i thought we weren't going to keep naming things

amitee — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:27:37 GMT

FYI: Comments have been disabled due to the amount of spam I've been getting, but PMs are always welcome! :-)

amitee — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:58:46 GMT

Caldwell insisted they be medically cleared before anything else, much to Elizabeth’s dismay. “Sorry,” she said to the medic.

“No worries, Dr. Weir,” she replied cheerfully. “I’ve seen worse. You and Colonel Sheppard are in remarkably good health for having had limited access to decent food for a few weeks. I’m going to give you a vitamin shot and you’ll be free to go.”

It was a little weird, after a month of calling each other only by their first names, to suddenly be the Doctor and the Colonel again, she thought as she made her way to the visitors’ quarters. Not to mention being on a spaceship after being outdoors for so long. But she was sure she’d stop missing it as soon as she took a shower and had a hot meal that hadn’t been cooked over a fire.

“Elizabeth!” John called from behind her, and she stopped to wait for him. He raised an eyebrow. “Want to share my shower?”

“God, yes.”

“Good.”

In his quarters, she stripped off the soiled clothes as quickly as she could. “You think Colonel Caldwell would object to me burning that?” she asked John. “Even the shoes?”

“There’s a chemical incinerator on this ship somewhere.”

“We’ll find it later. I can’t wait any longer to brush my teeth with actual toothpaste.”

In the tiny bathroom, she found everything she wanted in the miniscule medicine cabinet set into the wall. “I don’t think this is going to be enough soap,” she said doubtfully.

“You’re like a kid.” He turned on the shower, tested it, and then shoved her under the spray. She wet the toothbrush, squeezed on a large dollop of toothpaste and jammed it in her mouth with a sigh. John laughed. She handed him one of the shampoo packets and he ripped it open. “Turn around.”

She turned in the tiny space, and he squeezed the shampoo onto her head, and then started to work it into lather. “That feels great,” she mumbled around the toothbrush. His fingers dug into her scalp, massaging, and she groaned. It was heaven.

With slippery fingers, John worked out all the tension and knots in her neck then waited for her to spit out the mouthful of toothpaste before he aimed the spray at her head. Elizabeth handed him the toothbrush and started rinsing out her hair, watching him brush his teeth. He kissed her when he was done.

She opened another packet of shampoo and washed his hair. Or tried to, since he was more interested in necking as if they were teenagers. She laughed and shoved at his chest. “Wash,” she commanded, as he cupped her breasts in his soapy hands. “There’s not enough room in here for anything else, and the timer on the water is about to run out.” But it was difficult to ignore his erection pressing against her hip.

They hurried to rinse off before the shower automatically stopped, and Elizabeth had just reached for a towel when it did. John wiped the steam from the mirror. “Guess I should shave.”

“I kind of like the beard.”

“I’d leave it for you,” he said with a grin, “but Caldwell would kick my ass out the airlock.”

“You can shave later. I’m starving.” She rubbed her hair with the towel then reached around him for a comb.

“Food before sex?”

The intercom buzzed before she could answer, and they both groaned. Elizabeth went out into the main area, John trailing after her. She pushed the button. “This is Dr. Weir.”

“Dr. Weir, we have Atlantis on the line and they would like to speak with you.”

“I’ll be there in a moment.”

She dressed in a pair of the unisex one-size-fits-all fatigues and threw the other at a dejected-looking John. “I have to get dressed?” he asked.

“Yes. Don’t you want to talk to everyone?”

“Maybe,” he grumbled, but put the clothes on without complaining and followed her to the bridge. Halfway there, she realized neither of them were wore shoes. Caldwell would appreciate that, she was sure.

“Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard are here,” Caldwell said when they entered the bridge.

“Elizabeth, thank god,” came Rodney’s voice.

She saw John shove his hands in his pockets and scowl. “What, you’re not glad I’m alive, too?” he asked Rodney.

“Yes, of course. Everyone here is happy that neither of you died on that horrible planet. What happened?”

Elizabeth let John answer that one. “Crazy people blew up the Stargate,” he said, rocking back on his heels.

“They blew up.. but how… regular explosives- ”

“We won’t be going back to find out,” Elizabeth interrupted.

Rodney made flustered noises over the air until Teyla’s voice came through. “Should we assume your negotiations with the Rudrans have ended?”

“We never even got started. The same night we arrived, the rebels attacked the city.”

“We’ve spent the last month in the woods,” John added.

“There was no evidence of strife during our original reconnaissance mission,” Teyla said, concern in her voice. “In fact-”

She was cut off as something hit the Daedalus, sending people stumbling, all the alarms blaring. John caught her before she could fall into the console, an arm around her waist keeping her upright as Caldwell shouted for a report. “Someone fucking fired on us!” John shouted back. “You okay?” he asked Elizabeth in a quieter tone.

“I’m fine.”

“Primary systems all still online,” the lieutenant reported. “Minor structural damage but no hull breach.”

“Take us out of here,” Caldwell ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

“Why didn’t you say we were still in orbit around the planet?” John demanded.

“I was under orders not to.”

Shocked, Elizabeth asked, “Orders from whom?”

“After you filled me in on the situation down there, Stargate Command instructed me to retrieve what pieces I could of the destroyed Stargate.” Caldwell crossed his arms over his chest.

“What do they want with a blown-up Stargate?”

“The naquadah,” Elizabeth murmured.

“The naquadah,” Caldwell confirmed. “Not to mention the potential recovery of the explosive that destroyed the Stargate.”

“That would, in turn, allow us to destroy the last remaining Ori supergate.” It wasn't hard to guess.

Caldwell nodded. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have repairs to oversee.” It was a clear dismissal.

“Let’s get something to eat,” Elizabeth said to John, and pulled him from the bridge. “You’ve got to stop letting Caldwell get to you like that,” she whispered.

“The guy’s a jerk, Elizabeth.”

“But he does have the best interests of Earth at heart,” she replied, “not to mention he was under orders.”

John made a face. “Did you realize we’re not wearing shoes?”

“Yes. Look, we’ve been spoiled by the autonomy the IOA has given us the last two years, but the governments of all the representatives have changed.”

“They’re gonna start cracking down again?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“I don’t suppose we can get Colonel Caldwell to beam us back down to the planet?”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “That would ruin all your plans for getting me into bed.”

“True.”

They had reached the mess hall. Elizabeth picked a sandwich, a salad and a cup of green jello then sat down, tucking her cold feet up underneath her. John set a piece of cheesecake in front of her before tipping some of the potatoes off his plate onto hers. She looked up at him.

“I know you want it,” he said with a shrug, and sat down. “Here.” He held out a forkful of the cheesecake.

“You’re horrible.” She opened her mouth for the cake.

“And you love me anyway.”

She chewed and swallowed. “I do, you know.”

“That’s the cheesecake talking.” But he was grinning, and Elizabeth would have kissed him if they hadn’t been in the middle of the mess hall. Instead, she put her feet in his lap underneath the table. “See, that’s just mean,” he grumbled, and she laughed. “Promise me you’ll laugh more,” he said suddenly.

“What?”

“Laugh more.” He forked a jello cube into his mouth and said around it, “You’re always so serious in Atlantis.”

“I’m usually worrying that you and Rodney and Teyla and Ronon are getting yourselves into some bad situation,” she reminded him. “Because you usually are.”

“You got me there.”

She finished her sandwich and licked mayonnaise off her palm. John shifted and she caught his eye. “What?”

“You.”

“What about me?”

“You drive me crazy. In more ways than one.”

“Finish your cheesecake.” Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. “Do you think we should tell people?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” She didn’t hesitate.

“Really?” She nodded. He pushed back from the table and cleared off their trays. “Come on. I need socks.”

