heroinebigbang fic: The Ghosts of the Past (1/3)
Title: The Ghosts of the Past
Author: vickysg1
Artist: quiet_jay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Doctor Who
Word Count: 22,815
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: John/Elizabeth, Doctor/River, Amy/Rory, Teyla Emmagan, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, with minor appearances of Carson Beckett and Lorne.
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including 'The Wedding of River Song' and the 'Night and the Doctor' minisodes for Doctor Who. And AU for the end of season 3 of Stargate Atlantis.
Summary:Time is running out. You have to face the ghosts of your past or forever be haunted by them.
Author's Note: Thanks to the ever so wonderful csiangel for the beta job, and to quiet_jay for the amazing art!!
Link to art master post: here
"Tick tock goes the clock..."
She woke up with a start, the old nursery rhyme stuck in her head.
She hadn't heard it in years, but it had never left her. She still remembered it. One part of her knew that she could never forget it, even though every part of her wished she could.
It was a reminder of one of the worst moments of her life, and she could never erase it. Time can't be rewritten.
Arms wrapped up around her from behind, and she startled, before remembering who it was, and where she was. Her breathing and heartbeat started to calm down with this realisation. She was safe; nothing and no one could hurt her here. He wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow it.
"It was just a nightmare," he reassured her with a soothing voice.
For a second, she was tempted to believe him. But deep down inside her, she knew it was anything but a nightmare. It was a memory. One she had hoped would never come back to haunt her. But she had been wrong; she would never be left alone.
She felt him pressing a kiss in her hair, and couldn't stop the small smile from stretching her lips; he would always have a soft spot for her hair. She let herself be soothed by the hand he was running in her hair. He brushed strands away from her shoulder to kiss the skin there.
Her eyes closed at the sensation, her back relaxing against his bare chest. He always knew how to help her let go of the day's worries when they found their way to each other at night.
"Tick tock..."
She sat up, her back completely straight, her eyes snapping open as the nursery rhyme came back to the front of her mind. She felt him tense behind her, and for one second, she wanted to laugh it off. But she knew he wouldn't buy it; he knew her too well by now.
"What is it?" he asked, tightening his hold on her, as if he was afraid she would disappear.
"Just an old memory that I thought I had buried a long time ago."
"Do you want to..."
"I'm fine," she cut him off, not wanting to talk about it.
"Are you sure?"
"No," she admitted with a sigh. "But nothing can be done about it."
"Elizabeth..."
She shushed him and forced him to lie back down on the bed before doing the same. She rested her head on his chest, just above his heart. She was safe here in Atlantis, with John. They couldn't get to her, here.
"Tick tock goes the clock
'Till River kills the Doctor"
River woke up with a start; the sound of the TARDIS materialising took away the remnants of her dream. She got up from her bed and grabbed her diary as the blue door opened.
"Hello dear," the Doctor said, pointing his sonic screwdriver at her cell door to unlock it.
"Hello sweetie."
She was careful to sway her hips as she walked towards her husband. She smiled widely as he gulped audibly. He was still young enough to be embarrassed by all the flirting, and she hoped that neither of them would grow too old for that.
"Where are you taking me tonight?" she asked as she stopped just before him.
"What? No 'I've missed you'? No 'good to see you'? No welcome kiss?" he concluded, as she wondered when he would get to that.
"If you insist," she replied with a pout.
But both knew that he didn't have to insist for her to kiss him.
He cupped her face in his hands and leant down to brush his lips against hers. She smiled against his lips, and deepened the kiss. She knew they wouldn't let themselves go. It didn't matter that he probably extended the TARDIS perception filter around them, they were still in the middle of a corridor in Stormcage; they couldn't risk anyone finding out about their little secret.
Breaking the kiss, she pushed past him to enter the TARDIS. The familiar hum welcomed her as she stepped inside. She sent a thought to the ship, and put her hand on the time rotor.
"I'm still amazed," the Doctor said, coming to stand beside her.
"About what?"
"The link you two share. This should have given me a hint about who you really were. She loved all my previous companions, but there has always been something special about you. I should have known. You're her child."
"I'm sure future me and the TARDIS concealed everything from you so you wouldn't know before it was time."
She thought for a moment about this future version of her, the one who will know the past version of him. She could only guess how hurtful it would be for her not to have this man trust her completely, implicitly. She was sure she would die a little every time, even if she had her memories to hold onto.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm trying to guess where you will take me tonight," she replied, even though she knew he would easily spot the lie.
"Well, I thought we could let the TARDIS decide for us, this time," he said, not calling her on the lie. "She loves taking us where we have to be."
"Why not? At the very least, if she's the one choosing our destination, there will be less risk of us running into trouble."
"Oh but dear, you love running into trouble," he replied, running a hand up and down her arm. "It's funnier this way, you've said it yourself."
"I do, sweetie. But that doesn't mean we have to, every single time," she said, rising to her tiptoes to kiss his lips.
"Well, we could stay here, too," he suggested, putting his hands on her hips. "The risk of us running into trouble would be considerably lessened."
"This is tempting," she replied, as he started to kiss his way down her neck. "But you've promised me an adventure."
"Oh, trust me: this will be an adventure, too. Your parents are asleep, we have the TARDIS to ourselves..."
"Maybe later."
She pushed him away from her, and couldn't help her smile as she saw the surprise written on his face. She would make it up to him later, but right now, she was curious as to where the old girl was planning on taking them.
"I'm going to change. Why don't you release the commands to the TARDIS, in the meantime?" she added, as she saw that he still wasn't moving.
"Evil woman."
Though he said it under his breath, she heard it clearly, but chose not to call him on it. After all, he was partly right; she was evil when it came to flirting with him.
She left the control room and walked towards the wardrobe, knowing that the ship would have clothes suitable for where she was taking them ready for her.
She was alone. Again.
She was in a new school, and another school year was beginning, but she already knew that it would turn out like the ones before that.
The other children didn't understand her, they never did, and they probably never would. No one understood her, not even the adults. They were all careful around her because she was different. She didn't choose to be different; she had never even wanted to be different. If she had a choice, she wanted to be like any other kids of her age; but she never was and never would be. From the moment she was born, she was different. Unique.
The children at her new school wouldn't be any different than the ones before. This time, she didn't even try to get to know them. Her past experiences taught her that it wouldn't turn out well. She was better off on her own from the very beginning; this was how she would end up anyway. Maybe this time, though, they wouldn't point and talk about her as if she couldn't hear. Deep inside her though, she had no illusions that it wouldn't happen anyway; but maybe it would minimize her pain when it did.
She sat under a tree, pretending to read a book when she was actually observing her new environment. It was what she had learned to do whenever she was facing a new situation: observe and assess the threats it could pose. For the moment, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As their instincts told them, the other children were keeping away from her, not even sparing her a glance. Not even adults were paying her attention. She liked it this way.
She had realised a long time ago that she wasn't supposed to act like that. She had realised that she received a training other children of her age didn't. By the age of six, when most kids were learning to read, she had to assess combat situations. But that was in another lifetime. She wasn't sure she was supposed to remember it, but she did.
