Tea for Two, Two for Tango

By Grace:

~*~
The blowing and drifting snow had blocked every road in the upper mountain area; but down in the parking lot of the coffeehouse the spaces were unbelievably clear. Grace and Sarah sat with their noses pressed against the window watching the snow plow recklessly speed across the small lot.
“I know it’s going to happen- one of these times-he’s gonna spin outta control and we’re the ones who have to call 911.”
“But have must have been doing this for at least 20 years.” Sarah answered. Grace averted her gaze to Sarah whom met it and with significant distain-
“Are you watching the same sideshow I am watching?!” Grace leaned back from the window sill “Sorry, watching someone’s unfortunate death before breakfast is where I draw the line. I have to start the house coffees anyway. Man my back is killing me.” She muttered to herself as she stood. Oblivious to Grace’s comment, Sarah rose from where she was sitting to wipe off the last table from their impromptu dinner last night, wishing she would cleaned it up the night before. The red wax pooled on the table was much more difficult to clean at this early hour, but the experience of putting it there was well worth it. After some strange noises from the kitchen Grace finally emerged with two carafes of house coffee in each hand. She set them on the bar, Sarah came over to critique the day’s choices. In a row there was Malibu Hazel-Coconut, Jamaican Sunshine, Hot2 Chocolate, and Tropical Dark Roast.
“Well I can certainly tell what you’re thinking about,” Sarah winked blatantly. Just before Grace could come back with a witty retort the bell on the door jingled. The two didn’t have to turn around, in unison they said:"Morning T.”
In a black leather jacket, the tall and muscular Teal’c walked purposefully into the lobby. (His presence would never go unnoticed in any room.) He walked to the counter, bowed his head slightly while saying “Good Morning.”
“Well you certainly don’t seem bothered by ten inches, do you?” Grace replied, while tamping down espresso for his quadruple shot Venti Red Eye.
“Where I am from severe weather is in fact quite commonplace, Grace Hetrick.”
“Well then,” Grace’s eyebrows became exaggerated with expression, “you must indeed hail from a land filled with abominable snowmen, Burl Ives.” Teal’c tilted his head much akin to a puppy who’s lost his way, yet in an distinct deep un-puppy like voice he replied
“Ives?” Grace nearly dropped the filter basket of grounds as she swirled around-
“You’ve got to be kidding. All of this movie education and we have neglected to share Rudolph with you!?”
Teal’c who was by now absent-mindedly sniffing a piece of biscotti set it down and asked, “Who is this Rudolph? Is he a person?”
“Oh no, he’s actually a fictional character played by a reindeer...you have see the movie. What are you doing Saturday night?” Teal’c was making progress with the biscotti, if progress means a pile of crumbs in a pyramid on the counter which he overtly tried to cover up when he noticed Grace staring. Grace’s eyes slowly rose to meet Teal’c’s she didn’t even want to imagine the mess he’d pushed onto the floor to save himself embarrassment. She repeated, “Saturday? Are you free?”
“I will inform you tomorrow.”
“Sweet-cinnamon?”
“A dusting would greatly please me.” Grace winked,
“Anything for you, T-Man.” Teal’c rose from his bar stool as Grace called to the kitchen where Sarah was pulling hot scones from the oven-
“T-man is leaving the building.”
“Coming!” Sarah said, followed by footsteps running to the lobby. Without breaking stride she ran directly at the coffee bar, using the footstool for leverage she vaulted up on top of the counter with a bag of hot scones in her hand. She leaned forward as Teal’c made the three steps to her, grabbing the scones and leaning forward for the obligatory kiss on the cheek. Grace replied,
“See you Tomorrow!” The door jangled again leaving the lobby empty. The snow plow careened past the double doors, Grace curiously leaned forward listening for the sound of a crash. Disappointed again, she eased back over the bar, making a hissing sound with her teeth as her still sore back objected the movement. Sarah looked over as she hopped off the counter,
“Okay, I gotta ask.” Establishing a severe mother like posture, “Young Lady, what have you been doing? And have you been using protection?” Grace aghast, threw the towel on counter directly at Sarah’s face.