“Now that’s a good code phrase.”

He chuckled, but the look in his eyes made her flush, and they hurried through the corridors back to her quarters. Inside, she pulled the shirt over her head and shimmied out of the pants. John watched, his gaze dark and sending heat racing through her, and when she was naked Elizabeth palmed his erection through the fatigues.

He sucked in a breath and nuzzled at her neck. “It was probably a good idea that we didn’t do this when we were dirty,” he murmured in her ear, “but I really wanted to.”

Elizabeth tipped her head back, allowing him more access. "Me too," she murmured.

And then there was no noise beyond their breath. The bed was narrow but she didn't care. It was better than a cave. She ended up on top again, looking down at John, watching his hands skim over her body, light and possessive all at once. This man would kill for her, but he'd let people live as well if she asked.

It was past midnight when she woke up, and the Daedalus was quiet. Elizabeth knew there were people always working on a ship like this, but the job of the night crew was to get the ship through to the morning without too many command decisions.

Command decisions were noisy and messy, no matter how quietly the orders were issued. She’d learned this first-hand. Knowing she’d made choices that had resulted in people dying – even if people would have died anyway, no matter which side they were on – was an ache she carried with her every day, and one she knew she’d carry for the rest of her life.

Turning slightly, she looked at John. Even in sleep his face was not entirely peaceful; too many of the decisions he had thought he’d never get high enough in the military to have to make. She could name most of them, just as she could list each of hers.

What had they missed in a month away from the city, she wondered, what crises had fallen into Rodney and Teyla’s hands? Elizabeth knew they could handle anything that might have arisen, but the sudden thought struck her that this would have been the perfect time for the IOA to try and pull the rug out from under the expedition. Neither Rodney nor Teyla had mentioned anything, but their conversation had been cut short by the Rudran weapon. She wanted to be able to talk to them without any interruption, without anyone else besides John there, but it would have to wait until the Daedalus had docked.

“Elizabeth?” John mumbled, stirring. “Why are you up?”

“I was just thinking.” She settled back into his embrace.

He kissed her shoulder. “Thinking this late at night is the same as worrying.”

“I suppose,” she sighed, pulling the blanket higher.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Being on this ship is almost as bad as being back on that planet. We still can’t talk to Atlantis – this time it’s because someone is watching over our shoulders.”

“I hear you. You know, Caldwell is only a year from retirement but he still wants my job?”

“You have to admit he’s gotten better at hiding it.”

“Not when he and I are having a conversation alone,” John grumbled.

“But like you said, he’s only got a year left.”

John was quiet for a while. “Promise me something.”

“What?”

“When the expedition ends – for real, not some bogus Ancients kicking us out – you won’t cut yourself off from the rest of us - even if we’re not together then. I can’t listen to Rodney bitch about how you won’t return his calls again.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “I learned my lesson last time.”

“Good.”

“I should probably apologize for using your office while you were gone,” Rodney said, looking pained.

“I’m so glad to be back, I don’t care,” Elizabeth answered with a smile.

He returned it. “So uhm, you and Sheppard?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Well, to me, but I like to think I perceive things that other people don’t.”

Elizabeth forced herself not to laugh. “To answer your question: yes.”

“As long as he makes you happy,” Rodney said seriously then cleared his throat. “So. The Rudrans?”

“Left to their own political conflict.”

“And their Stargate?”

“The Daedalus is transporting several pieces of it back to Earth.”

“I suppose they’ll try to reverse-engineer the explosive that was used.”

“No doubt they will. Apparently the Ori are smaller in number, but they are still a significant threat.” She rested her chin on her hands. “I can’t believe this place was quiet for more than a week.”

“There was the small skirmish that Major Lorne’s team ran into on P79-213, but there were no serious injuries.”

“Good.” Elizabeth settled more comfortably into her chair.

“You think we could get a piece of the Stargate from the SGC? It could help with our power problem. We could run the city for years off a Mark IX.”

“I’ll let you fill out the requisition form,” she said dryly.

Rodney grumbled. “There won’t be anything left by the time Major Carter is done.”

The alarm made them both jump. “Unscheduled off-world activation!”

“No rest for the weary,” Elizabeth said, and got up.

“It’s an audio signal,” the on-duty tech told them.

“Put it through.”

“This is Lauk of Rudras. Dr. Weir, I hope that you are receiving this. I request asylum. Please. I have brought technology you may find useful.”

“Can we reply?” she asked.

“Go ahead, ma’m.”

“This is Dr. Weir. I thought your Stargate had been destroyed.”

“Immediately after I helped you and Colonel Sheppard to escape, I stole a small ship and flew it to the next closest planet with a Ring.”

“You stole a ship?” Rodney blurted.

“They are too busy with the rebellion to come after me.”

“What’s going on?” John asked, coming up the steps with Teyla behind him.

“Lauk – the Rudran who got us out of the city – is requesting asylum.”

“And he’s got a ship,” Rodney added.

Elizabeth looked at John. He nodded. “Lower the shield,” she ordered. “You may step through now, Lauk.”

He appeared a few seconds later, looking ill. “That was the first time I have traveled through the Ring of the Ancestors,” he said weakly.

“You get used to it,” John replied sharply. “Stand down,” he told the Marines.

Lauk looked around, realizing suddenly that there had been several P-90s pointed in his direction. “Dr. Weir?” he asked hesitantly, looking up at her.

“No one is going to harm you. However, we do require you submit to a medical exam.” She gestured to one of the Marines. “If you’d escort him to the medical bay, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“The guy looks terrified,” John said, when the Marine had led Lauk away and they had moved to the conference room.

“You think the Rudrans really aren’t too occupied with the rebels to come after him?”

“He stole an aircraft bigger than our Stargate, so it’s a fair bet they’ll come looking for him.” He looked at Rodney. “The long range sensors?”

“They’re clear for now. Couldn’t they try and gate in like this Lauk guy just did?”

“And when that fails, they’ll send a ship,” John answered.

Rodney turned to Elizabeth. “If I could get some of that naquadah, I could power the cloak and shield.”

“If they even know where to look,” she reminded him. Neither she nor John had mentioned the location of Atlantis to the Rudrans.

“Could they not find us using our Stargate address?” Teyla asked.

Rodney shrugged. “There was no evidence they had the kind of technology to do those equations when we were there.”

“There was also no evidence of a rebel group, and no evidence they were capable of space travel,” she reminded him.

John waved a hand to shut everyone up. “How about instead of debating, we ask Lauk? He is the Chief Scientific Advisor, after all.”

Rodney sat up straighter in his chair. “Really?”

John nodded. Elizabeth tapped her pen on the table. “He explained their power source to me,” she told Rodney. “Maybe that information could be of some use.”

“Sophisticated power source?”

“Some sort of chemical reaction. I have to admit I didn’t understand all of it.”

There was a knock on the door. It was Lauk and his Marine escort, who stationed himself outside the door when Elizabeth motioned for Lauk to enter the room.

He looked slightly less scared, his gray hair in disarray, but his hands still clutched nervously at his robes when he sat down. “I wish it did not have to be like this,” he said, looking at each of them in turn. “Thank you for allowing me into your home.”

“Explain to us what happened,” Elizabeth said gently. Underneath the table, John’s hand found hers.

“The government has been overthrown. The rebels were not only those who lived outside the city, but many inside. Siri himself held a gun to the head of the Chancellor. It was then that I took the Dravius and left.”

“The Dravius?”

“The ship. It remains on the planet I contacted you from.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Okay. I’ll send a team to check out the ship. For now, you will be allowed to stay in our guest quarters. There will be a military guard with you at all times, for your own safety, and I’d like you to work with our engineering team. In time, we will find you a safe planet on which you can resettle. All right?”