She wasn't anything like the children at this school. For one, she was older than them, she just didn't look like it. Regeneration, they had called it, when they explained how the Doctor could change his face. They had never told her she could do it, too. She didn't remember a lot from that night, just a bright gold light, and then, nothing. The memories of her previous self came back a couple of years later.
She had regenerated into a baby, and had started a new life. A lonely life. She grew up in foster homes, never to be adopted. She didn't know how, but she had kept her birth name, the name her mother had given her; she remembered her face from the photo she had, and she could hear a soft voice whispering words she couldn't make out. They had never found her, but she was still looking over her shoulder once in a while, sure that they would suddenly be there. She knew that her life as an 'ordinary' child would come to an end sooner or later; they would never give up their precious asset.
She sat, reminiscing over the past few years, but she still kept her eyes on the crowd before her eyes. Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed a girl coming her way. She wondered for a second if she had been sent by other children to find out who she was, but a cursory look around the playground told her that no one was paying attention to either of them.
The girl stopped a few feet from her, and she wanted nothing more than to tell her to leave. She didn't want people trying to know her, because then, when they started talking behind her back - and they always did - it would hurt. But her past experiences had also taught her that the sooner she answered the questions from the other children, the sooner they would leave her alone.
Somehow, though, she knew that this time, it would be different. She took a second to observe the girl before her. She was about her age - well, the age she was supposed to have in this body - but apart from that, they couldn't look more different. While she had long dirty blond hair, the other girl had short black hair. She was obviously well-cared for, and for a second, envy coursed through her body; would it be the same for her if her parents were raising her? She pushed that thought away as soon as it came; thinking about what couldn't be would do her no good.
"What are you reading?" the other girl asked, as she sat down across from her.
"Little women," she heard herself answer, still surprised that this girl was talking to her.
"You're going to love it! I have the sequels. You can borrow them if you want."
She shrugged at this other girl's offer, not really sure what to make of it. Never had someone done something like that for her. She had understood that it was something common amongst the children to swap things, but it had never happened to her. It was strange to have this girl who didn't know her making that kind of offer.
"Are you new to this school, too? We've just moved here from Upstate. It's strange to be in the city. Have you always lived here?"
"Pretty much."
"The others are strange," the other girl continued. "I tried to talk to a few of them, but they just moved away. I guess that since we're both new, we should stick together. Can we?"
The girl seemed so hopeful that a part of her didn't want to disappoint her. She nodded, and returned the smile she was receiving. Maybe this time, it would really be different.
"I'm Melody," she replied, closing her book.
"Elizabeth. I'm sure we'll be great friends."
"Maybe it's one of the most peaceful planets out there, Elizabeth, but you, better than anyone else, know our track record. Can't you just translate the text from the videos Lorne and his team brought back?"
He didn't add that she would be safe here, in Atlantis, but she could hear it in his voice.
"I can, but there are some parts that are unreadable, and I need to see those ruins for myself."
"My team can go there and we'll make another video for you where you can see every little detail."
She had to resist hard to not roll her eyes at his offer. She knew, from the moment she had realised she would need to see the ruins to complete her translation, that John wouldn't like it. What reassured her was that it had nothing to do with the recent change in their relationship.
Ever since the incident with Niam that had sent her into a nanite-induced coma over two years ago, he had been wary to allow her off-world. Not that he had the last say in this particular matter; she was still the leader of this expedition, and while she would always take his opinion into consideration, the decision was hers to make.
And she told him exactly this, raising a hand to stop him before he could start protesting.
"Ok, then. But Lorne's team is coming with us, too."
"Major Lorne and his team already have another mission planned. I believe your team will be more than enough for an uninhabited planet with no known threat."
"It's the 'no known' part that I don't really like."
"John..."
"I know, I know. But I'm not letting you out of my sight, you've been warned."
That she could accept; it was reasonable, and she knew he would do that for anyone in the expedition who didn't carry a weapon off-world.
"Now please, go get your team ready. We're leaving in half an hour."
She almost expected him to say something about leaving so soon, but he stayed silent. He would probably use those precious minutes to read Lorne's report about the planet, in order to be prepared for anything that might come at them. But she would be really surprised if they ran into any kind of trouble, even though the team seemed to attract it like a magnet.
He started to leave, but stopped when he reached the door, and turned back towards her.
"You're sure we can't ask another team..."
"No!" she stopped him before he could go any further.
She watched him leave and started to gather everything she would need for her trip off-world. She radioed Carson and informed him that he would be in charge, as the only member of the senior staff who was staying behind. She knew he didn't like it, but she expected little to no trouble at all during her absence. With both Rodney and John, her number one troublemakers, off-world with her, Atlantis should be safe.
With everything set, she left her office to go get ready to go off-world, too. It didn't happen very often, and she was still feeling a mix of excitement and fear at the thought. There was a part of her hoping that it would never go away.
She found John waiting for her in her quarters with her vest. She didn't need to check to know that the pockets contained everything she would need from power bars to stylus for her tablet. She could have stopped to get it herself before going to the Gateroom, but she appreciated his thoughtfulness.
"Thank you," she said, taking the vest from him and pecking his lips.
"Well, I'm going to let you change. Unless you need my help with something," he added as an afterthought.
"Go!" she ordered, trying but failing to hold back a smile; she was sure he would have been happy to help, but then, they would be terribly late, and it wouldn't do.
Once she was alone, she packed her backpack with her tablet, some books that would help her with the translation, and a couple of other things, including a change of clothes, just in case. She had made the mistake of not bringing one before, and had ended up covered in mud, no thanks to one John Sheppard. The trip back to the Gate was an uncomfortable one, and she made sure John knew she wasn't happy about it.
Quickly changing into a black t-shirt and off-world BDUs, she put on her vest and was about to grab her backpack when she thought she saw something in the corner of her eyes. She immediately turned towards it, and was relieved when she saw nothing unusual. Ever since she had that nightmare the night before, she had that strange feeling that something, someone, was watching her. She knew it wasn't rational, but she couldn't shake it off.
Shouldering her backpack, she left her room, hopeful that this mission would turn out to be useful. The text she had started to translate talked about the history of the planet, but some parts of the text were referring to something else she wasn't able to identify just yet. She hoped that the parts of the text that she couldn't read would talk about this. It could be nothing important, but it could turn out being vital for their fight against the Wraith and the Asurans.
When she reached the Gateroom, John and his team were already there, waiting for her. She tuned John's voice out, as she heard him start to give his team instructions about her safety coming first and foremost. They didn't need him to say it, they knew their job, but it still didn't surprise her. She looked up at the control room, and nodded at Chuck to dial the Gate.
As it slowly came to life before her eyes, she thought about what she would find beyond it. Ancient ruins, even in the Pegasus Galaxy, were always a rare treat, and she knew she was lucky to be able to see this one with her own eyes.
The wormhole appeared, and she followed John's team, stepping through with Teyla and Rodney at her sides, no doubt as per John's orders. From what she could see, the planet didn't look any different from plenty of others; the Gate was situated in the middle of a clearing, with woods surrounding it. It didn't look like people, aside from her teams, came here for quite some time, maybe not since the Ancients left this Galaxy ten thousand years ago.
