Rating: PG-13
Genres: Fluffy, Hurt/Comfort, Romance (Daniel/Vala, some Cameron/Carolyn), Friendship (Vala/Daniel/Cam, mentions of Vala/Teal'c), Family (Hank/Carolyn).
Summary: A sickness strikes SGC....
Spoilers: "Counterstrike"
Length: over 4500 words -- about 12 pages
Notes: Part of the "Getting to Know You ..." universe, AR to "Memento Mori". Takes place after the events in the fics Solace and Origin, but can be read on its own if you just accept that Daniel and Vala are together, and that Vala's father has become a Prior. Set before the events in the fic Rabid, but this story is complete, and therefore it is not necessary to read that one as well. I had a cold as of this writing, which sparked this work. WARNING - VERY SAPPY!!! Cause I'm that kind of gal ;)
Feedback: You may post feedback to this fic either at LiveJournal or .
DISCLAIMER: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris Bueller, and Cameron Frye © John Hughes/Paramount Pictures. Pedroc is my own creation.

Vala had felt ... strange when she'd gone to bed. And not in a good way.

Waking up, she felt a thousand times worse.

Her throat hurt as though she'd swallowed glass. (She'd heard some of the Tau'ri say that from time to time -- she wondered if it was just another colorful expression, or if any of them had ever dared to try it....) Her eyes stung, and there was an odd pressure in her face, like someone had stuffed cotton under the skin. Her head throbbed, and every muscle in her body seemed to ache. She shivered with a sudden chill one moment, and was unbearably hot the next moment. Her mouth was dry, her lips sticking to her teeth, and her tongue swollen and leathery. It was hard to breath through her nose, which dripped like her broken bathroom faucet (she really needed to remember to complain about that to Landry, since Daniel wasn't around).

Daniel .... She had the nagging sensation she was forgetting something important about him, but her thoughts were fuzzy -- and she wasn't even hung over! How unfair! A sobering thought struck her (but it didn’t do much good in clearing the cobwebs from her brain, seeing as she wasn't actually drunk to begin with):

I have a plague! I'm going to die, and take everyone in the base -- maybe the entire planet -- with me!

She almost hyperventilated, but her lungs weren't up to it, so she hacked and wheezed for a painful minute instead.

What should she do? Should she see Dr. Lam, on the off chance that the woman might be able to treat it, and risk exposing everyone else? SGC seemed to frown on that sort of thing -- that was why Daniel was still away, when he was supposed to have been back two weeks prior.

"Daniel!" she gasped, sparking another coughing fit. He was due back that very morning!

He, Cam, and Teal'c had been away with members of SG-4 and 6, on another world, when they'd caught some illness native to that planet. An "influence", Dr. Lam had called it, or something like that. Lam had been sent over in a Hazmat suit to assess the situation. Soon after, the doctor declared that the sickness wasn't life-threatening. However, since it was more contagious while they were still hacking and sneezing, she wanted them to at least wait until their symptoms subsided before returning home. Vala secretly -- and rather unkindly -- suspected that the woman just didn’t want them dirtying up her infirmary.

Vala had asked to go to Daniel, but Landry had refused.

It aggravated her to no end that she hadn't been allowed along in the first place just because SGC's psychiatric staff had suggested Vala needed some time to de-stress after the visit from her Prior-father. As if keeping her and Daniel apart wouldn't make her more stressed! Of course, Daniel wasn't supposed to have been away for so very long a while, but still ....

Teal'c had been allowed to return already, at least, as he'd recovered a bit faster than the rest. And she'd been grateful for his company, but ... well, he was no Daniel.

In the end, it was only her fierce desire to see her beloved that got her out of bed and into the bathroom. Well, okay, that and her fierce need to pass water. Unfortunately, when she left the bathroom again in search of clothes, her knees had given up on any attempt to hold her up, much less convey her across the room. She fell to the floor, landing fairly painlessly on her posterior, thanks to the plush carpeting. The room spun, and she fell back the rest of the way.

