. And I've worked side-by-side with you for months now; we already spend more time together than most married couples on Earth do. So the way I figure it, we're actually taking it very slow by my standards," he finished wryly.

She smiled, reaching up to brush his jaw with her thumb. "I just want to make sure that you're not rushing into things because ... because you think we don’t have much time left ...."

He laughed. "Are you kidding?" He picked her up and swung her around, saying, "For the first time in like a year I finally feel like there's going to be a tomorrow!" He set her down on her feet. "And a next day! And a billion days after!" He kissed her, enthusiasm gentling into a sweet tenderness.

"So," he began when the finally drew apart. "Why don’t you open the door, and I'll get the bags in."

She bit her lip gleefully, nodding. "Which one is it?" she asked, holding the keychain up. He grabbed hold of the right one. She opened the door and held it for him as he brought first her luggage in, then his.

Daniel stopped at the mailbox, digging out his mail key, and paused. "Here," he said, holding it out to her. "Number 21."

She took it gingerly, a curious look in her eye. "Oh! Mail!" she said, grinning, having opened the box he'd indicated. "And look, here's one that says 'Occupant'! That's me!" She went through the rest, handing him the things that looked boring, emptying the box of Friday, Saturday, and Monday's mail. She paused, brow arching. "How did they find me already?"

It was his turn to be puzzled.

She held up a Victoria's Secret catalogue.

Daniel coughed. "Ah, yeah, dunno why they keep sending me those ...." Snagging the catalogue from her and stuffing it with the rest of the mail into his carry-on, he grabbed his luggage and took it over to the elevator, tapping the call button once, then several times impatiently. He didn’t dare look Vala in the eye; if he had, he would have seen her grinning in her incorrigible, Cheshire Cat-way.

When they reached his apartment door, again, he prompted her to use one of her keys. She was about to step through when he stopped her. He gathered her up in his arms and carried her across the threshold, setting her down one her feet a few yards past the door.

"What was that all about?" she asked with a laugh.

"It's an old Tau'ri tradition," he said, waving a hand dismissively.

She remembered then reading in a romance story something about a groom carrying his new wife across the threshold. A warm feeling washed over her, but she decided to keep her realisation to herself. She contented herself with a nice view of Daniel's backside as he bent over to get their carry-on bags in the hall. "You sure you don’t want help with that?" she asked as he brought the bags and her two suitcases in.

"No, no, I got it!" he insisted as he set the bags down. "You just, ah ... make yourself comfortable!" he said with a shy laugh. He went back out for his own bags.

She immediately went exploring. The apartment bore an uncanny resemblance to his office, albeit not cluttered nor as packed-to-the-gills. There were countless artifact-looking things, and hundreds of books, of course. Still, the place looked barely lived-in -- which was understandable, given that he slept at the base at least a few nights a week, and spend most of his waking hours there or off-world. For a split-second she wondered if he was bringing her there to keep her out of his hair at the base, but all she had to do was think of their kiss outside and know that wasn't it at all. Likely she would stay at the base on any night he did.

"Daniel?" she asked as he brought his suitcases into one of the rooms, "Where's the bathroom?"

Smiling, he pointed it out to her. After using the facilities, she poked about in his medicine cabinet. A razor, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, contact lens cleaner, disposable lenses, Visine, aspirin, ibuprofen, Pepto Bismal. "Talk about the bare necessities!" Except that he was missing something she personally considered necessary -- not that she'd had a need to use any in quite some time. And she supposed she should feel glad the man hadn’t seen the need to stay stocked up on condoms himself. Still, it was a good thing she was always prepared. She slipped a couple of small, square packs out of her purse and into her pocket. Then she shook her head; she was getting ahead of herself. Daniel hadn't said anything at all about them doing anything like that yet .... Even so, she left the Trojans where they were.

When she stepped back into the living room and dropped her purse on a nearby chair, she noted that her luggage was missing. When Daniel came back out of his room, she asked without preamble, "So, which room is mine?"

"Which room?" he looked at her blankly for a split second, then grew pale. "Ah, Vala, I only have the one room ... I thought -- th-that is I didn’t think you'd ... mind us s-sle-sleeping together," he finally managed, swallowing hard and pushing his glasses back up his nose.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or kiss him. She gave him the Chesire Cat grin again, then started a slow, sultry walk towards him. "I don’t ..." she ran her finger along his jaw, "mind ..." she drew up against him, backing him against the wall, "at all..." She kissed him slowly, and found her attempt at seduction fading in the wake of her own, honest desire. She didn’t need to play the cat to his mouse; he'd already caught her.

His shy demeanor, meanwhile, seemed to evaporate as she melted in his arms. He was an explorer by nature -- and she was his next adventure, a temple whose secrets he clearly coveted.

They guided each other into his bedroom, stumbling uncaring over the pile of luggage as they made their way to his bed. He slipped his fingers beneath her shirt and, like a blind man, studied what they found beneath the fabric, learning the curves of her form with the same respect he gave to those of the written letter, learning the language of her body so that his own could respond in kind.

She was no less intrepid an explorer, her hands roaming beneath his own shirt, never following the same path twice, but always exploring new territory. He grew frustrated with the restrictiveness of his shirt and, with her help, quickly removed it. When there was no uncharted territory left on his torso, her fingers trailed farther south. Thief that she was, she deftly undid the buttons and liberated her prize.

He gasped and froze. It had been a long time since anyone else had touched him there -- at least while he was conscious. A very long time.