It felt strange, knowing that they were amongst the first human beings stepping on this planet's soil in centuries, but it wasn't the first time it happened; planets and cities that were thriving when the Ancients were in Pegasus, were left to decay after their leave. Atlantis had been one of these, until her people came through the Gate.
"Well, Colonel, lead the way," she said, as she saw that John was waiting for her to take in her surroundings.
With the Ancient ruins being 20 minutes away from the Gate, she had plenty of time to observe the world around her.
The TARDIS materialised with the brakes on. River rolled her eyes at the Doctor's back as she entered the console room. She slung the small, but dimensionally transcendental, bag on her shoulder as she walked up the stairs. It hadn't taken her long to change into the pants and white top the ship had provided for her, but it looked like the Doctor started to be impatient as he was already waiting for her by the doors; he could be such a child sometimes.
She stopped beside the console for a moment. It always surprised her how different he could be from one minute to the next. He was one of the funniest and nicest people she ever met, but threaten one of his friends, and he was a danger, even to himself. If she didn't have Amy's stories, if she didn't get to know him and to what lengths he would go for his friends, she might still believe that the Church was right about him.
Shaking herself mentally out of this place in her mind, she smiled when the Doctor turned towards her, hopefully completely oblivious to what she had been thinking. Walking to him, she stole a quick glance at the screen, preferring her way to do an environmental check to the Doctor's, and joined him at the doors.
"So, where did she take us?"
"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me," he said, pouting just a bit. "Shall we?" he asked, opening the door for her.
They stopped right outside the TARDIS, letting the door close behind them. They had arrived right outside of what look like an archaeological site, though it hadn't probably been discovered just yet. River smiled at the sight before her; she could already guess what his next words would be.
"Oh, she clearly favours you!"
And she had been right on spot.
She didn't reply anything, knowing that it would be useless. Instead, she walked towards the ruins, wanting to know more about another long lost civilization. She could hear the Doctor following her a few steps behind. She knew archaeology wasn't his kind of thing, but he put up with it for her. He preferred to live History, and she had come to love it, too; she learned so much more from spending a few hours with a people than from visiting the ruins left after their disappearance.
She noticed writings on the walls, and wondered which civilization she was facing, and whether or not she had encountered it before. Maybe they could go back in time once she was done here, and see it for themselves. She was sure the TARDIS would indulge her.
Before she could get any closer to the wall, she heard footsteps and voices coming from their left. She turned to the Doctor without making a sound and saw that he had noticed it, too. Given the state of the ruins, she had thought this planet was uninhabited, but she had obviously been mistaken. They stood their ground, as it was too late for them to go back to the TARDIS without being noticed.
As the group of people came into view, they froze for a second, before raising their weapons at them: earth weapons for three of them, she noted, and one she didn't know for the tallest of them.
"No known threat, right!" she heard one of the men say quietly, before he raised his voice to them. "Who are you?"
"We could ask the same thing about you," she replied.
"Look, we're unarmed, so why don't you lower your weapons?" the Doctor said, raising his hands to show them that they were no threat.
"Oh yeah, no weapon? So what's that in her hands?"
The Doctor turned to look towards her, and saw the weapon she was aiming at the newcomers.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, his voice getting high and squeaky.
"It was in my bag," she answered, shrugging.
"She gave it to you? Oh she..."
"Sweetie," she interrupted him, "maybe we can go back to that, later," she said, never looking away from the group in front of them.
"Why don't you lower your weapon," the man said again, bringing back the Doctor's attention to him. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're outnumbered anyway..."
River smiled widely and barely managed to hold back a laugh at his words.
"Oh don't worry about that. I could easily shoot down the five of you before any of you have time to pull the trigger."
"I really shouldn't find that hot," she heard her husband whisper.
She unsettled them, she realised, as she saw them gripping their weapons tighter. She wondered for a second if she would have to use her weapon against them. But before her thoughts could go any further, the unarmed woman put her hand on the man's arm, and stepped from behind him.
She wondered what would happen now.
Elizabeth knew that she had to take the matter in her own hands. She had been as surprised as the rest of the team to find other people standing in the ruins, and it had taken longer for her to recover from it.
She saw things slowly escalate, and she knew she had to step in before they went any further. She put her hand on John's arm, and felt him barely stiffen under her touch; he knew what she was about to do without her even saying it out loud. And he didn't like it, that much she was sure of.
She slowly stepped from behind her military commander to place herself, with her hands raised, in front of him. No surprise showed on the two strangers' faces, but she knew that for the moment, she had the upper hand. Now, she just needed to use her negotiating skills to the best.
"We're peaceful explorers," she started. "We came here to take a look at these ruins."
"We're here for the same reason," the man replied.
"Good. Why don't we work side by side, then?" she offered.
Elizabeth watched as the two shared a look, before the woman slowly lowered her weapon. She intimated John and his team to do the same, and was relieved that things got resolved so easily.
"You're from Earth," the woman said, provoking surprise among the Lanteans.
"How do you know that?" Rodney exclaimed, instead of trying to deny it as they should have done.
"These weapons are from Earth. From here, I'd say P-90 and Beretta 92 from the early 21st century. This," she said, gesturing to Ronon's gun, "is clearly from a completely different planet, though. I never came across one like this, before."
"Who are you, people?" John asked, coming to stand beside Elizabeth.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is River Song. Hello."
"What kind of name is 'the Doctor'?" Ronon said, raising an eyebrow.
"A good name," the man just replied, outraged.
"What did you mean by 'early 21st century'?" Rodney interrupted Elizabeth before she could introduce herself and the team.
"Well..., we're not exactly from this time," the Doctor answered.
"Judging by your clothing, and the bowtie, I'd say you're from the sixties," John said, gesturing to the Doctor, and River barely stifled a laugh, "but I doubt they had developed time travel at this time. Not to mention that the Gate wasn't used at that time."
"First, bowties are cool, really cool. Tell them, River."
"Oh, you know how much I love this bowtie, Sweetie," she replied.
"I know you do," he said, straightening said bowtie before turning back towards the team. "Second, what's this Gate you mentioned?"
"The Stargate," John answered, and continued when he saw that they didn't know what he was talking about. "The Ring of the Ancestors? The big round thing in the clearing that can take you to other planets, and from where you came through?"
"Oh, they're still in use in this part of the universe? They're a bit boring," he added for River.
"If you don't know about the Stargate, and you're not from this planet, how did you come here?"
"We have a ship," the Doctor answered John's question with a shrug.
"We've introduced ourselves, but we still don't know who you are."
Elizabeth had to wonder for a second if the other woman's remark was made to prevent further questions about their ship. She was curious, and she guessed that Rodney and John were too. It was probably somewhere in orbit or on the opposite side of the ruins as they hadn't come across it during their walk from the Gate and she couldn't see it anywhere nearby.
"This is Colonel John Sheppard," she said, gesturing to the man at her side, before moving to the rest of the team. "Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex. And I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir."
Elizabeth noticed the surprise written on River Song's face, but it was gone a second later; if she hadn't been looking at her, she would have missed it. She wondered what prompted it; she had never met this woman before, but she reacted when Elizabeth introduced herself.
"Shall we start?" River offered before Elizabeth had time to ask.