Daniel was practically chomping at the bit to be off PB6-570. Not only had he spent most of his stay sick as a dog, with a roomful of other people equally ill, but they hadn't even found a single useful thing while there! He'd pushed himself, too, working when everyone else was resting, until the fever left him too weak and delirious to do any more. It didn't seem right to spend all that time there and not try to make good use of it, after all. If only good had come of it. He didn’t blame Mitchell in the slightest when the man swept up the Hazmat-suit-wearing Dr. Lam in his arms and whirled her around, whooping for joy, when she declared them back to normal; Daniel might have done the same himself, if he hadn’t had another dark-haired woman on his mind. Even without the flu, he was finding that even just a day away from Vala was getting to be too hard to bear. They might as well have been still be wearing the Kor Mak bracelets!

"I tell you what, Jackson, I never want to see another bowl of chicken noodle soup as long as I live!" Mitchell sighed as they waited for the 'Gate to be dialed. "It's sooo not fair that Teal'c got to leave before the rest of us!"

Daniel shrugged. It wasn't Teal'c's fault that the medication he had to take in order to survive without a symbiote had the happy side-effect of ridding him of the bug that had plagued them in about two-thirds the time. And at least the Jaffa, once he got home, had been free to keep Vala from crawling out of her skin with boredom, seeing as Sam was also off-world now, aboard the Odyssey.

The familiar blue, watery light filled the circle of the 'Gate, and their team stepped through, Daniel in eager lead, with Cam only a half-step behind. On his face, the archaeologist wore an anticipatory smile, which made his emaciated state seem almost back to normal. The effect, alas, didn’t last.

"Where is she?" Daniel asked, frowning worriedly as he scanned the 'Gate Room and realised Vala wasn't there.

Cam didn’t need to ask who he meant; he, too, had a concerned furrow in his brow when he'd confirmed her absence for himself.

Landry blinked in surprise, looking about. He knew full well that Teal'c had been called to Chulak, so he obviously hadn't expected the Jaffa to come greet his teammates now. Vala, however, had spent most of the week in her quarters, so Landry had, in fact, momentarily forgotten that she hadn't been off-world with Daniel. Now Hank looked behind him, to the Control Room window, with the same sense of confusion as the new arrivals. Walter, watching all from his station, shrugged.

A thought occurred to Landry, and he snapped his fingers. "I bet she slept in! I didn’t think to go see if she was awake!"

Cam and Daniel nodded in agreement, the tension between Daniel's shoulders easing away. Yes, that had to be it; Vala was a creature of comforts, after all....

Convinced that Vala was safe and blissfully unaware of his arrival, Daniel decided (after noting how Landry's nose twitched and how the man was keeping his distance) to take a much-needed shower and change his clothes. It was another half-hour before he finally made his way down the hall to Vala's quarters.

He knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again, a bit more insistently. Still nothing. He called to her through the door. No reply. He rapped hard and long enough to bruise his knuckles, calling her name. He held his ear to the door, but heard nothing. Someone walked by, and he abruptly felt very stupid. She obviously wasn't there; she'd probably gone to the mess for breakfast. Although that would have meant she'd either forgotten he was supposed to be home that day or simply didn’t feel meeting him upon arrival was necessary. Maybe she didn't miss him even half as much as he'd missed her.... The thought made his insides twist unpleasantly. Then another possibility occurred to him: maybe she'd gone looking for him, and they'd just missed each other. He brightened, and turned to look for her, finding Cameron instead.

"She's still not up?" Mitchell asked, disbelieving.

"Oh, no, I think she must be -- I can't hear anything in there." His gut said that statement was a lie, but couldn’t offer a better explanation for the quiet, so he told it to shush. "I was just about to check the cafeteria."

"Well, I just came from there, and I didn't see her," Cam told him.

"Then I guess I'll check the 'Gate Room," Daniel said, turning the other way. He nearly walked right into Landry.

"She's not there, either," the general told them.

Just then, Daniel thought he heard something. He turned back to Vala's door, scowling.

"What?" Cam asked.

Daniel held up a hand, signaling for quiet. He pressed his ear to the door again. There! He was sure now, there was someone in there after all!