“I cannot stay here?”

“This is an expedition base, and will not be staffed indefinitely,” she replied, sharper than she intended. “If you would go with Dr. McKay.”

She let go of John’s hand and stood, signaling that the discussion was over, and waited until Rodney had prodded Lauk out of the room.

“That went a lot quicker than I expected.” John leaned back in his chair and looked up at her.

“That man has risked a great deal to come here,” Teyla added.

“How may times have people risked their lives to bring us information and ended up putting Atlantis at even greater risk?” Elizabeth sat down again. “You both know I’m right.”

“You think this is gonna end badly.”

“It usually doesn’t go well,” she said with a sigh, and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m fine,” she said at their looks of concern. “Honestly.”

John took Lauk, Rodney, and a handful of Marines with him to the planet the ship was on. Elizabeth remained in her office, wanting desperately to go with and see the ship, but she had a mountain of paperwork. John promised he’d be back before sundown. They hadn’t spent a night apart since Rudras, and she was used to having him next to her in their bed. Their bed. He’d all but moved into her quarters, and they had stopped trying to hide his exits from her room after the fourth morning.

She’d been a little worried that bringing their relationship back to Atlantis would affect how they worked, but hardly anything was different. He treated her exactly the same as he had before, and she had found it remarkably easy to do the same.

“Elizabeth?” Teyla asked from the doorway.

“Come in.”

Teyla was carrying a small box. “If it is all right, I have something for you and John.”

“Of course it’s all right! It’s been five years, Teyla, you don’t have to ask.”

She set the box on the desk with a smile. “You should wait to open it, until you can open it together. That is the tradition.”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued. “What is it?”

“An Athosian charm, meant to bring luck to the starting of a family.”

A fertility charm. Something must have shown in her face, because Teyla’s expression swiftly turned to concern. “I am sorry if it is inappropriate. I merely thought -”

“It’s not inappropriate.” There was no way Teyla could have known. “Thank you,” Elizabeth continued softly. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Teyla smiled again. “You are welcome.” She inclined her head slightly. “I will leave you to your work,” she said, and went, leaving Elizabeth alone with the box.

She stared at it for a while. She’d always felt like her biological clock had never ticked very loudly, and she’d never given much thought to having children until John had told her he couldn’t. Even then, she’d been too caught up in the heat of the moment to think seriously about it. She hadn’t lied later, in the forest on Rudras, when he’d asked her if that was the reason she didn’t want to be with him. She wanted to be with him despite it. That was what love was, she thought suddenly.

“You look like you’re trying to solve world hunger,” John’s voice jolted her from her contemplation. “But knowing you, you just might.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “You’re back.”

“I am back.”

“How was it?”

“Pretty cool. What’s in the box?”

“Teyla brought it. It’s for us.”

“For us?”

She nodded. “Teyla put it this way: it’s an Athosian charm for luck when starting a family.”

“I see.” He sat down, holding her gaze. “Okay.”

“Okay what?” she asked, confused.

“We are starting a family: you and me. We are a family of two.” He grinned his crooked grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling up.

Elizabeth felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest. “Somehow you always know what to say.”

“Sitting in here worrying about it, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” Carefully, she lifted the lid from the box. Two carved pieces of wood, one clearly male and one clearly female, were tied together with sinew and feathers, decorated with small stone beads. It had the look of loving craftsmanship, and Elizabeth brushed a fingertip over the feathers before closing the box again. “So, the ship?”

“Lauk was really nervous about Rodney and me looking at it, which I thought was a little weird, since it’s supposed to be his bargaining chip.”

“That’s odd. But it checked out?”

“Yeah. It’s a transport ship, but we could modify it without too much trouble. Plus, it doesn’t take some crazy gene to fly.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back. “And he’s going to let us have it?”

“That, he was insistent about, which didn’t jive with being nervous about us looking at it.”

“Maybe there’s something in it he didn’t want you to find.”

“Now that I think about it, he did go into a compartment by himself for a few minutes.” He paused, frowning. “You’re thinking this isn’t what it seems.”

“I’m thinking the Rudrans kept a lot of information from us.”

“Like the rebels.”

“And the lack of concern they showed when the attack started during the banquet.” It hit her then, finally, suddenly. “It wasn’t a holiday. It was so that everyone who was supposed to survive did survive!”

John followed her line of thought, nodding. “But why keep us alive?”

“I don’t know. Maybe to lead them back here -” She stopped, her eyes meeting his, and they both ran for the gate room.

She saw Lauk first. “Stop him!” she shouted, and the Marines lunged for him. They struggled for something, and it slid across the floor to stop at Elizabeth’s feet. It was a detonator.

“The Ring is not for travel!” Lauk was shouting, his open robe revealing the explosive strapped to his chest. “It is for worship! To travel through is unnatural! It is unholy!”

He continued, and Elizabeth motioned to the guards. “Get it off him, then take him away.”

More Marines had arrived, and in seconds the vest had been stripped from him and carried away. Lauk kept shouting as he was dragged out of the room towards the brig.

“I guess Earth isn’t the only place with suicide bombers,” John murmured, and bent to carefully lift the detonator. “I’ll take care of this.”

She realized she was trembling. “Okay.”

“Why don’t you go to our quarters?” John suggested quietly. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

She nodded. “All right,” she called up to the crew members on the upper levels, looking over. “There’s nothing left to see here.”

Still sharing, she made her way to her rooms and sat down in one of the chairs. John came in a moment later. “It’s not everyday someone threatens to blow up our Stargate,” he said wryly.

“Don’t joke.”

“What do you want to do with him? Not what you will do, what you want to do.”

She looked up at him. “I want to let him rot somewhere dark. If we kill him, he’ll be a martyr.”

“And we’ll have been judge, jury, and executioner.”

She nodded.

“That’s what war is, Elizabeth.”

She let John pull her up out of the chair and into his embrace, his jacket warm underneath her palms. She could feel his heart beating in his chest, pressed against hers, and it calmed her. She took a deep breath and then let it out. “I guess we have a new enemy,” she said, and pressed her face against his neck.

“Not necessarily. They’ll try and find an easier target for their next attack – if there’s not another revolt first. Not to mention, the first Stargate they blew up was their own.” He slid his hands slowly up and down her back. “They’re not very smart when it comes to planning ops, from the looks of it.”

“You’re probably right.” She leaned back slightly and kissed him.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Elizabeth called, attempting to move back out of John’s embrace. He didn’t let her, and only smiled at her questioning look.

“Are you okay?” Rodney asked, Carson at his heels. “Oh, sorry. Are we interrupting?”

“No,” John answered. “And we’re fine.”

“I can’t believe he just tried to blow up our gate. I’d expect more from a scientist!”

“It’s possible he wasn’t really a scientist, Rodney,” Carson answered.

“Who knows who he really was,” Ronon added, coming up behind Rodney with Teyla at his side.

“I guess the gang’s all here,” John said to Elizabeth, keeping an arm around her waist. She leaned against him.

“You know I am all for dangerous situations, but could we please have a few days without some peril?” Rodney asked. “In the city, I mean. Off-world is okay because it’s much easier to escape. Usually.”

“Perhaps a few days to regroup and let people feel Atlantis is getting back to normal,” Teyla suggested. “After all, you were both gone much longer than we had expected, and this man came only a few days later.”

“I agree,” Rodney and Ronon said at the same time, and Elizabeth tried to hide her smile.

“It sounds like a plan to me.” John looked at her for confirmation.

“Me, too,” she said firmly.

“Now that it’s settled, can we please get some lunch? I’m starving.” Rodney pushed a protesting Carson towards the door. “Ronon, Teyla, you coming?”

