To Travel Hopefully, by Aces (G)

[paian]

Title: To Travel Hopefully
Author's LJ/DWJ: wishfulaces / wishfulaces / aces
Categories: friendship, sam and vala friendship, season 9-10, team
Warnings: None
Author's Webpage/Fic list: Fic tag at DWth | Works list at Archive of Our Own | Fic tag at LJ
Link to story: at DWth | at AO3 | at LJ
Why this should be read:
It's summer in the hemisphere where I am, and that's a good time for road trips and road-trip fic, which Aces writes with her customary warmth, gentle humor, and insightful characterization. This one is Sam and Vala -- as Cam says in the opening, "You're going to Thelma and Louise it with an alien chick across the American Southwest for a weekend?" -- and it's as amusing as you'd expect with Vala involved, but it's also a beautiful vehicle (pun not entirely unintended) for the kind of interaction between them that I was dying to see on the show, and the concluding scene is wonderfully teamy. About 5500 words.

Snippet of fic:

"Your people are so parochial," Vala shook her head, cutting off Sam's brief foray into the Monroe Doctrine—how the hell she'd gotten there; how the hell she had even remembered that particular piece of historical trivia, she had no idea—and continued, "One planet—one continent! I've been to some planets that are so narrow in their outlook, but not many."

"The gate was buried on Earth for centuries," Sam reminded her. "Millennia. By the time Europeans started settling North America, we were creating our own myths, not relying on the Goa'uld for them."

Vala shrugged. "So what else is part of the—road trip experience?"

Sam glanced at her, then started grinning. Taking one hand off the steering wheel, she started fiddling with a slim jewel case located in the cubbyhole below the stereo. She managed to put the CD into the player. Vala blinked in surprise when Elvis Presley stated singing.

"Er," said Vala. "This isn't a religious experience, is it? Because you know I'm terrible at those."