Landry held up his key card. Daniel stepped aside, letting him swipe it, then hurried through the portal once it was open. He stopped short a few paces in. It was dark in the room, and the bed was empty. Not sure whether he should be relieved or discouraged, he turned back to the doorway and told his companions, "I guess she's not here after all."

He started to walk out when he heard the moan again, louder without the door to muffle it. He spun around and hurried in the direction it had come from, on the other side of the bed. His heart nearly stopped when he spotted her, sprawled on the floor, her skin flushed and eyes closed.

"Vala!" The fear in his voice urged Mitchell and Cam into the room and to his side milliseconds after he'd knelt beside her. He cupped her cheek and almost yanked his hand away: she was burning up! He gently turned her face towards him, caressing her skin in a comforting way with his thumb. Her eyes fluttered, but didn’t open. "Vala?" he coaxed. "Sweetie, it's me, Daniel! Wake up, kitten!"

Cameron shot Hank a look and mouthed "kitten" at him, brow raised in question. Landry shrugged and mouthed, "sweetie" back. Amusement didn’t last long in light of their friend's condition, though.

"Jackson, let's get her to the infirmary," Cam suggested, nudging the linguist.

Daniel nodded, gathering her up in his arms. She finally stirred against his shoulder. "Nnnnn. Daniel?" she asked muzzily. "I don’t feel so good," she muttered into his shirt.

"Oh man, I hope she doesn’t hurl on you," Cam remarked, then felt instantly bad for saying it -- especially when Daniel and Landry both glared at him.

"I know, sweetie," Daniel told Vala soothingly. "We'll take you to Dr. Lam and get you fixed right up!"

She snapped to alertness, eyes wide. "NO!" she begged, gripping his shirt.

He paused and looked her in the eyes. "Why, what's wrong?"

Her eyes glittered, and he had no idea if it was with tears or fever.

"You have to get me away from everyone before they get sick too!" she begged, her voice croaking. "It's already too late for us!" She sneezed over his shoulder, right in Landry's face; Cam instinctively stepped back. She gave them an apologetic look, and got sympathetic ones in return. "Oh, my Daniel, I'm so sorry! If I could have spared you this, I woul*cough*would have!"

Fear flooded him. Was this another attack by the Ori? Another superbug? Despite her warnings, he hurried faster now. But even as he hurried, he said to Cam, "Go ahead of us and clear the way. Tell Dr. Lam to get a suit on!"

Cam looked to Hank, who nodded. He nodded back and sped ahead, Landry close behind.

Common sense told Daniel that he should duck into the nearest room instead, and have Lam come to them, but they'd already traveled four-fifths of the way to the infirmary anyway. And, admittedly, he wanted Vala where all the best medical equipment was!

"What makes you think you have a plague?" Daniel asked "Did you see another Prior?" Even as he said it, he realised something wasn't right with the train of thought she had him on ....

"No -- I don't think a Prior could get in unnoticed, anyway. But I've never felt so horrible in all my life," she said. "What else would it be?"

He slowed a notch, albeit unintentionally. "Well, you seem ... a lot like how we were feeling on PB6-570, actually," he said, slowing to a crawl. "Vala, haven't you ever had the flu?"

"The what?"

He pursed his lip. Did her people have a different name for it? How to explain it .... "The flu. Like what I just had. Your throat hurts, you have a fever, you have a cough and a runny nose, you feel weak and sometimes nauseated ...."

She stared at him, speechless for a moment. "Dr. Lam said you just had an influence, that it was nothing to worry about!"

He threw her a puzzled look. "An influence in what?" He suspected she was delirious, and that was why she wasn't making any sense. He picked up his pace a bit.

She looked at him as if he were the delirious one. "Ah, in your body? I mean, that was what she said you were sick with, an 'influence'. Although, I originally thought she said 'under the influence', so I thought you just had a really bad hangover at first," she added, grinning for a fleeting moment.

Something seemed to click in place in Daniel's linguist brain. "Not 'influence', 'Influenza' -- although technically that's where the name came from, as scholars believed the illness was 'influenced by the stars' ...."

"Or Startgates?" she asked, chuckling.

Suddenly he had to wonder -- what if those scholars were more right than modern medicine believed? The first recorded cases were during the days of Ancient Egypt, after all; what if the virus had first come through the 'Gate, long ago?