In spite of her curiosity for the other woman, Elizabeth nodded at John, and followed her to the ruins. She didn't need to turn to know that he was following her, while his team was keeping an eye on this 'Doctor'.
"One of my teams already came here, and brought me some footage of the ruins. I've already deciphered a good part of the text about the history of the planet, but some parts of the text were unreadable. And... What the...?" she exclaimed, prompting John to put himself in front of her.
"What is it?"
"It's all in English," Elizabeth answered to John.
"But that's impossible. It was in Ancient!" Rodney exclaimed, stating the obvious.
"It's our ship," River started, and she knew that the Doctor almost interrupted her to clarify that it was his ship. "She has a translation matrix. Whatever the language, spoken or written, you'll hear and read it as yours."
"It's quite practical as not everyone in the universe speaks the same language," the Doctor added, though it wasn't needed.
"Wait a minute: she?" John asked, having noted the used of the pronoun. "Don't tell me she has a name too?"
"Oh, she does. Do you want to tell them what it is, Sweetie, or should I?"
"Sexy," he mumbled but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Elizabeth could barely contain her laughter, and as it was, her team all had huge smiles on their faces.
"Who would name a space ship 'Sexy'?" Rodney asked.
"Probably the same type of people naming a whale 'Sam'," John answered before the Doctor even had time to open his mouth to protest.
Knowing her two friends, Elizabeth knew that the conversation was about to deviate, and she didn't want that to happen in front of two strangers, and possible allies. She stalled Rodney's reply by putting a hand up, and turned towards River.
"Maybe we should get to work. And actually, this translation matrix is a good thing, as I'll be able to check if my translations were correct."
It would be a great advantage, she realised, as she could refine their ever growing Ancient-English dictionary, and surprise Daniel in doing so.
River smiled at her, and extended an arm to invite her to precede her inside the ruins.
It was only a couple of months after they first met at school that Melody realised that she had stopped looking over her shoulder. She hadn't noticed it at first, but now, she realised that she wasn't afraid that they would find her anymore. Nothing had changed really, except that for once, she had someone to watch her back. Elizabeth had said so one day after some kids had tried to bully her. Melody could have defended herself quite easily, but no one needed to know about that.
For the first time in her life, she had a friend, someone who cared about her. It was strange; she had never experienced that before. First in Florida, and then in New York, she was alone. Up until Elizabeth had walked to her in the playground; two newcomers at the school allied against the others.
What surprised Melody the most was that Elizabeth didn't ask for her story. She didn't pressure her to know about her life. Usually, the other children kept asking questions that she simply wouldn't answer, up until they walked away from her and never talked to her again. With Elizabeth it was different; she accepted her silence, and talked about her own family. Melody had understood early on that it wasn't to make her envious of her life, but because friends told each other these things. It was a concept Melody couldn't grasp before.
Before Elizabeth. It was strange how she now divided her life before and after someone. It had never happened before, as she had always been alone. Even in her previous life, she had never done that; there had never been a before and after them: they were always there. But now, she could, and she didn't want to go back to 'before'.
There were times when Melody wanted to talk to Elizabeth, to tell her story, but she held herself back every time. She knew that Elizabeth's impression of her would change if she did, she knew that she could lose her only friend. And she wasn't sure she could stand to be alone anymore.
"Melody?" Elizabeth's voiced jolted her out of her thoughts. "You were deep in thought. What were you thinking about?"
"Tomorrow's math test."
If Elizabeth saw through her lie, she didn't say anything. She just accepted that there were things she couldn't pry from her. It was new to Melody; even her foster families never understood her need for privacy, secrecy.
"Maybe you could help me? I didn't understand this," Elizabeth said, pointing at a problem.
Melody smiled; while Elizabeth was among the best students of the school, she always had a harder time to grasp scientific stuff. Melody, on the contrary, always understood them even before the teacher had finished explaining. It was as if it was already somewhere in the back of her mind, and she just needed something to prompt it to the front. No one but Elizabeth knew this, though; it was their secret.
She explained everything to Elizabeth in simpler terms, and she could see the moment her friend understood it.
"You'd make a good teacher one day, Melody."
It wasn't the first time her friend told her that, but she had always dismissed it. She knew it just wasn't in her future. Her future wouldn't be a happy one spent with friends and family, it just wasn't possible for her. She might have escaped them, she might have stopped looking over her shoulder, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before they found her. So, she would never become a teacher, of that she was sure.
"I'm glad I can help you," she only replied.
Teyla was wary of the two newcomers. They hadn't expected to encounter anyone, and especially not people like them. Even though they didn't say so explicitly, she could read in their body language that they were not like them. There was something else, something more with them, but she didn't know what.
What she knew for sure was that they weren't part of this galaxy. If they had been, people would have talked about them, and she would have heard about them one way or another. They didn't go unnoticed.
She shared a look with John, and nodded as she understood that he wanted her to keep an eye on this 'Doctor' while he stayed with Elizabeth and the woman. Ronon was stuck baby-sitting Rodney, as the scientist really shouldn't be left alone while off-world. As she returned her eyes to the Doctor, she saw that he was playing with a weird object, pointing it towards the ruins. She almost wanted to ask what he was doing, but she wasn't sure she wouldn't be stonewalled.
As she raised her eyes back to his face, she noticed he was looking at her, a smile on his face. She smiled back, and he took it as an invitation to walk towards her.
"It looks like your CO wants you to watch me. I can understand it. And he's probably right."
"Why? Are you dangerous?" she asked, joking a bit.
"I can be. Even for those I love."
If she had expected him to joke back in reply, she was taken aback when she saw in his eyes that he was dead serious. She couldn't help but wonder what could have happened for this man to believe that he was dangerous to his own friends. She noticed some sadness in his eyes, too; it was carefully concealed, and if she hadn't been so good at reading people, she would have missed it.
Instead of stepping away from him, as he probably expected her to, she came to his side. She almost wanted to put her hand on his shoulder, but she didn't know how he would react to it. So instead, she started to speak in a soft voice.
"There was a moment when I thought I would be a danger to my friends, and my people. We have these enemies, in this Galaxy, called the Wraith. Colonel Sheppard said that they were like vampires, but they suck the life out of you instead of blood. A Wraith scientist experimented on my ancestors, and I possess some Wraith DNA. It gives me the ability to feel them when they're close, but at one point, I thought that they would be able to control me. I was afraid I would end up hurting the ones I love."
"But you never did."
"No. But I almost convinced myself that it would be better if I left everything behind, and ran."
She had never admitted that to anyone, before. No one knew where her thoughts led her after she had found out about her 'gift'. But when her ability turned into an asset during the Siege, she had decided to stay and help her friends and her people the best way she could. And thus far, she hadn't regretted her decision. Nor did she regret her decision to hide this from her people; they didn't need to know that some of them possessed the DNA of their worst enemy.
"That's the difference between you and me. I have hurt my friends before, and I will hurt them again. But I don't walk away from them when there's still time."
She didn't know what to reply to that. She could see on his face that she wouldn't be able to convince him that he wasn't a threat to his friends. And maybe he was right, and he was; she didn't know him, and she might be mistaken, but she couldn't imagine him posing a danger to anyone.
