(no subject)
Author: CarrKicksDoor
Title: The Watchers
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Spoilers: Through “The Real World.”
Pairings: Sparky
Summary: “Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up, you weren’t sure it didn’t happen?”
Rating: Kid friendly, mother approved.
Word Count:1989
Disclaimer: If Stargate belonged to me, I’d be writing it and making money, instead of this.
Notes: For
eleigh.
Elizabeth stood out on the balcony overlooking the Atlantean ocean. The wind ruffled her hair, still slightly damp from the long shower she’d taken. She’d stood in the shower for a long time, staring at the tiles, waiting for one of them to morph into the wrong shape. She’d finally closed her eyes and let the water beat against the sore muscles of her back and sighed.
She still wasn’t ready to sleep, and when Kate came by, she told her she didn’t have to yet. So she’d come back out here into the open air, holding her father’s watch in her hands again, listening to the soft ticking as the waves gently lapped against the city.
“Hey,” she heard a voice say behind her. John appeared beside her. He’d lost his jacket and his hands had almost disappeared inside the pockets of his pants. “Didn’t Carson tell you to get some rest?”
She gave him a small smile. “This is restful.”
He leaned his back against the rail so he could look at her. “Well, I don’t think Carson would agree, but if you don’t tell, I won’t.”
She gave him the same quirk of a smile, and ran her thumb over the glass facing of the watch. His head tilted in concern. “You sure you’re okay?”
She hesitated before speaking. “Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up, you weren’t sure that it didn’t happen?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Especially when I was a kid. I would dream I’d gone to the store and bought something, and then I’d wake up the next day and tear up jack looking for it before I realized it was a dream.”
She shook her head. “That’s what it was like. Like one of those real dreams with occasional flashes of life in Atlantis. I saw Atlantis’ dialing code in my playing cards. I saw the gate in my closet.” She squinted out at the ocean. “And I saw you. Sometimes it was very indistinct, but at the end, you were there telling me to fight it.” She blinked. “I think that was when you’d come into the iso ward. That was a stupid thing to do, by the way.”
John shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I couldn’t let you die. I mean, then I’d have to listen to Rodney and actually pay attention to what he says.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m trying to say thank you. I don’t think I’d have made it if it weren’t for you.”
If possible, he looked even more uncomfortable. “Well, I mean-the city can’t make it without you, Elizabeth,” he finished lamely.
“The proper thing to say is ‘You’re welcome, Elizabeth,’” she said.
“You’re welcome, Elizabeth,” he repeated.
“I’ll never do such a thing again.”
He grinned. “No such promise.”
She didn’t return his smile. “I mean it, John. We couldn’t do this without you.”
He didn’t answer her, opting instead to change the subject. “That your dad’s watch?”
She nodded, fingering the chain. “My mother gave it to me before I left. She gave it to me in my-my dream too.”
“My grandfather used to have a watch like kinda like that,” he said. “It was gold, and a little smaller, and it had a cover-okay, so maybe it wasn’t that much like it. It was a pocket watch, though, and it had to be wound up ever morning.”
He turned around, bracing his elbows on the rail. “My dad was stationed in Germany, and they sent me to live with my grandparents one summer when I was fifteen. They had a farm in Kentucky.”
Elizabeth looked sideways at him. “Are you trying to distract me?”
He looked like a kid who’d had his hand caught in the cookie jar. “Is it working?”
She smiled in appreciation for what he was trying to do. “Did your grandparents raise horses?”
John laughed, shaking his head. “No, tobacco. I helped Granddad bring it in that summer. It’s hard, back-breaking work, and Granddad was almost seventy and still out there in the fields. He was up at five every morning, but he’d let me and Grandma sleep until six. We’d have breakfast, and then Granddad would put down his silverware and wind his watch.”
He smiled. “One day we were walking out to the fields and I asked him why he waited till breakfast to wind it. And he stopped and looked at me and said-“ his voice dropped into a lower register, “’-Johnny boy, you’ll understand this one day. But my day doesn’t start until your grandma smiles at me.’”