"You might have something there ..." he told her. Then he shook his musing away -- it wouldn't help them now. "Anyway, Influenza's better known as 'the flu' these days. Doctors just like using technical terms whenever possible."

"Kind of like some astrophysicists we know?" she quipped.

He laughed. "Yeah, Sam's lucky she's missing all the fun." Then something else occurred to him. "In fact, I'm betting you caught this from Teal'c!" He knew flu bugs could remain contagious for a while, even after the body seemed recovered. Since it was a run-of-the-mill strain of the bug, Lam had agreed that it was unreasonable to expect the crew to stay away once they felt normal.... Yes, the timing of it seemed right -- they had started showing their own symptoms about three days into their stay, and Tealc' had returned to SGC a little over three days prior...

"On my world, when someone got sick like this, they frequently didn’t survive!" Vala remarked, staring at him with wonder. "Are you saying this ... Influenza is a common occurrence here? And getting it doesn't frighten you in the least?"

He grew thoughtful. Of course people in her more primitive era, pre-Goa'uld-inhabitation, had reason to fear illnesses like the one he'd just had! Sometimes it amazed him what he took for granted. "People used to die from it more often, and some still do, but ... most of the time, no, people usually get over it just fine, like SG-4, 6, Cam, Teal'c, and I did. We have better medicine these days; we even have vaccines to prevent certain strains of it...."

She smiled and rest her head against his shoulder. "You Tau'ri never cease to amaze me," she told him sleepily.

"Well, I think you're right, Daniel," Lam told him a short while later, her voice muffled by the suit. "I'll need to run some tests to be sure, but this does look like the same bug you and the others caught." She turned to her father, General Landry, as the man breathed a sigh of relief. "Which means you're going to spend the next two weeks here as well."

Hank, who as also wearing a suit, blinked at her. "Come again?"

"While this strain isn't fatal, it does seems to be highly contagious, seeing as every team-member sent to the planet contracted it, and Vala got it from someone who had already recovered. You've been in her presence, and you deal with just about everyone on the base, so if it were to spread, it would do it best through you."

"Just how is that possible, anyway?" Cam asked. "I mean, if he wasn't sneezing or coughing ... and I kinda doubt they were swappin' spit the usual way..."

Daniel glared at Mitchell.

"Teal'c and I shared a bowl of popcorn a few nights ago," Vala offered helpfully,

Lam nodded. "That could have done it."

"So I just won't 'share popcorn' or 'swap spit' with anybody then!" Hank insisted.

Ignoring him, Lam asked Daniel, "Did she cough or sneeze while in his presence?"

"Yeah, right in his face!" Cam laughed. The look Landry gave him promised him more than his fair share of paperwork within the next few days.

"Sorry, Dad," Lam said in a way that said she was finding this all too amusing. "Looks like you're stuck here at least four days, so we can see if you start to show symptoms. Unless you want to star a base-wide pandemic here, and slow productivity to a crawl?"

Hank hung his head, defeated.

"You should both minimize your contact with other people as well," Carolyn told Daniel and Cam. "Tell SG-4 and 6. Oh, and tell them that wearing some of these," she held up a surgical mask, "would be the polite thing to do."

Cam looked less than thrilled, but nodded as he took it from her. "I'm gonna get a jump on my paperwork, then come back later for a visit," he told Vala. "Maybe I'll sneak some Jello in," he added with a wink.

Vala nodded happily, but stopped when the room swam a bit. Daniel lay a hand on her shoulder, a silent question in his eyes.

"I'm all right," she assured him. "Just have to keep the sudden movements to a minimum."

Remembering the dizziness he'd experienced himself, Daniel nodded in sympathy. He put a mask on himself, but left it hanging loose around his neck. "I'm going to stay in here, mostly, if that's all right," he told Carolyn.

Vala looked to the doctor, hopeful, and grinned when Carolyn nodded.

Lam directed her patients into Quarantine, Daniel following.

"Carolyn, would you mind terribly if I asked you to get some of the paperwork from my office?" her father asked, taking the helmet off.

"You'll have to wear the helmet to work with it," she warned.