And then the four of them were gone as quickly as they’d arrived. “I think Rodney did that on purpose,” John said wonderingly.

“He tried to hide it, but he can be a nice guy.”

“I’d have thrown him off the pier by now if he wasn’t.”

Elizabeth felt like she should say something serious, but she realized they’d said most of the serious things already, even if it hadn’t been out loud. She smiled and kissed him quickly. “We should get to the mess hall before all the good stuff is gone. Come on.”

amitee — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:51:32 GMT

Elizabeth’s first thought after stepping through the gate was that this planet looked a lot like Earth. Most of them did; here there was cloudless blue sky, the barest ghost-white sliver of moon, warm sun at her back and green fields to the east. She figured the Ancients wouldn’t have put Stargates on planets incapable of sustaining human life. John caught her eye. “You’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all,” he said, and they stepped down off the platform onto the gravel-paved walkway.

The Rudran ambassador standing there bowed his head slightly. “You must be Dr. Weir," he said. "I am Tamas. Colonel Sheppard spoke very highly of you when he was last here.”

She looked at John. He shrugged slightly. Tamas indicated the covered path ahead of them. Brightly colored flags fluttered in the breeze. “If you would come with me.”

Elizabeth adjusted her pack and followed, John falling in behind her. “Do your people travel out through the Stargate?” she asked Tamas.

“On rare occasion we have used the Ring of the Ancestors to obtain goods and supplies not native to Rudras, but not nearly as much as I understand your people do,” he replied evenly. “However, we always welcome travelers, especially those who come in search of trade relations.”

They had reached a door, and Tamas unlocked it with a large metal key, one of many on a ring that he’d withdrawn from his robe. “Is this door locked from the other side as well?” Elizabeth asked, and Tamas nodded. “So we can’t return to the Stargate without an escort?”

“There will be someone accompanying you at all times, for your own protection.”

“I thought that was what I was for,” John muttered. Elizabeth waved a hand at him behind her back.

“That’s fine,” she said to Tamas. “I understand.”

He gave her a strange look, and once they were all three inside, locked the door again behind them. “You have arrived on one of our days of celebration,” he told them. “My government hopes that you will join the banquet. It will begin soon.”

“We would be honored.”

John shifted his rifle slightly. “Are there any certain… rules we should remember?” He gestured vaguely. “Like, no eating before the king eats, no talking to the women, anything like that?”

Tamas assured him there were not, and Elizabeth wondered how many cultural taboos John had broken on how many planets. “Don’t ask,” he told her, as if he’d known what she was thinking.

She chuckled. “You can tell me some other time.”

“Highly unlikely.”

They were now in another hallway, lit with what looked to Elizabeth like high-wattage glass light bulbs. Some form of electricity, she figured, and that pleased her, because it was evidence of at least some level of technological advancement. “Where do you get your power?” she asked Tamas.

“Power?”

“What makes the lights function?”

“There is a generator in the center of the city. It runs on a complex chemical breakdown equation, devised by one of our scientists forty years ago. I cannot explain exactly, as I am not a scientist, but I am sure Lauk will be more than willing to show you how it works. He is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Grand Chancellor.”

“I would appreciate that.”

“Now Rodney’s going to be even more mad that he couldn’t come with,” John said. They followed Tamas down a set of stairs.

“I apologize if your colleagues were upset at our request that only two designees come to Rudras,” Tamas answered, “but access to the Chancellor’s cabinet is quite restricted, especially for off-worlders.”

“It’s fine,” Elizabeth assured him.

They had reached a large room filled with tables and chairs. People hurried back and forth carrying trays piled with steaming dishes. It smelled wonderful, she had to admit. “Here,” Tamas said, gesturing to a table near the front. “Please, sit. We are about a quarter of an hour early, but there will be more people arriving shortly. If you’ll excuse me for a moment…” he turned and walked away, leaving Elizabeth and John alone at the table.

“Well, that was interesting,” John murmured, rolling his eyes as if to say interesting is not the word I really want to use. “What happened to someone being with us at all times?”

“And what was with the locked door going out to the Stargate?”

“I’m not sure. I couldn’t get an answer out of Tamas the last time I was here, either. And now that I think about it – we never went outside except to go back through the gate. Ronon wasn’t very happy about that.”

“Maybe it’s their protection from the Wraith?”

“Tamas told me there hasn’t been a culling in many years. But it doesn’t make sense that any Wraith that came here would just turn back around when they couldn’t beam any Rudrans up into the darts – they’d blow the hell out of the city instead.”

She thought for a second. “Force field?”

“Maybe.”

“They’ll have to be honest about any Wraith encounters before any trade talks start,” she said firmly.

“You’re getting that bad feeling, aren’t you?”

“A little,” she admitted. There was something that didn’t feel quite right, but she was always slightly nervous before negotiations. “We have only been here half an hour,” she reminded him.

People had started to come in, and were sitting down at tables well away from them. “What, no one is allowed to talk to us?” John asked with a scowl.

“Would you automatically go and sit with the aliens?”

“I might.”

Two cups of something that looked like tea were set on their table, and Elizabeth thanked the girl. John sniffed the liquid and frowned slightly. “Some kind of bark,” he whispered.

Elizabeth glared at him and took a sip. “It’s fine. Drink it.”

Tamas appeared again, and behind him three people. He introduced each in turn. “Lauk, our Chief Scientist whom I mentioned before; Heta, Special Counsel to the Chancellor; and Sidi, Economic and Trade Advisor.”

Elizabeth introduced herself and then John. By now the hall was nearly full and food had begun to be served. The Rudrans sat down. “I understand you are interested in how our electricity generator functions,” Lauk said to Elizabeth. “I would be more than happy to explain while we eat.”

“Please.”

Dishes were passed, and Lauk gave a detailed explanation of the power generator. Elizabeth noticed that John attempted to make some small talk with Heta and Sidi, but their answers were short and gave no indication of wanting to continue. Lauk was spelling out the chemical reaction for Elizabeth when the lights flickered briefly, but none of the Rudrans gave any sign that they had noticed.

“Does that happen often, the electricity going off and on?”

“Only when there is a heavy storm outside,” Lauk answered. The sky hadn’t looked like rain was coming when she’d been outside an hour ago, but then there was a booming noise that sounded exactly like thunder, so she was inclined to believe him.

“I will show you to your rooms,” Tamas said to her and John when the meal was finished and the lights had flickered a few more times. “This way, if you please.”

Elizabeth said good night to Lauk and stood. They followed Tamas through several corridors, all brightly lit, until they reached two doors set close together. Tamas unlocked one. “I will see you in the morning,” he said, inclining his head, and hurried away, leaving them dumbfounded outside the one open door.

“I think they might have gotten the wrong impression,” Elizabeth said to John. There was one bed.

“I’ll sleep on the floor,” he announced.

She gave him the top blanket and a pillow from the bed without argument. “Don’t you think it was strange that no one except Lauk talked at the banquet? Even Tamas didn’t say anything.”

John nodded. “And the fact that it didn’t look like bad weather at all when we were outside, and the there’s a thunderstorm bad enough to knock out the power?”

“I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to think that,” she replied, looking around the room for a moment before finding her toothbrush in her pack.

When she came back out of the bathroom, he was stretched out on the floor and the lights were dim. Elizabeth slid into the bed and fell asleep much quicker than she normally did, dreaming of giant generators humming.

A loud bang woke her several hours later. “John?” she whispered.

“That one didn’t sound like thunder,” he said, and she saw him sit up. “It sounded more like an explosion.”

“I officially have the bad feeling.”

“Me too.”