Elizabeth smiled in genuine delight. “He sounds like he’s one of those true gentlemen.”
John looked out over the ocean, a wistful expression coming over his face. “He sure was. I wish he was still around.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said.
John looked at her. “A tornado came through town the year I turned twenty-four. Granddad was at the feed store when the storm hit. He got home and the house was just gone. After that, he just kind of lost the will to live. Dad says he died of a broken heart.”
“He must have really loved your grandma,” Elizabeth said softly. “What happened to his watch?”
“I got leave before he died,” John said. “I went to see him. He was sitting in his chair, and he was so proud of my in my uniform, his face was just beaming. I stood next to his chair, and he gave me his watch. It was stopped. He’d quit winding it when Grandma died, but he made me promise that when I found the one, I’d start winding it again.”
“Have you?” she asked. It was amazing how little she knew about John. She knew what was in his file, of course, and she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of man he was. But when it came to his life-it was mystery.
“Yeah,” he said, staring down at the ocean. “Every morning.”
Elizabeth felt like someone had popped her balloon. “She’s a lucky woman,” she said, looking out to the horizon. He turned his head and she could feel his gaze on her.
“She doesn’t know,” he said.
She didn’t dare meet his eyes as he took a hesitant step towards her. “Elizabeth-“ he said, his voice hoarse. She couldn’t move, and he leaned his forehead into her temple. “Don’t ever do that to me again. Please.” His tone was still low, and she could hear a desperation and pain in his voice. “If you-if you don’t feel-we don’t ever have to talk about this again.”
She closed her eyes, and images flashed through her mind-John bringing her birthday gifts and tokens from other worlds, John getting into pissing matches with Caldwell on her behalf, coming down like an avenging angel on the Genii, coming through the gate when she thought he was dead, barreling into Liam to save her, standing at the end of the hallway at the SGC, beckoning her to home and safety. “I don’t know if this is real.”
He gently turned her around, and she saw fear and awkwardness on his face. “It’s real, Elizabeth. Atlantis is real. I’m real. I promise you.”
“I thought my mother was real,” she said. “She touched my face-“ he instinctively brought his hand up to cup her cheek. “Time went by. Two years in Atlantis was three days-three weeks on Earth was five hours. How do I know this isn’t a dream?
He cupped her face in both hands. “Elizabeth. I swear to you that this isn’t a dream.” His eyes searched hers. “I’ve never lied to you before. I’m not going to start now.”
“You told me you killed twelve Wraith on Sateda,” she said lightly, afraid to let this get too intimate. “Teyla says six.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, I’ve never lied to you about anything important.” The look was back in his eyes, and she couldn’t back away. “And I won’t.”
“If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up,” she said.
“Me either,” he said, claiming her mouth with his own.
She didn’t know how long they stood there. His hand fisted in her hair, drawing her closer, and her arms wound themselves around his neck. He pulled out his earpiece and dropped it to the floor, ensuring no interruptions because this was too important to pull away. She fit him perfectly, and he briefly broke their kiss to bury his face in her hair, wrapping his arms around her, trying to desperately hold on.
She ran her hand through his messy hair. “When did you start winding your grandfather’s watch?”
His arms folder her into him a little more tightly. “The day after the storm.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I thought you were dead, and when I found out that you weren’t, I knew I’d do anything to keep that from happening again.”
In his eyes, she could see the pain there, still hurting him after all this time. “John,” she whispered, finally understanding why he’d broken through the iso ward. His desperation to keep her alive-and maybe a wish that if she was going to do, he would too.