"Take River, for example," he continued, without her asking him to. "She was separated at birth from her parents because my enemies wanted to create the perfect weapon against me. And they almost succeeded. The child of my best friends, and I couldn't do anything to stop them. I still can't, because changing her past would mean changing who she is now."
There was nothing she could say after this. She could see how it still tortured him, even though it obviously happened a long time ago. It also didn't surprise her when it revealed that he was older than he looked; she had already seen in his eyes that he was older and wiser than any of them.
"Why don't you tell me about these Ancients?" he asked, cheerfully.
The mood change almost gave her whiplash, as John would have said, but she still complied. He did seem sincerely interested to learn about the Ancestors.
"That's really fascinating," Elizabeth said, as she examined a portion of the wall.
"The text or the fact that it's already translated?" River asked, smiling.
"Both, I guess."
They had been working side by side for the past hour. Elizabeth had wanted to start with the parts of the wall she had already translated, to make sure that she hadn't missed something, or misinterpreted the text; the Ancients were known to be ambiguous about certain things after all.
They finally moved on to the part of the text Elizabeth hadn't been able to decipher before. It was still hard to read, but with the both of them, they were making good progress. Moss had grown over the wall, and River was cleaning it with the tools the TARDIS had provided her, while Elizabeth transcribed the text, and sometimes took photos.
Leaning against one of the walls they had already examined, John observed them working side by side. He was surprised by how easy it was for them to work together when they didn't know each other a little more than an hour before.
"This translation matrix is really useful," Elizabeth said, as she compared the captures she made from the video Lorne's team took, to the wall before her; she still couldn't quite grasp the fact that the text that was in Ancient was now in English before her eyes. "I don't suppose you have a spare one I could borrow?"
"Sorry," River replied. "And anyway, it only works if the Doctor is around, and conscious. It wouldn't be of much use to you."
"It was worth a try. Daniel would have been amazed by this. And a bit jealous, too, I guess. He's an archaeologist," she added for River. "He's our leading expert on the Ancients. He even lived with them on another plane of existence for a while. Long story," she replied to River's raised eyebrow.
"The Doctor and I have our fair share of long stories, I understand. And I'm an archaeologist too, so I understand how useful the TARDIS translation matrix can be. Now, what is this?" she asked out loud, as another portion of moss fell to the ground, revealing a strange line.
"The ghosts of your past must be faced before you can lay down your burden," Elizabeth read. "I think it talks about the ascension. And look, it looks like it's a plaque or something."
"Maybe there's something else underneath. Let's see if we can take it off the wall."
River took a small trowel out of her bag, and placed it carefully beneath the plaque, slowly lifting it off the wall. Elizabeth helped her by holding it so that it wouldn't fall on the ground and break. When it finally came off, they were faced with circuitry, the last thing any of them expected to find in these ruins.
"It looks like it's dead."
"Lucky I have an expert in Ancient technology on the team," Elizabeth replied to River, before turning to look for Rodney. "Where's Rodney?" she asked John when she couldn't see him anywhere nearby.
"He was driving Ronon crazy so he killed him, and now he's burying the remains. Kidding," he answered to her raised eyebrow. "They were bored, so I sent them on a perimeter tour. You need him?" he asked, raising his hand to his radio.
"Actually, I may be able to help too," River intervened. "Sweetie, I need the sonic!" she called.
"What for?" he asked, throwing it towards her anyway.
"A little bit of repairs. Now, let's see if we can do this," she said, turning back to the wall, with Elizabeth by her side.
She selected the correct setting and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the circuitry in the wall. It lit up, and the next thing the two women saw was a bright light just as their respective men shouted for them.
"River!"
"Elizabeth!"
Part Two
Author: vickysg1
Artist: quiet_jay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Doctor Who
Word Count: 22,815
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: John/Elizabeth, Doctor/River, Amy/Rory, Teyla Emmagan, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, with minor appearances of Carson Beckett and Lorne.
Warnings: Spoilers up to and including 'The Wedding of River Song' and the 'Night and the Doctor' minisodes for Doctor Who. And AU for the end of season 3 of Stargate Atlantis.
Summary:Time is running out. You have to face the ghosts of your past or forever be haunted by them.
Author's Note: Thanks to the ever so wonderful csiangel for the beta job, and to quiet_jay for the amazing art!!
Link to art master post: here
"Tick tock goes the clock..."
She woke up with a start, the old nursery rhyme stuck in her head.
She hadn't heard it in years, but it had never left her. She still remembered it. One part of her knew that she could never forget it, even though every part of her wished she could.
It was a reminder of one of the worst moments of her life, and she could never erase it. Time can't be rewritten.
Arms wrapped up around her from behind, and she startled, before remembering who it was, and where she was. Her breathing and heartbeat started to calm down with this realisation. She was safe; nothing and no one could hurt her here. He wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow it.
"It was just a nightmare," he reassured her with a soothing voice.
For a second, she was tempted to believe him. But deep down inside her, she knew it was anything but a nightmare. It was a memory. One she had hoped would never come back to haunt her. But she had been wrong; she would never be left alone.
She felt him pressing a kiss in her hair, and couldn't stop the small smile from stretching her lips; he would always have a soft spot for her hair. She let herself be soothed by the hand he was running in her hair. He brushed strands away from her shoulder to kiss the skin there.
Her eyes closed at the sensation, her back relaxing against his bare chest. He always knew how to help her let go of the day's worries when they found their way to each other at night.
"Tick tock..."
She sat up, her back completely straight, her eyes snapping open as the nursery rhyme came back to the front of her mind. She felt him tense behind her, and for one second, she wanted to laugh it off. But she knew he wouldn't buy it; he knew her too well by now.
"What is it?" he asked, tightening his hold on her, as if he was afraid she would disappear.
"Just an old memory that I thought I had buried a long time ago."
"Do you want to..."
"I'm fine," she cut him off, not wanting to talk about it.
"Are you sure?"
"No," she admitted with a sigh. "But nothing can be done about it."
"Elizabeth..."
She shushed him and forced him to lie back down on the bed before doing the same. She rested her head on his chest, just above his heart. She was safe here in Atlantis, with John. They couldn't get to her, here.
"Tick tock goes the clock
'Till River kills the Doctor"
River woke up with a start; the sound of the TARDIS materialising took away the remnants of her dream. She got up from her bed and grabbed her diary as the blue door opened.
"Hello dear," the Doctor said, pointing his sonic screwdriver at her cell door to unlock it.
"Hello sweetie."
She was careful to sway her hips as she walked towards her husband. She smiled widely as he gulped audibly. He was still young enough to be embarrassed by all the flirting, and she hoped that neither of them would grow too old for that.
"Where are you taking me tonight?" she asked as she stopped just before him.
"What? No 'I've missed you'? No 'good to see you'? No welcome kiss?" he concluded, as she wondered when he would get to that.
"If you insist," she replied with a pout.
But both knew that he didn't have to insist for her to kiss him.
He cupped her face in his hands and leant down to brush his lips against hers. She smiled against his lips, and deepened the kiss. She knew they wouldn't let themselves go. It didn't matter that he probably extended the TARDIS perception filter around them, they were still in the middle of a corridor in Stormcage; they couldn't risk anyone finding out about their little secret.