“Oh Stop! I was going to tell you.”
“Well I should hope so! We’re kinda partners in crime, you know.” Grace leaned back on the counter.
“So I went to see Cameron in the hospital last night, and CSI came on. And you know how he has watch it. So I decided to stick around and keep him company. So we’re sitting there, watching the show-“
“You’re both sitting there? Shouldn’t he be in a bed or something? I mean he did break his leg!”
“Well...I was sitting with him in the bed-no funny business, I swear! But it was rather cozy and so...we were...kissing-“
“Oh you were making out in bed-“
“No, that sounds terrible! We were just being friendly, and the door was kinda closed-well it was a commercial break-so we weren’t really watching the tv-“
“Do you even remember the show was about?”
“And the nurse came in and kinda startled us-and I...fell outta the bed.” Grace’s face flushed red while she shared in a laugh with Sarah, “And I do remember what the show was about, for your information! Don’t tell me that you’ve never caught up in the moment. Do I need to remind of last night?”
“In my defense Cameron was on the phone double dog-daring me! And Daniel was giving me that look-you know how I get with that look.”
“You two are quite the pair, I never thought that of using the wax to put out the fire.” Sarah reflected,
“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it, but I guess when you're friends with Cameron, you really do have to learn some basic safety measures.” Grace and Sarah laughed.
“So you never did tell me what happened after I left.” Grace said, raising one eyebrow suggestively. “I should have started asking when I found the empty wine bottle in the trash bin this morning. But I was just waiting to see if your guilty conscience would give you away.” Grace began to walk across the lobby towards the circle of tables, iron in hand.
“I’m listening.” Echoed across the suddenly vast expanse of the lobby, even the hardwood was all ears. Sarah reluctantly began,
“After you left we enjoyed the rest of the dinner, Mario and his brother left around...9ish?- so Daniel and I were alone and started talking about his recent trip to Manchester, actually we were having a long discussion about Camelot, some of his theories are kinda “out there” but he definitely has a right to his opinions, I guess. So then of course we were talking about King Arthur and the sword in the stone and then somehow we of course got to Spamalot.” Grace giggled as she peeled the last layer of wax off the table. Sarah continued, “Did you know he has met Eric Idle? He said it was at a fancy benefit party for huge fundraiser- Anyway... so then we were talking about these Monty Python Skits and of course the general difference between English and American Comedy when somehow he randomly remembered this English drinking game.” Grace was striding across the lobby at the point when she stopped dead in her tracks.
“You didn’t!” She exclaimed. Sarah laughed.
“You’re right-I didn’t. I don’t think Daniel can hold his liquor very well either-maybe that’s one thing we have in common. He made it through 2/3rds of the bottle explaining the game, before he let me join in, it was actually a great time because the explanation continued to get more animated as time went on.” Grace finished crossing the lobby, shaking her head the whole way,
“So, I know…not a pretty sight. By the end he finally explained that the elaborate point system eventually represented how many of articles of clothing the loser has to remove from the winner.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I think the wine kinda made him improvise the last bit. So since he had something else in mind, I agreed to a game of reverse strip poker-he was too drunk to realize what that meant. And at that point-I didn’t care, I just wish we had security cameras.”
“So did you just send him home in a cab?”
“Well…” before Sarah could finish there was a loud clamoring of pots and pans from the kitchen, and a misty-eyed Daniel Jackson stumbled out holding a colander in one hand and balancing one pot on top of the other with his other hand. His general appearance looked sleepy. His button-down shirt so nicely pressed the night before was now wrinkled and half-untucked, exposing an open fly. His shaggy brown hair was completely flat on side, Grace noted they really should put a mirror at point between the guest and the kitchen. Reveling in the embarrassment, Grace took a step back, threw a towel over her arm and looked at Daniel while shaking her head slowly.