She pulled him down to her, trying to reassure him that she wouldn’t do it again, to tell him that she’d felt the same desperation when she’d thought he was a figment of her imagination and wasn’t real. He had been her most guarded secret-the one thing about Atlantis she would have never told Fletcher-this glorious man who was standing there with arms around her and his tongue in her mouth and his hands traveling up-
“Oh my God!” a shriek interrupted them. Elizabeth broke away, but John’s hold on her was too tight for her to completely pull away from him. Rodney stood at the door to the city interior, going spastic. “No wonder you broke into the iso unit, you moron!” he said, his voice becoming even louder and more shrill. “You could have told the rest of us before you gave us a heart attack! You’ve been standing her kissing Elizabeth instead of answering my calls and-Hey!” Sudden awareness appeared on his face. “That means I win the pool! Cadman owes me a bottle of tequila!”
“Rodney!” John said, his voice irritated. “What you have just seen is none of your business.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you two were making out where anyone could see,” Rodney exclaimed.
“I have an entire untouched bottle of vodka if you promise not to say anything,” Elizabeth said. “Please, Rodney.”
“Make it two,” he said.
She sighed patiently. “I only have the one. I was saving it.”
“I’ll pitch in my rum,” John said. “And my last Hershey bar.”
“You said you didn’t have anymore chocolate!” Rodney squawked.
“Rodney!”
"All right, deal. Anyway, I cam up here to tell you we’ve found a problem with-“
“Rodney,” John interrupted. “I swear to God, if you don’t leave this minute, I will shoot you.”
“But-“ Rodney protested.
“It can wait!” John said, his tone broking no more argument.
“Right,” Rodney said. “Tomorrow. Well, then-“
“Goodnight, Rodney,” John said.
Rodney shut his mouth and disappeared.
John’s glare softened as he turned back to Elizabeth, who yawned. “Getting sleepy?”
“Well, between getting infested by Replicators and being kissed by my military commander, it’s been a big day,” she said.
“I’ll let you get on to bed, then,” he said. “Maybe I’ll go chew Rodney out for ruining the mood.”
She smiled as he reluctantly released her, then looked down at her feet. “John?”
“Elizabeth?”
“I don’t want to dream.”
He brushed her hair behind her ear. “I’ll keep the nightmares away.”
She took his hand. “Really?”
John smiled. “Always.”
Title: The Watchers
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Spoilers: Through “The Real World.”
Pairings: Sparky
Summary: “Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up, you weren’t sure it didn’t happen?”
Rating: Kid friendly, mother approved.
Word Count:1989
Disclaimer: If Stargate belonged to me, I’d be writing it and making money, instead of this.
Notes: For
eleigh.
Elizabeth stood out on the balcony overlooking the Atlantean ocean. The wind ruffled her hair, still slightly damp from the long shower she’d taken. She’d stood in the shower for a long time, staring at the tiles, waiting for one of them to morph into the wrong shape. She’d finally closed her eyes and let the water beat against the sore muscles of her back and sighed.
She still wasn’t ready to sleep, and when Kate came by, she told her she didn’t have to yet. So she’d come back out here into the open air, holding her father’s watch in her hands again, listening to the soft ticking as the waves gently lapped against the city.
“Hey,” she heard a voice say behind her. John appeared beside her. He’d lost his jacket and his hands had almost disappeared inside the pockets of his pants. “Didn’t Carson tell you to get some rest?”
She gave him a small smile. “This is restful.”
He leaned his back against the rail so he could look at her. “Well, I don’t think Carson would agree, but if you don’t tell, I won’t.”
She gave him the same quirk of a smile, and ran her thumb over the glass facing of the watch. His head tilted in concern. “You sure you’re okay?”
She hesitated before speaking. “Have you ever had a dream so real that when you woke up, you weren’t sure that it didn’t happen?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Especially when I was a kid. I would dream I’d gone to the store and bought something, and then I’d wake up the next day and tear up jack looking for it before I realized it was a dream.”
She shook her head. “That’s what it was like. Like one of those real dreams with occasional flashes of life in Atlantis. I saw Atlantis’ dialing code in my playing cards. I saw the gate in my closet.” She squinted out at the ocean. “And I saw you. Sometimes it was very indistinct, but at the end, you were there telling me to fight it.” She blinked. “I think that was when you’d come into the iso ward. That was a stupid thing to do, by the way.”
John shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I couldn’t let you die. I mean, then I’d have to listen to Rodney and actually pay attention to what he says.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m trying to say thank you. I don’t think I’d have made it if it weren’t for you.”
If possible, he looked even more uncomfortable. “Well, I mean-the city can’t make it without you, Elizabeth,” he finished lamely.
“The proper thing to say is ‘You’re welcome, Elizabeth,’” she said.
“You’re welcome, Elizabeth,” he repeated.
“I’ll never do such a thing again.”
He grinned. “No such promise.”
She didn’t return his smile. “I mean it, John. We couldn’t do this without you.”
He didn’t answer her, opting instead to change the subject. “That your dad’s watch?”
She nodded, fingering the chain. “My mother gave it to me before I left. She gave it to me in my-my dream too.”
“My grandfather used to have a watch like kinda like that,” he said. “It was gold, and a little smaller, and it had a cover-okay, so maybe it wasn’t that much like it. It was a pocket watch, though, and it had to be wound up ever morning.”
He turned around, bracing his elbows on the rail. “My dad was stationed in Germany, and they sent me to live with my grandparents one summer when I was fifteen. They had a farm in Kentucky.”
Elizabeth looked sideways at him. “Are you trying to distract me?”
He looked like a kid who’d had his hand caught in the cookie jar. “Is it working?”
She smiled in appreciation for what he was trying to do. “Did your grandparents raise horses?”
John laughed, shaking his head. “No, tobacco. I helped Granddad bring it in that summer. It’s hard, back-breaking work, and Granddad was almost seventy and still out there in the fields. He was up at five every morning, but he’d let me and Grandma sleep until six. We’d have breakfast, and then Granddad would put down his silverware and wind his watch.”
He smiled. “One day we were walking out to the fields and I asked him why he waited till breakfast to wind it. And he stopped and looked at me and said-“ his voice dropped into a lower register, “’-Johnny boy, you’ll understand this one day. But my day doesn’t start until your grandma smiles at me.’”
Elizabeth smiled in genuine delight. “He sounds like he’s one of those true gentlemen.”
John looked out over the ocean, a wistful expression coming over his face. “He sure was. I wish he was still around.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said.
John looked at her. “A tornado came through town the year I turned twenty-four. Granddad was at the feed store when the storm hit. He got home and the house was just gone. After that, he just kind of lost the will to live. Dad says he died of a broken heart.”
“He must have really loved your grandma,” Elizabeth said softly. “What happened to his watch?”
“I got leave before he died,” John said. “I went to see him. He was sitting in his chair, and he was so proud of my in my uniform, his face was just beaming. I stood next to his chair, and he gave me his watch. It was stopped. He’d quit winding it when Grandma died, but he made me promise that when I found the one, I’d start winding it again.”
“Have you?” she asked. It was amazing how little she knew about John. She knew what was in his file, of course, and she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of man he was. But when it came to his life-it was mystery.
“Yeah,” he said, staring down at the ocean. “Every morning.”
Elizabeth felt like someone had popped her balloon. “She’s a lucky woman,” she said, looking out to the horizon. He turned his head and she could feel his gaze on her.
“She doesn’t know,” he said.
She didn’t dare meet his eyes as he took a hesitant step towards her. “Elizabeth-“ he said, his voice hoarse. She couldn’t move, and he leaned his forehead into her temple. “Don’t ever do that to me again. Please.” His tone was still low, and she could hear a desperation and pain in his voice. “If you-if you don’t feel-we don’t ever have to talk about this again.”
She closed her eyes, and images flashed through her mind-John bringing her birthday gifts and tokens from other worlds, John getting into pissing matches with Caldwell on her behalf, coming down like an avenging angel on the Genii, coming through the gate when she thought he was dead, barreling into Liam to save her, standing at the end of the hallway at the SGC, beckoning her to home and safety. “I don’t know if this is real.”