Breaking the kiss, she pushed past him to enter the TARDIS. The familiar hum welcomed her as she stepped inside. She sent a thought to the ship, and put her hand on the time rotor.
"I'm still amazed," the Doctor said, coming to stand beside her.
"About what?"
"The link you two share. This should have given me a hint about who you really were. She loved all my previous companions, but there has always been something special about you. I should have known. You're her child."
"I'm sure future me and the TARDIS concealed everything from you so you wouldn't know before it was time."
She thought for a moment about this future version of her, the one who will know the past version of him. She could only guess how hurtful it would be for her not to have this man trust her completely, implicitly. She was sure she would die a little every time, even if she had her memories to hold onto.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm trying to guess where you will take me tonight," she replied, even though she knew he would easily spot the lie.
"Well, I thought we could let the TARDIS decide for us, this time," he said, not calling her on the lie. "She loves taking us where we have to be."
"Why not? At the very least, if she's the one choosing our destination, there will be less risk of us running into trouble."
"Oh but dear, you love running into trouble," he replied, running a hand up and down her arm. "It's funnier this way, you've said it yourself."
"I do, sweetie. But that doesn't mean we have to, every single time," she said, rising to her tiptoes to kiss his lips.
"Well, we could stay here, too," he suggested, putting his hands on her hips. "The risk of us running into trouble would be considerably lessened."
"This is tempting," she replied, as he started to kiss his way down her neck. "But you've promised me an adventure."
"Oh, trust me: this will be an adventure, too. Your parents are asleep, we have the TARDIS to ourselves..."
"Maybe later."
She pushed him away from her, and couldn't help her smile as she saw the surprise written on his face. She would make it up to him later, but right now, she was curious as to where the old girl was planning on taking them.
"I'm going to change. Why don't you release the commands to the TARDIS, in the meantime?" she added, as she saw that he still wasn't moving.
"Evil woman."
Though he said it under his breath, she heard it clearly, but chose not to call him on it. After all, he was partly right; she was evil when it came to flirting with him.
She left the control room and walked towards the wardrobe, knowing that the ship would have clothes suitable for where she was taking them ready for her.
She was alone. Again.
She was in a new school, and another school year was beginning, but she already knew that it would turn out like the ones before that.
The other children didn't understand her, they never did, and they probably never would. No one understood her, not even the adults. They were all careful around her because she was different. She didn't choose to be different; she had never even wanted to be different. If she had a choice, she wanted to be like any other kids of her age; but she never was and never would be. From the moment she was born, she was different. Unique.
The children at her new school wouldn't be any different than the ones before. This time, she didn't even try to get to know them. Her past experiences taught her that it wouldn't turn out well. She was better off on her own from the very beginning; this was how she would end up anyway. Maybe this time, though, they wouldn't point and talk about her as if she couldn't hear. Deep inside her though, she had no illusions that it wouldn't happen anyway; but maybe it would minimize her pain when it did.
She sat under a tree, pretending to read a book when she was actually observing her new environment. It was what she had learned to do whenever she was facing a new situation: observe and assess the threats it could pose. For the moment, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As their instincts told them, the other children were keeping away from her, not even sparing her a glance. Not even adults were paying her attention. She liked it this way.
She had realised a long time ago that she wasn't supposed to act like that. She had realised that she received a training other children of her age didn't. By the age of six, when most kids were learning to read, she had to assess combat situations. But that was in another lifetime. She wasn't sure she was supposed to remember it, but she did.
She wasn't anything like the children at this school. For one, she was older than them, she just didn't look like it. Regeneration, they had called it, when they explained how the Doctor could change his face. They had never told her she could do it, too. She didn't remember a lot from that night, just a bright gold light, and then, nothing. The memories of her previous self came back a couple of years later.
She had regenerated into a baby, and had started a new life. A lonely life. She grew up in foster homes, never to be adopted. She didn't know how, but she had kept her birth name, the name her mother had given her; she remembered her face from the photo she had, and she could hear a soft voice whispering words she couldn't make out. They had never found her, but she was still looking over her shoulder once in a while, sure that they would suddenly be there. She knew that her life as an 'ordinary' child would come to an end sooner or later; they would never give up their precious asset.
She sat, reminiscing over the past few years, but she still kept her eyes on the crowd before her eyes. Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed a girl coming her way. She wondered for a second if she had been sent by other children to find out who she was, but a cursory look around the playground told her that no one was paying attention to either of them.
The girl stopped a few feet from her, and she wanted nothing more than to tell her to leave. She didn't want people trying to know her, because then, when they started talking behind her back - and they always did - it would hurt. But her past experiences had also taught her that the sooner she answered the questions from the other children, the sooner they would leave her alone.
Somehow, though, she knew that this time, it would be different. She took a second to observe the girl before her. She was about her age - well, the age she was supposed to have in this body - but apart from that, they couldn't look more different. While she had long dirty blond hair, the other girl had short black hair. She was obviously well-cared for, and for a second, envy coursed through her body; would it be the same for her if her parents were raising her? She pushed that thought away as soon as it came; thinking about what couldn't be would do her no good.
"What are you reading?" the other girl asked, as she sat down across from her.
"Little women," she heard herself answer, still surprised that this girl was talking to her.
"You're going to love it! I have the sequels. You can borrow them if you want."
She shrugged at this other girl's offer, not really sure what to make of it. Never had someone done something like that for her. She had understood that it was something common amongst the children to swap things, but it had never happened to her. It was strange to have this girl who didn't know her making that kind of offer.
"Are you new to this school, too? We've just moved here from Upstate. It's strange to be in the city. Have you always lived here?"
"Pretty much."
"The others are strange," the other girl continued. "I tried to talk to a few of them, but they just moved away. I guess that since we're both new, we should stick together. Can we?"
The girl seemed so hopeful that a part of her didn't want to disappoint her. She nodded, and returned the smile she was receiving. Maybe this time, it would really be different.
"I'm Melody," she replied, closing her book.
"Elizabeth. I'm sure we'll be great friends."
"Maybe it's one of the most peaceful planets out there, Elizabeth, but you, better than anyone else, know our track record. Can't you just translate the text from the videos Lorne and his team brought back?"
He didn't add that she would be safe here, in Atlantis, but she could hear it in his voice.
"I can, but there are some parts that are unreadable, and I need to see those ruins for myself."
"My team can go there and we'll make another video for you where you can see every little detail."
She had to resist hard to not roll her eyes at his offer. She knew, from the moment she had realised she would need to see the ruins to complete her translation, that John wouldn't like it. What reassured her was that it had nothing to do with the recent change in their relationship.
Ever since the incident with Niam that had sent her into a nanite-induced coma over two years ago, he had been wary to allow her off-world. Not that he had the last say in this particular matter; she was still the leader of this expedition, and while she would always take his opinion into consideration, the decision was hers to make.
And she told him exactly this, raising a hand to stop him before he could start protesting.
"Ok, then. But Lorne's team is coming with us, too."
"Major Lorne and his team already have another mission planned. I believe your team will be more than enough for an uninhabited planet with no known threat."