He crawled out of his blanket and got up, rubbing a hand over his face. “I’m going to check it out. You coming?”

She shoved her feet back into her shoes and shouldered her backpack in case they didn’t have the chance to come back. John handed her his P-90. “Do you remember how to shoot it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Trust John Sheppard to make a joke about one life-threatening situation when they were probably in the middle of another, she thought, and released the safety with a decisive click. “Good girl,” he murmured. “Let’s go.”

Elizabeth had never held a gun until John had taken it upon himself to teach her how to shoot their second week in Atlantis. “You need to be able to do this,” he’d said. “I’ll be your front line until I can’t be your front line anymore, but there might come a day when knowing how to fire this weapon will save your life or someone else’s.”

The first burst she’d fired had almost knocked her off her feet, but it was the last one to do so.

Now, John had drawn his sidearm and was standing beside the door. He motioned for Elizabeth to open it. She did, and he checked the hall. “Clear.”

Quickly, they walked down the still-lit but empty hallway, their feet making little more than soft noises on the stone floor, John checking doorways as they went. At the stairs he stopped cold and spun around, one arm pushing Elizabeth into the nearby alcove and shielding her with his body. She put a hand on his back to keep from stumbling.

Lauk stepped around the corner, his hands raised, his face creased with worry. “Please, I am unarmed.”

“What the hell is going on?” John hissed, still keeping himself between Elizabeth and the scientist.

“The rebel faction has attacked.”

“What rebel faction? Nobody mentioned a rebel faction.”

Lauk hesitated. “It is difficult to explain.”

“Then give us the condensed version.” John gestured with his handgun. “Now.”

“They are an isolationist group who believe that Rudras has no need for the Ring of the Ancestors,” Lauk said hurriedly. “That if we have no Ring, the Wraith will not come.”

“They want to destroy the Stargate?” Elizabeth asked. “But that’s next to impossible, it’s made of a substance that’s almost indestructible.”

“And the Wraith will just send ships,” John added. “Ships meant to destroy your city.”

Lauk nodded. “You know this and I know this, but the rebels are not easily convinced, and have not been open to negotiations. They are small, but heavily armed. Please, if you are going to leave, you must leave now. I will show you the way.”

He led them down an unfamiliar maze of corridors which ended in a set of stairs. “Up these stairs, you will find the door leading outside.” He pressed a key into Elizabeth’s hand. “Take this. I can accompany you no further. And do not come back here, it is no longer safe for you.”

She curled her fingers tightly around the key. “Thank you.”

Lauk turned and ran back the way they had come, and Elizabeth looked at John. “I still don’t understand why Tamas didn’t tell us this.”

“Neither do I, but we’ve got to go.”

He pulled her up the stairs. She unlocked the door and raised the P-90. “Ready.”

John nudged the door open with his foot. The walkway was in ruins, smoke rising from several craters in the earth, obscuring their view of the Stargate. The sun was just starting to rise. Slowly, they picked their way through the rubble until the smoke had cleared.

They stopped cold, staring at the huge hole where the Stargate had been. “I know I’m bad at directions, but I can’t be this bad, right?” John asked, rubbing his forehead.

“It was right there,” Elizabeth murmured.

‘Now there’s just a mess.”

She swallowed hard. “You can’t fight over something that doesn’t exist.”

“And now we need a way off this rock.”

“They’ll send the Daedalus for us.” Elizabeth shook her head slightly, hoping to clear it. “It was a week from Earth when we got here.”

“So a month, give or take.”

“A month in the woods.”

John smiled faintly, an echo of his normal irreverent grin. “What, you don’t think we can make it a month in the wilderness together?”

“Don’t you think we should get out of this combat zone first?” she asked pointedly.

“I always knew you were smart. Let’s try this way.”

They moved into the tree line, out of the line of sight of anyone who would come out of the door. “Lauk said this rebel faction is small, but heavily armed. Who knows how much of their ordinance it took to demolish the gate – I’d bet this one strike cost them the majority of their explosives. And they were pretty heavy explosives from the look of it. Not nukes, though. Something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before.”

“Something new?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged off his pack and unzipped it to look inside. “Okay. I’ve got three days’ rations. We might be able to stretch it a few more. Then we’re living off the land.”

“You know, I never took wilderness survival when I could have,” she said wearily to John as they carefully made their way down a steep hill.

“Elizabeth, we’ll be fine as long as we’re away from the fighting. Which we should be by now.” He held out a hand to help her around some huge moss-covered boulders. “Right over there looks as good a place as any to make camp for a while.”

She followed his gaze and saw the spot, a small clearing amid the trees.

“Think of it as a vacation,” John announced, letting go of her hand and starting to gather branches. “No annoying phone calls from Earth for a month.”

Were they anywhere else, she would have laughed. “I know you’re just trying to help.”

“Rodney and Teyla will be fine. You’re probably more worried about them than they are about you.”

She knew he was trying to make her feel better, but it wasn’t working very well. “That’s because they don’t know we’re missing yet. Can I help you with that?”

“No. Sit down and rest.”

She did what he said and sat on a nearby boulder, yawning. “I’m more tired than I thought.”

“We didn’t get much sleep before the explosion.”

“I fell asleep a lot quicker than I normally do,” she admitted. “Especially for the night before a negotiation.”

“You think there was something in the tea?”

“At this point, I wouldn’t doubt it. Are you sure you don’t want me to help?”

John had collected a sizeable pile and was sharpening the ends of the thickest branches. “I don’t suppose you’ve got another knife?”

“No. Sorry.”

“Maybe look around a little, see if there’s any pine trees nearby, or a water source that’s closer than the pond we found a mile back.” Elizabeth nodded and stood, leaving her pack on the ground. He passed her a small tarp. “Pine needles if you find them. We’ll build a pallet frame with some branches so that we’re not entirely on the ground if it rains – the pine needles will soften it. Won’t be a feather mattress, but it should be better than getting wet, and we don’t want to be directly on the ground if the temperature drops.”

“I understand.”

“Be careful,” he added, but his attention was already back on the branches.

Twenty yards away, she found a small stand of evergreen trees with a thick mat of dried needles beneath them. Her back ached as she knelt down and began scooping them onto the tarp with her hands. Something had gone wrong on each of the last four missions, substantially wrong, and now this one was fucked too. The Stargate being blown into pieces definitely counted as something substantially wrong, and now here she was, gathering pine needles on her hands and knees in an alien forest.

“Goddamn it,” she cried, kicking the tarp away and wrapping her arms around her knees.

“Elizabeth?” John called, and she turned to see him heading in her direction. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

He reached for her, but she pulled back. “Hey, sorry.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I-”

“Look, you made it clear you didn’t want anything else from me,” he said quietly.

“John…”

He started sweeping up the pine needles, not looking at her. “I understand the whole not wanting to date people you work with thing. But in case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t too many other options out here.”

“What would the people we’re in charge of think?”

“I would think they’d be happy for us.”

She took a deep breath. “I let emotion get the better of me on 668,” she said. “And I can’t do that.”

“That’s bullshit. I think you’re afraid.”

“Of what? Having a relationship?”

“Having a relationship with me.” He gathered the corners of the tarp. “We’re stuck here for a month, just the two of us. Tell me this isn’t the perfect time to find out if we’d work as a couple.”

Elizabeth was sure that was about the stupidest thing she’d ever heard come out of his mouth. “If we’d work as a couple?” she repeated. “You sound like a teenage girl.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I sound like the guy who cares enough about you to want to find out if we could work. I’m not afraid to go after what I want, Elizabeth, and I didn’t think you were either. You weren’t just some quick lay back on 668.” He stood up. “I’m done talking about this.”