Sensing what was wrong, Vala moved her attentions upward again, occupying his mouth with hers in an attempt to distract him. The tension between his shoulders eased, his muscles becoming pliant as clay beneath her dexterous fingers. A master of slight-of-hand, she did away with her shirt, then her pants, then her undergarments, all without him even noticing. She did the same with his own clothes, keeping him too wrapped up in his senses to feel the absence -- or perhaps that was keeping him too senseless.

As her now-bare torso brushed against his chest, though, he pulled way. At first she was afraid she'd scared him off, but as he slowly began to trace the contours of her, she watched his eyes and saw something that told her otherwise. She'd been worshipped before, but never like this. Never with such raw adoration for her naked self, her naked soul, all the lies and masks and preconceived notions stripped away. Jack's words from earlier that afternoon echoed in her mind: Let him cherish you, Vala; he's good at that sort of thing ....

Daniel leaned in to kiss her neck. Cradling her, he gently lay her back on the bed, caressing her with his lips as he went, brushing them against her throat, her shoulders, her jaw, and skirting her own lips teasingly. His free hand was no less attentive to the rest of her, continuing the mapping of her. And, finally, it was there, exploring her tunnel with a reverence befitting a goddess.

Determined to show him that he meant just as much to her -- perhaps more, for she had never loved anyone as she loved him now -- she ran her own hands down his skin, blazing the trail anew. She paused a moment to open one of the small squares she'd pocketed, which she had thankfully remembered to drop on the bed beside them. Freeing its contents, her greedy fingers reached once more for his treasure, this time eliciting an appreciative growl against her mouth instead of a cry of alarm.

And he was ready. She let him know she was, too, and he buried his treasure within her.

The three-month preparation for the Furling's crystal network passed far too quickly. Just when Vala had gotten getting used to the luxury (particularly the privacy) of Daniel's apartment to the point where she'd begun to take it for granted, it was time for them to move. Their home for who knew how long was now the Alpha Site, which was severely lacking in creature comforts -- but not in plain old creatures, alas. They particularly seemed to love burrowing under her blankets, which she now checked thoroughly before going to sleep. (Why couldn't she have Daniel under her covers instead??)

Not that they got much sleep, since Sam, Dr. Lee, and Kvasir had successfully completed the construction of an anti-Ori device, as well as improved the anti-Prior device, so that the Priors had yet to overcome its effects. For a fortnight now, SG-1 had been scrambling all around the Milkway, delivering the devices, as Mitchell had put it, "like Santa Clause." They'd moved to the Alpha site two days ago, just before the successful activation of the Furling's crystal network. They wouldn’t see Earth again until all the races were satisfied the Ori threat had been unequivocally neutralised.

She was homesick already.

Homesick. The very fact that she was, and knew it, made her smile in spite of herself.

"Hey, Vala," came Daniel's voice from just outside the flap of the tent she shared with Sam.

Tripping first over her own bag in her eagerness, she undid the door-zipper.

"Hey, beautiful," he greeted her. "I got something I want to show ya." He took her hand and lead her to the back of the camp, to where she knew they now kept livestock, since they didn’t know when they might get supplies from Earth again. He led her to a small pen, and she realised there were goats housed within it.

One looked very familiar.

"When Landry told me that the Alpha site would be keeping a few animals around, including goats for milk, I mentioned how fond you were of that one, and asked if Peri's family could pull some strings...."

She squealed with delight, throwing her arms around him and kissing him soundly before bounding off to say hello.

A little under a year later, the Council of the Great Alliance, which now included the Tau'ri, the Jaffa, and the Tok'ra, declared the Ori's reign of terror to be over. There was a great celebration on Chulak, in which Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill, Cameron Mitchell and Carolyn Landry, and Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran were married, in a ceremony that borrowed a little from the cultures of their alien friends. General Hammond and Nicholas Ballard, having stayed at the Alpha Site when Earth went into hiding, were in attendance, as were R'yac, Bra'tac, Lya, Perry, Heimdall, Hermiod, Kvasir, and a number of other beings SG-1 had encountered over the years. Even Oma Desala and Skaara put in an appearance.

When Thor, who had officiated, told each couple to kiss, Vala realised that there was something different about the way Daniel kissed her. It wasn't hard to guess why: it was the first time he'd kissed her without the weight of the world lingering behind it, the first time he didn’t taste at all of fear. His lips spoke a silent promise of spring, of love that, without the constant worry of the reaper's blade, could now bloom into a long, glorious summer, and turn gold when they finally entered the autumn of their lives.

The three couples decided that they would honeymoon at Disney World together, with Teal'c and other friends in tow. (They would get their own suites, of course.) But they wouldn’t go immediately: first, they just wanted to go home for a bit, and reacquaint themselves with an Earth that had spun on, oblivious to the peril it had been in -- or even the place.

A year and a day after he'd first brought her to his apartment, Daniel once again swept Vala into his arms and carried her over the threshold. Reluctant to put her down for even a moment, he only did so in order to bring their bags in and lock the door. He found Vala taking in the sights of the room, the touches she'd added that made it as much her place as his. Her Stitch dolls sat just where she'd left them. Landry had sent someone to clean the place and air it out, so it seemed they had only been gone hours, not months, the dolls free of dust and seeming bright-eyed and eager to greet her.

Daniel drew up behind her, slipping one hand around her waist while the other gently cupped her slightly-rounded belly. "Welcome home, little one," he whispered.

~ FINIS ~