"What?"

"Most bacteria can live for up to thirty days outside the human body, and once you start sneezing and coughing, getting germs on the paper will be pretty much unavoidable. So unless you're wiling to spray the paper with disinfectant afterwards -- which would probably ruin the paper ...."

Hank rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll wear a Hazmat helmet -- when and if I start to show symptoms! Now will you get my damn paperwork?"

She scowled. "Not with that tone, mister! Need I remind you, if you're not already infected, you will be if you don't protect yourself from vala!"

"So don't keep me in here! Wait until I show symptoms!"

"I'm trying to prevent an outbreak! If you're sick at all, you'll be contagious before you show symptoms! That's why I was putting you in here in the first place! Now, I'll get you your paperwork when I'm good and ready; I have a test running in the other room and I can't leave it unattended for that long."

"Er, I'll get it, General," Daniel offered, figuring the general would be less of a handful for Lam is he was well-occupied. "I was going to go pick up some of mine, anyway," he added as he started to tie the mask over his face. Then he paused, letting the fabric fall again, as he leaned over and gave Vala a quick peck on the lips. "I'll be back in a little bit, kitten," he told her, tucking the blankets around her.

"Kitten?" Lam mouthed to her father, who only shrugged in response as Daniel left.

Vala, having caught the exchange, told them, "Sex kitten," and winked conspiratorially.

When Daniel returned, he was pushing a cart with a TV atop it, and a DVD player, two stacks of papers, two laptops, a DVD case, and a few books on the shelf below it. He gestured to it, and the now-Hazmat-suit-free Carolyn, looking up from her work, smiled and waved him along into Quarantine. Once inside, Daniel pulled the surgical mask off, took a deep breath (why was it so hard to breathe wearing those things?), and arranged the cart so that it was directly in front of Vala's bed. Then he paused, and glanced at Hank, who was sitting in the bed next to hers, wearing a hazmat to do the paperwork (and in the hopes that he might not actually be infected, and might stay that way).

"Will it bother you if we have that on?" Daniel asked, handing the man one of the paper stacks and a laptop.

"Nah, it'd be a nice distraction," Hank assured him, voice muffled by the suit. "I'm not going anywhere, and the paperwork will only keep me occupied so much, right?"

Daniel nodded with a smile. Vala was asleep, so he took the other laptop and paper stack, kicked off his shoes, and settled himself on the bed next to hers. He and the general typed away in companionable silence, save for the ex-space pirate's soft snores.

A few hours later, Cam showed up at the infirmary with another cart, this one filled with covered trays of food. He laid one before Carolyn, and she glanced up in surprise.

"I, uh, figured you were probably too busy to get to the mess hall yourself, and since I was bringing these for Vala and Jackson and the General ..." He shrugged, looking, she thought, oddly uncomfortable -- though truthfully, it was hard to tell with his face obscured by his mask.

"Thank-you, that was sweet of you," she told him with a shy smile.

He nodded, and she suddenly wished she could really see his expression. She watched as he went into the Quarantine, her gaze lingering on the door well after it had closed.

"Chow time!" Cam told them cheerfully on the other side, slipping his mask down.

"Oh! Cool, thanks!" Daniel told him, looking up from his work in pleased surprise.

The now-awake Vala looked considerably less enthusiastic, eyeing the food-laden tray Cameron swiveled over her lap dubiously.

"Thank god!" Landry exclaimed. "I was starting to think Carolyn subscribed to that old 'Feed a cold, starve a fever' adage!"

"You have a fever already?" Cam asked, concerned.

"No, I feel fine, but I expect I'll be getting one soon enough," he sighed. "I want to enjoy solid food while I can."

"I'm sorry, sir, did you say you wanted to enjoy your food? I guess I better order a pizza for you, then," Cam teased. SGS's cafeteria food was better than the stuff he remembered from high school, sure, but it wasn't four-star, or even three.

"Vala?" Daniel asked softly. "You all right?"

She shook her head, biting her lip. She was stirring the contents of the bowl Cameron had brought her, but showed no sign of attempting to eat it. "Not hungry," she mumbled.