He didn’t say another word to her, not even that night when the temperature dropped and the wind blew cold through their small shelter. He simply pulled her into his warm embrace and didn’t let go.

In the morning, she apologized. “After Simon and I officially ended our relationship, I convinced myself that I’d be single as long as I was in Atlantis,” she said, accepting the cup of weak instant coffee and pack of crackers he offered her. “That I…" She paused to find the words. "That I couldn’t run the city and be in a relationship at the same time.”

“That’s crap and you know it.”

“I know.” Score one for John Sheppard. Once he’d gotten it into his head to get under her skin, there’d been no stopping him.

They had been trapped by a cave-in on M3M-668. That morning, she’d told John that the IOA had officially voiced their disapproval at her decision to accompany Atlantis One on at least one mission a month. Attempting to explain that doing so was working wonders for her relationship with her senior staff had failed, and the message was clear: stop trying to be everyone’s friend.

She’d told John this as they sat on the cave floor, surrounded by rocks. Their radio signals disrupted by a metal in the earth and no place to move the stone on their side, they had no choice but to wait for a rescue that was at least two hours away.

“Can I be honest with you?” he’d asked, and she’d nodded, wondering when he’d not been honest with her in the past. And then, instead of saying something, he’d leaned over and kissed her. His mouth had been hot, demanding, and as she’d kissed back and his hands had slid up under her jacket, she realized it had been three years since anyone other than herself had touched her.

“What are we doing?” she’d whispered, lust like heat in her throat.

“Something people tend to do in life-threatening situations,” he’d replied, and pushed up her shirt to mouth her breasts through her bra.

“Wait, what about protection?”

John had raised his head. “I couldn’t get you pregnant even if I wanted to,” he’d said quietly.

“Oh.”

He made quick work of their buttons and zippers. They’d had sex there on the ground. “Don’t you dare tell anyone,” she’d panted when it was over, her forehead pressed against his neck, waiting to have enough energy to move again.

She’d had dirt under her fingernails for weeks.

Now, she looked at him across the small fire he’d built, and figured she had nothing to lose. “All right,” she said. “No more excuses.”

“It’s not like you to give excuses anyway, Elizabeth,” he replied with a grin. “Tell me something.”

“What?”

“Your reluctance – it’s not because I can’t have children, is it? And you just don’t want to say it?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to have kids,” she said with a shrug. “So what happened? If you want to tell me.”

“The Genii happened. Kolya let that Wraith feed on me, and after we escaped, it kept feeding until I was literally moments from death. It gave me my life back, but according to Dr. Beckett, that’s what… did it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do I look like I’ve got time for kids?” he asked. “Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”

Elizabeth reached for him and he pulled her close. They sat that way for a long time, John’s hands in her hair.

By the third week, Elizabeth was ready to kill for a shower. Water from the river felt good for a few minutes, but she’d never thought she would miss soap so much.

John was equally as grumpy. They’d been forced to move their camp further east yet again, due to the noise of explosions moving closer and closer. They’d carried the pieces of their shelter with them, and now he was rebuilding it close to the riverbank. “The damn Daedalus better show up soon,” he grumbled as Elizabeth handed him fresh strips of bark one at a time. “My back is one giant knot from sleeping on the damn ground.”

“Any day now, hopefully. Is there battery power left in your radio?”

“Should be. I’ve left it off most of the time.” He finished tying down the tarp across the top, their slight cover from the rain, and dug the radio from his pack. He switched it on. “There’s still life in it, but it’ll be dead in a day if we don’t conserve the battery.”

He tried all the channels, but static was the only answer, so he shut it off again. “We’ll try again tomorrow,” Elizabeth said, sliding her hand into his. “Let’s go for a swim. I need to not feel like I’m covered in dirt for a while.”

John grinned. “But you are covered in dirt.”

She made a face and shed her clothes. “Come on.”

Naked, John followed her down to the river. The water was cold, but not cold enough to cause hypothermia, and Elizabeth let herself float for a few minutes, letting the water rinse away some of the grime. “You know what I really want?” she called to John.

He paused in scrubbing at his hair. “Besides a hot shower and a real bed in which to have sex with me?”

Elizabeth grinned. “Besides that.”

“College football on the widescreen?”

“Dessert,” she replied. “Even jello. I never thought I’d miss jello after eating it nearly every day for five years.”

“Can you believe we’ve known each other that long?”

“Not to mention living in another galaxy that long.” She swam over to him and he wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’s going to be a little strange, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” John kissed her neck. “All the other people trying to tempt you away from me.”

She laughed. “I doubt that very much.”

He looked at her, suddenly serious. “We’re not going to get in trouble, are we?”

“For being together?”

“There’s not some morals clause in your contract, is there?”

“No. There’s no morals clause.” He looked relieved, and she smiled up at him. “As long as I don’t get drafted into the Air Force, we’re safe.”

“I don’t think there’s much chance of that.”

“Me neither.”

“You cold yet?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth ducked her head under one more time. “You know,” she said when she surfaced, “maybe we shouldn’t be naked so much, in case they beam us up without warning.”

“Good idea.”

amitee — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:47:19 GMT

Dear LJ: Did I say I wanted a plus account, or did you just decide to give me ads when I stopped paying for this journal? You suck.

Anyway! I am still alive, in case anyone was wondering. My life has been eaten by bandom. If anyone's into that, you are more than welcome to come join the insanity at amatia, most of which involves flailing about the fact that I met Tom Conrad's new band.

amitee — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:53:08 GMT

"We don't understand the R2D2 crap, so we're gonna go with the Star Trek method."

amitee — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:54:36 GMT

For serious, I really don't like Jool.

amitee — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:24:03 GMT

So I picked up the first two seasons of Babylon 5 a few weeks ago when I found them for $25/each at a Shopko four hours from where I actually live. (I was there for work.) When I went to my nearby Shopko... no Bab5. Needless to say, I was kind of ticked I hadn't just gotten them all and been broke for a week. But the point of this is not the cheap price. The point is that now I have two seasons of Bab5 I need to watch... and suddenly I just want to Netflix Andromeda.

Space shows are worse crack than crime shows!

amitee — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:13:59 GMT

Around the Clock masterlist updated! Only eight to finish before time's up.

amitee — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:42:07 GMT

- yay, Jewel! Why can't she be in every episode?
- AGAIN WITH THE CANDLES. Isn't that a huge fire hazard, Teyla?
- everyone is in this episode. Heightmeyer _and_ Lorne!
- uhmm, yeah, Keller's dream was pretty freaky. I am no longer hungry.
- mm, sweatshirt!Sheppard
- ok, every time there's an evil!Sheppard episode? He's like ten times hotter.
- "And then I was eaten by a whale."
- Lorne!
- Er, what? Kate gets killed by a nightmare? Also, that was very Kate/Teyla.
- I would say that TPTB better hire another woman to be the new staff psychiatrist, but SGA seems to have this rule about no more than three women on the show at a time, so I know they won't.
- uhm, I really want Keller to be a lesbian and crush on Sam.
- hah, it's Rodney
- John's still wearing the sweatshirt. Excellent.
- what is it with Rodney and whales?
- dude, this episode is so much better than the previous two. Despite the character death they will all forget about right away.
- well, it's got to be John's nightmare that Rodney's dead, right? Or David Hewlett would probably have spoiled us for this before now.
- sweatshirt vs. rolled-up sleeves!
- bwahahahahahaaha. Also, the McShep people are all over this, I imagine.
- "I thought there'd be more hot girls." "Yeah." *dies*
- awww, all of them hanging out. That's nice.

amitee — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:42:22 GMT

And "Doppleganger", so far, looks like a recycled SG-1 episode.

amitee — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:40:33 GMT

- Well, Teyla looks hot. (Is she pregnant yet?)
- It's the Iron Chef Chairman!
- oh, Teyla is so disgusted. Hilarious.
- Dear Rodney: It's going to be Sam. Duh.
- I guess I should actually finish watching SG-1 one of these days.
- I'm confused as to how the SG-1 movies are going to work with this new Sam-canon.
- Rodney's still dating Katie, I see.
- the Chairman is trying to change Ronon's mind, hmm
- Teyla will kick your ass, dude
- yeah, blah blah
- even the Wraith need Rodney's expertise
- yeah, Sam better go with on all sorts of missions, because otherwise she's just Weir 2.0
- Wraith-worshippers, oooookay
- boring. end.

amitee — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:36:48 GMT

- Poor Adrian Paul can't get better acting jobs than made for SciFi Channel movies?