“My, my, my is this Daniel I see before me?” Sarah poured a Daniel a cup of coffee and walked it over to him, asking,
“You want an aspirin?”
As if searching for the right word Daniel slowly opened his mouth, closed it again, open and closed it a second time and finally said-
“Were we playing poker last night, and is it Tuesday?” Grace put a hand over her mouth, stifling her laughter, turned back to the counter purposefully, allowing Sarah to lead Daniel to a place where he could sit down and compose himself. After Sarah explained the events of the previous evening, Daniel smiled, blushed and laughed at the same time, but never said anything about regretting it. He did apologize about withholding the all rules of the drinking game and said it certainly helped him overcome his nervousness before. But maybe it was a different wine that time...
"At least it’s not Tuesday. This would have been interesting to explain to Landry. Let just say, he’s not as laid back as our previous boss. So again, I’m sorry.”
“You are going to have a great time recounting these events for Cameron, he told me that you will visit him today. Cameron is definitely missed out.” Grace said.
Sarah looked towards where Grace was standing, “Some of us have had escapades of our very own. Some of us have no room to talk.” Sarah smiled broadly. She turned to Daniel and replied “You’re going to love this.” As she proceeded to tell him about Grace’s eventful hospital visit.
As the morning wore on, Daniel showered and was finally ready to leave. As he was finally ready to leave, Sarah brought down two of the books from their last exchange which she had finished and they sat down on the corner sofa for a few minutes. By this time, Anna was hard at work finishing up the walnut supreme cookies. on her now baby blue frosted hair now tied back into a ponytail.
“I just finished the last chapter in this one two nights ago. But I would like to re-read it sometime. We’ve been really busy getting ready for when Grace is leaving next week so I haven’t had time.” Daniel’s hand reached over and rested on Sarah’s which lay on top of the open text. Sarah’s back was to the window, the warm Colorado sunshine fought to heat the room. Sarah sweat under the rays of it, but could not take her eyes away from how the light played in Daniel’s eyes and highlights of his hair. The one thing she knew was different about Daniel was the honesty and intensity behind his eyes.
“You know you could have asked to keep it longer. I should be seeing you again soon, actually I was wondering what you would be doing tonight?” Daniel quickly added, “No wine this time, I really am sorry.” Sarah placed her other hand on top Daniel’s and in a comic way replied
“We all have our moments.” Her voice taking a serious tone, she added, in a lower voice-
“I am free tonight.” She leaned in a bit closer and as Daniel rose to leave their hands remained together, and walking hand in hand toward the door, then inspired, said: “We should go dancing.”
Sarah squeezed his hand and said, “I would love that.”
Suddenly he took a giant step back and tugged with his arm, Sarah accepting the cue curled into his embrace, where he unexpectedly improvised a dip. Sarah smiled broadly at the lightness of his touch and then found that she was balanced by his strong hands resting in the small of her back. She waited to come out of the dip when she became lost in his eyes again, Daniel leaned in, tentatively kissed her on the lips and then as their lips broke away, his forehead met hers and he whispered,“I’m sorry, I should have asked.”
Barely audible, Sarah whispered, “I would have said yes.”
They broke apart and Sarah stood upright in front of him, his hands rested on her upper arms and he said,
“Can I try that again?” Sarah said,
“By all means.” As they locked in a kiss, Daniel’s hands trailed slowly along her jaw line vanishing into the dark curls around her face. For a split second, Grace walked out of the kitchen, spied the scene, turned on her heel and went back to distract Anna. As the front door closed, Daniel looked back at Sarah and saying,
“See you tonight- wear your dancing shoes.” As he drove away, she floated back through the kitchen where a patient Grace and Anna awaited the entire story in minute detail. As Sarah entered the kitchen Grace grabbed Anna by waist dramatically and said,
“Tango?” and the two of them made exaggerated steps across the floor ending with a dip which landed Anna on the floor. Completely taking Sarah’s mind off of what on earth she would wear that evening.