"It's the 'no known' part that I don't really like."
"John..."
"I know, I know. But I'm not letting you out of my sight, you've been warned."
That she could accept; it was reasonable, and she knew he would do that for anyone in the expedition who didn't carry a weapon off-world.
"Now please, go get your team ready. We're leaving in half an hour."
She almost expected him to say something about leaving so soon, but he stayed silent. He would probably use those precious minutes to read Lorne's report about the planet, in order to be prepared for anything that might come at them. But she would be really surprised if they ran into any kind of trouble, even though the team seemed to attract it like a magnet.
He started to leave, but stopped when he reached the door, and turned back towards her.
"You're sure we can't ask another team..."
"No!" she stopped him before he could go any further.
She watched him leave and started to gather everything she would need for her trip off-world. She radioed Carson and informed him that he would be in charge, as the only member of the senior staff who was staying behind. She knew he didn't like it, but she expected little to no trouble at all during her absence. With both Rodney and John, her number one troublemakers, off-world with her, Atlantis should be safe.
With everything set, she left her office to go get ready to go off-world, too. It didn't happen very often, and she was still feeling a mix of excitement and fear at the thought. There was a part of her hoping that it would never go away.
She found John waiting for her in her quarters with her vest. She didn't need to check to know that the pockets contained everything she would need from power bars to stylus for her tablet. She could have stopped to get it herself before going to the Gateroom, but she appreciated his thoughtfulness.
"Thank you," she said, taking the vest from him and pecking his lips.
"Well, I'm going to let you change. Unless you need my help with something," he added as an afterthought.
"Go!" she ordered, trying but failing to hold back a smile; she was sure he would have been happy to help, but then, they would be terribly late, and it wouldn't do.
Once she was alone, she packed her backpack with her tablet, some books that would help her with the translation, and a couple of other things, including a change of clothes, just in case. She had made the mistake of not bringing one before, and had ended up covered in mud, no thanks to one John Sheppard. The trip back to the Gate was an uncomfortable one, and she made sure John knew she wasn't happy about it.
Quickly changing into a black t-shirt and off-world BDUs, she put on her vest and was about to grab her backpack when she thought she saw something in the corner of her eyes. She immediately turned towards it, and was relieved when she saw nothing unusual. Ever since she had that nightmare the night before, she had that strange feeling that something, someone, was watching her. She knew it wasn't rational, but she couldn't shake it off.
Shouldering her backpack, she left her room, hopeful that this mission would turn out to be useful. The text she had started to translate talked about the history of the planet, but some parts of the text were referring to something else she wasn't able to identify just yet. She hoped that the parts of the text that she couldn't read would talk about this. It could be nothing important, but it could turn out being vital for their fight against the Wraith and the Asurans.
When she reached the Gateroom, John and his team were already there, waiting for her. She tuned John's voice out, as she heard him start to give his team instructions about her safety coming first and foremost. They didn't need him to say it, they knew their job, but it still didn't surprise her. She looked up at the control room, and nodded at Chuck to dial the Gate.
As it slowly came to life before her eyes, she thought about what she would find beyond it. Ancient ruins, even in the Pegasus Galaxy, were always a rare treat, and she knew she was lucky to be able to see this one with her own eyes.
The wormhole appeared, and she followed John's team, stepping through with Teyla and Rodney at her sides, no doubt as per John's orders. From what she could see, the planet didn't look any different from plenty of others; the Gate was situated in the middle of a clearing, with woods surrounding it. It didn't look like people, aside from her teams, came here for quite some time, maybe not since the Ancients left this Galaxy ten thousand years ago.
It felt strange, knowing that they were amongst the first human beings stepping on this planet's soil in centuries, but it wasn't the first time it happened; planets and cities that were thriving when the Ancients were in Pegasus, were left to decay after their leave. Atlantis had been one of these, until her people came through the Gate.
"Well, Colonel, lead the way," she said, as she saw that John was waiting for her to take in her surroundings.
With the Ancient ruins being 20 minutes away from the Gate, she had plenty of time to observe the world around her.
The TARDIS materialised with the brakes on. River rolled her eyes at the Doctor's back as she entered the console room. She slung the small, but dimensionally transcendental, bag on her shoulder as she walked up the stairs. It hadn't taken her long to change into the pants and white top the ship had provided for her, but it looked like the Doctor started to be impatient as he was already waiting for her by the doors; he could be such a child sometimes.
She stopped beside the console for a moment. It always surprised her how different he could be from one minute to the next. He was one of the funniest and nicest people she ever met, but threaten one of his friends, and he was a danger, even to himself. If she didn't have Amy's stories, if she didn't get to know him and to what lengths he would go for his friends, she might still believe that the Church was right about him.
Shaking herself mentally out of this place in her mind, she smiled when the Doctor turned towards her, hopefully completely oblivious to what she had been thinking. Walking to him, she stole a quick glance at the screen, preferring her way to do an environmental check to the Doctor's, and joined him at the doors.
"So, where did she take us?"
"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me," he said, pouting just a bit. "Shall we?" he asked, opening the door for her.
They stopped right outside the TARDIS, letting the door close behind them. They had arrived right outside of what look like an archaeological site, though it hadn't probably been discovered just yet. River smiled at the sight before her; she could already guess what his next words would be.
"Oh, she clearly favours you!"
And she had been right on spot.
She didn't reply anything, knowing that it would be useless. Instead, she walked towards the ruins, wanting to know more about another long lost civilization. She could hear the Doctor following her a few steps behind. She knew archaeology wasn't his kind of thing, but he put up with it for her. He preferred to live History, and she had come to love it, too; she learned so much more from spending a few hours with a people than from visiting the ruins left after their disappearance.
She noticed writings on the walls, and wondered which civilization she was facing, and whether or not she had encountered it before. Maybe they could go back in time once she was done here, and see it for themselves. She was sure the TARDIS would indulge her.
Before she could get any closer to the wall, she heard footsteps and voices coming from their left. She turned to the Doctor without making a sound and saw that he had noticed it, too. Given the state of the ruins, she had thought this planet was uninhabited, but she had obviously been mistaken. They stood their ground, as it was too late for them to go back to the TARDIS without being noticed.
As the group of people came into view, they froze for a second, before raising their weapons at them: earth weapons for three of them, she noted, and one she didn't know for the tallest of them.
"No known threat, right!" she heard one of the men say quietly, before he raised his voice to them. "Who are you?"
"We could ask the same thing about you," she replied.
"Look, we're unarmed, so why don't you lower your weapons?" the Doctor said, raising his hands to show them that they were no threat.
"Oh yeah, no weapon? So what's that in her hands?"
The Doctor turned to look towards her, and saw the weapon she was aiming at the newcomers.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, his voice getting high and squeaky.
"It was in my bag," she answered, shrugging.
"She gave it to you? Oh she..."
"Sweetie," she interrupted him, "maybe we can go back to that, later," she said, never looking away from the group in front of them.
"Why don't you lower your weapon," the man said again, bringing back the Doctor's attention to him. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're outnumbered anyway..."
River smiled widely and barely managed to hold back a laugh at his words.
"Oh don't worry about that. I could easily shoot down the five of you before any of you have time to pull the trigger."