Anyway:

- man, I still kinda 'ship S/W, even if it is totally doomed.
- "No wild parties while we're gone." "We will try to restrain ourselves." Hee. And aww, John and Elizabeth are so totally Dad and Mom. Until it all goes to hell, of course.
- bwahahahaa, Chewie
- they get in and out like that? Lame. Lame, show.
- the look of "I can't believe you just made HER spell it out, you moron!"
- I'm bored. I really think I am over this show.
- ok, Elizabeth, that's a little bit scary
- yeah, yeah, still not surprised
- WON'T BE FOOLED AGAIN. Sorry. That amused me.
- Rodney definitely looks the most crushed that Elizabeth is stuck in ReplicatorLand
- bwah, the Apollo
- aww, Teyla and Ronon
- well, at least the gate is one good thing
- Sam says she's not sticking around, but that IS A LIE!
- Oh, John

amitee — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:33:13 GMT

Five totally crazy AU snippets that I wrote for medie's birthday a few months ago and then forgot to link here after I posted. SG-1/B5, SG-1/XF, SG-1/Andromeda, SGA/Batman, and SGA.

It was really fun to write something so goofy, and I enjoyed the experience.

amitee — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:35:37 GMT

I see the sgdiverse_award femslash awards still have yet to be announced. I'm sorry, but that's really poor form to do half the announcements and leave half hanging. And even worse that the femslash voting polls? Had results viewable when they should not have been.

amitee — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:49:02 GMT

I really need to finish my Around the Clock claim before the end of the year. This means watching Farscape again. Hmm.

(even my love for the Flan cannot withstand the new spoilers)

amitee — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:43:27 GMT

Dear Atlantis,

Remember when I said we were mostly broken up but still on good terms? NOT ANYMORE, YOU BASTARD!

That's fine, though. I have bad crime shows to comfort me, where the rate of characters perishing is exponentially less.

No love,
amitee

amitee — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:04:07 GMT

OH SHOW. SO CRAZY.

amitee — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:15:00 GMT

It feels much too soon to actually have SGA S3 DVDs, you know? I got mine from Amazon along with A Dog's Breakfast, but I saw them at Shopko for $25, probably the cheapest they are anywhere. Also $25 at Shopko right now? Babylon 5! I bought two, but by the time I am un-broke again, the sale will be over.

I still feel unfannish. Even crime shows of doom love has waned. But I still have a bunch of in-progress fics that I'm plugging away on, and all my ficathon stories are on track!

Spent the last three days out of town for training. What's new with you guys?

Also, I guess I should renew my account again. (Is denying LJ $5 really sticking it to them? Doubtful.)

amitee — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 03:24:34 GMT

I did some flist cleaning, nothing major. Mostly trying to cut down on the number of doubles I have between this LJ and the other, so if you were on both you're still on one, and I'll still be reading.

amitee — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:32:45 GMT

The polls at the Diversification Awards are set to show to none, but I can see who is winning. This is probably not a good thing. (Yes, I voted for my own stories, but I am not going to link-drop or anything.)

amitee — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:14:04 GMT

I'm wanting to run a fic challenge again, because I'm easy like that and I always forget how little response all my other challenges get (no matter what name I run them under, or what fandom they're in!). But I really want to do the "Ladies' Night at the Edge of the Universe" thing!

It would be a multifandom, crossover-friendly, het or femslash ficathon. (My subtitle wants to be "the 'get Elizabeth Weir laid' ficathon", but this would definitely not be limited to Elizabeth.) There would be a list of allowed scifi shows (maybe a few movies?)with some sort of alien or space slant - SG-1, SGA, Farscape, The X-Files, Earth 2, seaQuest, Space: Above and Beyond, Babylon 5, Contact to name some off the top of my head.

I just can't decide if I want to run it as a challenge, where you could sign up to write what you wanted, or if I want to have people submit a list of prompts or pairings they want to read and then I'll make a master list and folks can grab from that.

Hmm. More thought is required.

amitee — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:10:04 GMT

SGA femslash and I definitely haven't broken up. Unexpected Events, Teyla/Laura, warning: season four casting spoiler within, rated PG.

It would basically be me finally giving in to the spontaneous pregnancy idea havocthecat and I keep vaguely talking about wanting to write.

amitee — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:54:51 GMT

Hewlett (via his Twitter thing) says: Me, Dr. Lee & Kavanagh! There's got to be a Stargate/Lone Gunmen spin-off in that!

I had to look off into the corner so the folks buying permits at the counter wouldn't see me trying desperately not to giggle.

SGA and I, while still separated, are at least on good terms.

amitee — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:21:27 GMT

The Kate Hewlett RSS feed decided to post all of her recent entries at once, in one long line, and while with another other RSS feed I would be annoyed, I am so enamored of KH that I just sigh and read them all over again. Write more Jeanie Miller fic, fandom!

I think perhaps my del.icio.us time today will be spent on a Jeanie fic search. Here I am over there.

SGA: September Song

amitee — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:47:36 GMT

September Song
PG-13, John/Teyla/Elizabeth, sequel to Field Jacket Blues

i.

The hardest part is holding back.

John comes through the gate with Ladon Radim holding him up and the waiting medical team rushes in immediately. Elizabeth, at the bottom of the steps, makes it no more than two feet towards him before he’s whisked from the gate room. She’s left standing in front of Ladon and she holds out her hand. "Thank you," she says, and somehow her voice is clear.

Ladon nods. "I should return as quickly as possible."

"I understand." She turns to look up at Rodney. "Would you dial the gate for Ladon, please. I'll be in the infirmary if you need me for anything."

She hears the whoosh of the wormhole connecting as she walks away.

ii.

Somehow, someone gets in touch with Teyla and she’s there in the infirmary before Elizabeth even realizes there were a few minutes when she wasn’t. They stand on the other side of the curtain, listening to the questions Carson poses, straining to hear John’s quiet answers. His voice is different. Elizabeth lets her fingers tangle with Teyla’s.

Carson emerges after what feels like forever. "He's no longer awake, but you can see him now, if you'd like," he says. As if they wouldn't.

John's a pale sleeping shape in the bed and it's jarring to Elizabeth because she's never seen him look anything less than strong. "What's happened to him?" she asks quietly, and Carson makes a indefinable gesture.

"He's dehydrated and malnourished," he replies. "There's few cracked ribs, and I saw some older, healed fractures on the scan. A lot of bruises."

She feels Teyla squeeze her hand, hard. "His captors beat him?" Teyla asks. Elizabeth can hear the low fury in her voice.

"It appears that way, but you would have to ask the Colonel." Carson looks at them, his eyes tired. "I've given him something for the pain so he can sleep, so it might be a bit."

Elizabeth looks down at John again and slides her hand gently over his wrist.

"I'll give you a few minutes alone," Carson murmurs, and backs out past the curtain. Elizabeth rubs her thumb over the back of Teyla's hand.

iii.