Daniel felt a surge of affection and protectiveness sweep through him. He knew exactly how she was feeling, and would have given anything for her to get better that very instant. Vala was always hungry; if she wouldn't eat now, she had to be in bad shape. He pushed his work and the food Mitchell had offered him away, and came to sit beside her on her bed, putting a comforting arm around her.

"Yeah, I hate chicken noodle soup, too." Truthfully, there was something about the combination of the broth and noodles that -- unlike with most people, it seemed -- made him want to hurl. "But you need to keep your strength up. Maybe you could just sip the broth, and skip the noodles?" he encouraged.

"Hurts to swallow," she told him hoarsely.

"There's Jello..." Cam offered helpfully, seating himself at the foot of her bed. "It's cold and so-oft," he added in sing-song, picking up the cup and giving it a jiggle.

She shrugged and accepted it. She grimaced as she swallowed the first spoonful, but still took another.

"You know, that gives me an idea," Daniel said. He put his surgical mask back on. "Be right back!"

Cam stole Daniel's bed and dug into his own dinner, surfing the channels of the TV between mouthfuls. A few minutes later, a suited-up Dr. Lam came in, and reprimanded him for putting his booted feet up on the bed.

Landry noted how his daughter smiled while she talked to the young pilot, and kept a thoughtful, surreptitious eye on them both.

Twenty minutes later, Daniel returned carrying a large, spigot-bearing cooler and a cup with a straw. He set the cooler on a nearby table and flipped the spigot on for a moment, filling the cup with its contents. He handed the cup to Vala.

"It's a smoothie," he explained. "Lots of ice -- it always makes my throat feel better when it's sore. Drink it slow, though!" he warned. "You don’t want to get brain-freeze."

She smiled and nodded, nursing the contents of the tumbler. Her lover was right, it was soothing -- and delicious!

Daniel went over to the DVD player and popped a DVD that lay atop it into the machine. He sat next to Vala, after snagging the universal-remote from Cam, and waited for the menu to appear.

"I always liked to watch this movie whenever I stayed home sick from school or work," Daniel explained. It was Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the story of a charming, clever, and incorrigible high school senior's adventures in Chicago with his friends, on a day they played hooky from school. Daniel always pretended he was off with them, rather than sitting sick at home.

Vala was captivated from the start. "Hey! He has your name!" she croaked at Mitchell when the character of Cameron was introduced. Though laughing sometimes sent her into coughing fits, and Daniel and Cam had to explain a lot of cultural references to her, she still enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly the bits where Ferris talked to the audience. (She, of course, talked back.) Even Landry was heard chuckling now and again. "Can we watch it again tomorrow?" Vala asked when it was over, and Ferris had told the audience to go home.

Daniel grinned; he was glad the movie took her mind off of her discomfort, if only for a little while. "Yeah, sure," he told her, then kissed her brow.

"I think that's my cue," Cam said, smiling as he slipped out of bed and put his mask back up. He bid them goodnight, but Daniel suspected he might linger in the next room with Dr. Lam....

His suspicion seemed confirmed when Carolyn came in a bit later, seeming a bit flustered.

"Well, you're in a good mood," her father remarked as she started taking his work away and settling it on the nightstand.

She ignored his comment and started to close the curtain around his bed.

"That Mitchell's a nice boy," Hank remarked offhandedly.

"He's a nice man," she corrected. "Yes, he is," she added, her eyes looking distant, as if she could see through the walls to wherever he'd gone.

Catching the knowing way her father eyed her, she tucked the man in rather tightly. "Time to rest," she ordered. "Goodnight, Dad," she added, pulling the curtain the rest of the way closed before turning to Vala's bed.

The woman was fast asleep, snug in Daniel's arms; Daniel himself was clearly drifting off to dreamland fast behind her.

"You sleep like that there, you're going to wake up with a numb arm and a stiff neck," Carolyn teased Daniel quietly as she started to draw their own curtain closed.

He glanced at the doctor and smiled softly before kissing the top of Vala's head. "Some things are worth putting up with," he murmured, resting his cheek against Vala's soft hair and closing his eyes.

~ FINIS ~

Go on to the sequel, Rabid.