He gently turned her around, and she saw fear and awkwardness on his face. “It’s real, Elizabeth. Atlantis is real. I’m real. I promise you.”
“I thought my mother was real,” she said. “She touched my face-“ he instinctively brought his hand up to cup her cheek. “Time went by. Two years in Atlantis was three days-three weeks on Earth was five hours. How do I know this isn’t a dream?
He cupped her face in both hands. “Elizabeth. I swear to you that this isn’t a dream.” His eyes searched hers. “I’ve never lied to you before. I’m not going to start now.”
“You told me you killed twelve Wraith on Sateda,” she said lightly, afraid to let this get too intimate. “Teyla says six.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, I’ve never lied to you about anything important.” The look was back in his eyes, and she couldn’t back away. “And I won’t.”
“If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up,” she said.
“Me either,” he said, claiming her mouth with his own.
She didn’t know how long they stood there. His hand fisted in her hair, drawing her closer, and her arms wound themselves around his neck. He pulled out his earpiece and dropped it to the floor, ensuring no interruptions because this was too important to pull away. She fit him perfectly, and he briefly broke their kiss to bury his face in her hair, wrapping his arms around her, trying to desperately hold on.
She ran her hand through his messy hair. “When did you start winding your grandfather’s watch?”
His arms folder her into him a little more tightly. “The day after the storm.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I thought you were dead, and when I found out that you weren’t, I knew I’d do anything to keep that from happening again.”
In his eyes, she could see the pain there, still hurting him after all this time. “John,” she whispered, finally understanding why he’d broken through the iso ward. His desperation to keep her alive-and maybe a wish that if she was going to do, he would too.
She pulled him down to her, trying to reassure him that she wouldn’t do it again, to tell him that she’d felt the same desperation when she’d thought he was a figment of her imagination and wasn’t real. He had been her most guarded secret-the one thing about Atlantis she would have never told Fletcher-this glorious man who was standing there with arms around her and his tongue in her mouth and his hands traveling up-
“Oh my God!” a shriek interrupted them. Elizabeth broke away, but John’s hold on her was too tight for her to completely pull away from him. Rodney stood at the door to the city interior, going spastic. “No wonder you broke into the iso unit, you moron!” he said, his voice becoming even louder and more shrill. “You could have told the rest of us before you gave us a heart attack! You’ve been standing her kissing Elizabeth instead of answering my calls and-Hey!” Sudden awareness appeared on his face. “That means I win the pool! Cadman owes me a bottle of tequila!”
“Rodney!” John said, his voice irritated. “What you have just seen is none of your business.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you two were making out where anyone could see,” Rodney exclaimed.
“I have an entire untouched bottle of vodka if you promise not to say anything,” Elizabeth said. “Please, Rodney.”
“Make it two,” he said.
She sighed patiently. “I only have the one. I was saving it.”
“I’ll pitch in my rum,” John said. “And my last Hershey bar.”
“You said you didn’t have anymore chocolate!” Rodney squawked.
“Rodney!”
"All right, deal. Anyway, I cam up here to tell you we’ve found a problem with-“
“Rodney,” John interrupted. “I swear to God, if you don’t leave this minute, I will shoot you.”
“But-“ Rodney protested.
“It can wait!” John said, his tone broking no more argument.
“Right,” Rodney said. “Tomorrow. Well, then-“
“Goodnight, Rodney,” John said.
Rodney shut his mouth and disappeared.
John’s glare softened as he turned back to Elizabeth, who yawned. “Getting sleepy?”
“Well, between getting infested by Replicators and being kissed by my military commander, it’s been a big day,” she said.
“I’ll let you get on to bed, then,” he said. “Maybe I’ll go chew Rodney out for ruining the mood.”
She smiled as he reluctantly released her, then looked down at her feet. “John?”
“Elizabeth?”
“I don’t want to dream.”
He brushed her hair behind her ear. “I’ll keep the nightmares away.”
She took his hand. “Really?”
John smiled. “Always.”