They take turns in the infirmary without really discussing it. John's still asleep most of the time, waking only briefly - Carson insists that it's his body's way of repairing itself and that they should be thankful, since he seems to be recovering quickly. Carson promises them that the scans look better already, but Elizabeth admits to Teyla in the privacy of her office that she'd feel so much better if John would just open his eyes and see that they were there. "It's like I didn't realize how much I missed him when he was gone," she says, and Teyla reaches across the desk for her hand. Elizabeth smiles. "What would I have done without you?"

"Survived," Teyla says simply, and Elizabeth chuckles lightly because Teyla's right, of course, but it's certainly less romantic than the idea of pining away.

The radios crackle. "Dr. Weir," Carson says, "Colonel Sheppard is awake."

Her heart leaps and she's sure Teyla's expression is mirroring her own. "On our way."

She can hear John badgering Carson about getting some real food when they enter the infirmary, and she and Teyla trade amused glances. "John," Elizabeth calls, "please don't give Dr. Beckett too hard a time."

"You know how tired I get of jell-o, Elizabeth," he replies, and then they're at his bedside and John grips her hand in his so tight it hurts, grabs Teyla's hand with the other. She finds herself at a loss for words. John grins and it looks a little strange now that his face is thinner. She smiles back and then John is tugging them lightly down towards the bed. Carson disappears, pulling the curtain. She and Teyla lay down on either side of John, moving hesitantly at first, but then he makes a sad sort of noise that speeds their movements. She can feel his ribs under her hands. "I'm sorry I was gone so long," he whispers, and Elizabeth tries not to cry but she fails.

iv.

It's not until a few days have passed that Elizabeth realizes she might owe Rodney a truckload of coffee, or maybe chocolate, because he's been doing as much of her work as he can do without it being outright forgery, and the stack of things on her she needs to attend to is much smaller than it rightfully should have been. "Seriously, Elizabeth," he says, sitting across from her, "I didn't mind. It got me away from Zelenka for a while."

"I appreciate it. I feel like I've been falling behind for a year," she confesses with a sigh.

"Doubtful."

"You know what I mean."

Rodney nods. "It's funny, you know?" He clears his throat. "I'd gotten to that point where I thought Sheppard was never coming back, and all the search teams were just to make the rest of us feel better."

Elizabeth can't deny that. "The last few months... well, it's a good thing Major Lorne backed me up when the IOA came asking."

He grumbles something unrepeatable about the IOA under his breath and Elizabeth tries to stifle her laugh. "Go on, get out of here," he tells her. "Go spend some time with them before we all have to get back to work for real."

She goes.

v.

While John was unconscious in the infirmary, she and Teyla moved all his things from his dusty quarters (Atlantis had turned the lights on for them now that he was home) into their brighter, more spacious ones and had pushed their bed from the wall to underneath a large window that looked out over the ocean. Now, she finds John and Teyla curled up in it under a blanket while the light breeze blows over them. Teyla is asleep but John is not, and he smiles at her as she crosses the room. "Get your paperwork done?" he asks.

Elizabeth shakes her head ruefully. "I'll never be done."

He lifts the edge of the blanket, inviting her in, and she kicks off her shoes and takes him up on the offer. He kisses her cheek almost chastely and she brings her hands up to his face. "I love you," she murmurs, because if there's one thing she's learned in the last year it's that it is terrible to wait, and it's not like she doesn't know. John's smile broadens and his kiss this time is anything but chaste.

vi.

Ronon shows up at their door the next night and asks if he can borrow John, makes vague promises about returning him in one piece. Elizabeth and Teyla trade glances as John puts on his shoes and follows Ronon out the door. "It will be good for him," Teyla says, sliding her arms around Elizabeth's waist. "I think Ronon has missed John more than he ever expressed."

Elizabeth lays her hands over Teyla's. "Carson won't be happy if Ronon breaks him," she murmurs, and Teyla laughs against her neck and pulls her back to the bed. They fall in a tangle and Teyla straddles her waist, smiling down at her. "You are in a very good mood," Elizabeth breathes, sliding her hands over Teyla's shoulders.

"I feel as though a weight I had forgotten was there has been lifted from me," Teyla replies and Elizabeth arches up a little to kiss her. Teyla makes a pleased sort of noise against her lips, sliding her hands up Elizabeth's arms to press them above her head. "Perhaps we should wait for John to return." Teyla's murmur is nearly a purr, her voice suggestive and throaty. Elizabeth shivers. But they fall asleep waiting, and when Elizabeth wakes up she finds herself pressed between a morning-groggy Teyla and an out-cold John.

"Maybe Ronon did break him," she laughs to Teyla after they've dressed in silence, as she's running a light hand over John's waist. He doesn't even stir. "Tea?"

Teyla yawns hugely. "Tea."

vii.

The Air Force decides that being MIA for a year qualifies John for a medal, and Atlantis personnel decide that John getting a medal is a good excuse to stay awake all night and drink a lot. Somehow it's Radek who gets drafted to bring the idea to a forewarned Elizabeth, and she tries very hard not to grin as he sits in the chair across from her with his hands clasped between his knees and asks, "May we have a party?"

Morale has never been better: the scientists are overflowing with practical research ideas, the Marines have never looked sharper, people smile constantly in the halls. Elizabeth had been too lost in her own grief to notice how sloppy things had become. She won't begrudge them a chance for some celebration. "Yes, Radek, we can have a party."

They invite the Athosians as well, and after some discussion, Ladon Radim. "He saved me, Elizabeth," John says to her, his voice low. "He got me out of there and he brought me back. He could have left me in some desert to be recaptured - he could have left me in that cell."

It's the most he's ever said out loud about the kidnapping. Elizabeth had read the written report but had never asked him to talk about it. "I would be glad to have Ladon here," she tells John, and hugs him. Lorne looks away. John looks vaguely embarassed for a second but then he cracks a joke about Lorne's voyeuristic tendencies and grins.

"You know I've never been particularily demonstrative," he murmurs later, once the security details have been finalized and Lorne's left.

"I never used to be," Elizabeth replies. "You know how you said Ladon saved you? Teyla saved me." She meets his gaze, and while his face is serious, his eyes are smiling and she knows he understands.

viii.

"How come there's always a dozen problems that occur before the fun?" she asks Rodney. They're up to their thighs in water along with twenty other people. "Isn't it supposed to be the calm before the storm?"

"In our case, it's usually the storm before the thirty seconds of calm," Rodney grumbles and kicks the pump. Surprisingly, that makes it work, and Elizabeth tries not to chuckle at the collective sigh of relief.

"I know you all want to get cleaned up, but let's not abandon the ship before we're sure it's not still going to sink," she calls out. Teyla wades up behind her, saying her name. "Yes?"

"Ladon has arrived," Teyla murmurs in her ear. "He and John are having a very... intense discussion. I thought it best to leave them for a while. Would you like some assistance here?"

Elizabeth looks at the receeding water. "Rodney's reconfigured swimming pool pump seems to be working, so I think we're good. For now. I should probably stay a little longer, make sure everything goes smoothly." But Rodney is shaking his head at her, and making 'hurry-up-and-go' motions in their direction. Elizabeth sighs, and doesn't resist as Teyla takes her hand and pulls her away from the mess before something else can happen.

ix.

John walks though the door just as she and Teyla have finished peeling off their wet clothes. He comes close, looks at them for a moment. There's something in his eyes that Elizabeth can't identify. "You smell like the ocean," he says, and pulls them both down onto the bed.

They are very, very late to the party.

end

Thanks to havocthecat for betaing as I wrote, and encouraging this fic even when I thought I had given up on it.