"I really shouldn't find that hot," she heard her husband whisper.
She unsettled them, she realised, as she saw them gripping their weapons tighter. She wondered for a second if she would have to use her weapon against them. But before her thoughts could go any further, the unarmed woman put her hand on the man's arm, and stepped from behind him.
She wondered what would happen now.
Elizabeth knew that she had to take the matter in her own hands. She had been as surprised as the rest of the team to find other people standing in the ruins, and it had taken longer for her to recover from it.
She saw things slowly escalate, and she knew she had to step in before they went any further. She put her hand on John's arm, and felt him barely stiffen under her touch; he knew what she was about to do without her even saying it out loud. And he didn't like it, that much she was sure of.
She slowly stepped from behind her military commander to place herself, with her hands raised, in front of him. No surprise showed on the two strangers' faces, but she knew that for the moment, she had the upper hand. Now, she just needed to use her negotiating skills to the best.
"We're peaceful explorers," she started. "We came here to take a look at these ruins."
"We're here for the same reason," the man replied.
"Good. Why don't we work side by side, then?" she offered.
Elizabeth watched as the two shared a look, before the woman slowly lowered her weapon. She intimated John and his team to do the same, and was relieved that things got resolved so easily.
"You're from Earth," the woman said, provoking surprise among the Lanteans.
"How do you know that?" Rodney exclaimed, instead of trying to deny it as they should have done.
"These weapons are from Earth. From here, I'd say P-90 and Beretta 92 from the early 21st century. This," she said, gesturing to Ronon's gun, "is clearly from a completely different planet, though. I never came across one like this, before."
"Who are you, people?" John asked, coming to stand beside Elizabeth.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is River Song. Hello."
"What kind of name is 'the Doctor'?" Ronon said, raising an eyebrow.
"A good name," the man just replied, outraged.
"What did you mean by 'early 21st century'?" Rodney interrupted Elizabeth before she could introduce herself and the team.
"Well..., we're not exactly from this time," the Doctor answered.
"Judging by your clothing, and the bowtie, I'd say you're from the sixties," John said, gesturing to the Doctor, and River barely stifled a laugh, "but I doubt they had developed time travel at this time. Not to mention that the Gate wasn't used at that time."
"First, bowties are cool, really cool. Tell them, River."
"Oh, you know how much I love this bowtie, Sweetie," she replied.
"I know you do," he said, straightening said bowtie before turning back towards the team. "Second, what's this Gate you mentioned?"
"The Stargate," John answered, and continued when he saw that they didn't know what he was talking about. "The Ring of the Ancestors? The big round thing in the clearing that can take you to other planets, and from where you came through?"
"Oh, they're still in use in this part of the universe? They're a bit boring," he added for River.
"If you don't know about the Stargate, and you're not from this planet, how did you come here?"
"We have a ship," the Doctor answered John's question with a shrug.
"We've introduced ourselves, but we still don't know who you are."
Elizabeth had to wonder for a second if the other woman's remark was made to prevent further questions about their ship. She was curious, and she guessed that Rodney and John were too. It was probably somewhere in orbit or on the opposite side of the ruins as they hadn't come across it during their walk from the Gate and she couldn't see it anywhere nearby.
"This is Colonel John Sheppard," she said, gesturing to the man at her side, before moving to the rest of the team. "Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex. And I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir."
Elizabeth noticed the surprise written on River Song's face, but it was gone a second later; if she hadn't been looking at her, she would have missed it. She wondered what prompted it; she had never met this woman before, but she reacted when Elizabeth introduced herself.
"Shall we start?" River offered before Elizabeth had time to ask.
In spite of her curiosity for the other woman, Elizabeth nodded at John, and followed her to the ruins. She didn't need to turn to know that he was following her, while his team was keeping an eye on this 'Doctor'.
"One of my teams already came here, and brought me some footage of the ruins. I've already deciphered a good part of the text about the history of the planet, but some parts of the text were unreadable. And... What the...?" she exclaimed, prompting John to put himself in front of her.
"What is it?"
"It's all in English," Elizabeth answered to John.
"But that's impossible. It was in Ancient!" Rodney exclaimed, stating the obvious.
"It's our ship," River started, and she knew that the Doctor almost interrupted her to clarify that it was his ship. "She has a translation matrix. Whatever the language, spoken or written, you'll hear and read it as yours."
"It's quite practical as not everyone in the universe speaks the same language," the Doctor added, though it wasn't needed.
"Wait a minute: she?" John asked, having noted the used of the pronoun. "Don't tell me she has a name too?"
"Oh, she does. Do you want to tell them what it is, Sweetie, or should I?"
"Sexy," he mumbled but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Elizabeth could barely contain her laughter, and as it was, her team all had huge smiles on their faces.
"Who would name a space ship 'Sexy'?" Rodney asked.
"Probably the same type of people naming a whale 'Sam'," John answered before the Doctor even had time to open his mouth to protest.
Knowing her two friends, Elizabeth knew that the conversation was about to deviate, and she didn't want that to happen in front of two strangers, and possible allies. She stalled Rodney's reply by putting a hand up, and turned towards River.
"Maybe we should get to work. And actually, this translation matrix is a good thing, as I'll be able to check if my translations were correct."
It would be a great advantage, she realised, as she could refine their ever growing Ancient-English dictionary, and surprise Daniel in doing so.
River smiled at her, and extended an arm to invite her to precede her inside the ruins.
It was only a couple of months after they first met at school that Melody realised that she had stopped looking over her shoulder. She hadn't noticed it at first, but now, she realised that she wasn't afraid that they would find her anymore. Nothing had changed really, except that for once, she had someone to watch her back. Elizabeth had said so one day after some kids had tried to bully her. Melody could have defended herself quite easily, but no one needed to know about that.
For the first time in her life, she had a friend, someone who cared about her. It was strange; she had never experienced that before. First in Florida, and then in New York, she was alone. Up until Elizabeth had walked to her in the playground; two newcomers at the school allied against the others.
What surprised Melody the most was that Elizabeth didn't ask for her story. She didn't pressure her to know about her life. Usually, the other children kept asking questions that she simply wouldn't answer, up until they walked away from her and never talked to her again. With Elizabeth it was different; she accepted her silence, and talked about her own family. Melody had understood early on that it wasn't to make her envious of her life, but because friends told each other these things. It was a concept Melody couldn't grasp before.
Before Elizabeth. It was strange how she now divided her life before and after someone. It had never happened before, as she had always been alone. Even in her previous life, she had never done that; there had never been a before and after them: they were always there. But now, she could, and she didn't want to go back to 'before'.
There were times when Melody wanted to talk to Elizabeth, to tell her story, but she held herself back every time. She knew that Elizabeth's impression of her would change if she did, she knew that she could lose her only friend. And she wasn't sure she could stand to be alone anymore.
"Melody?" Elizabeth's voiced jolted her out of her thoughts. "You were deep in thought. What were you thinking about?"
"Tomorrow's math test."
If Elizabeth saw through her lie, she didn't say anything. She just accepted that there were things she couldn't pry from her. It was new to Melody; even her foster families never understood her need for privacy, secrecy.
"Maybe you could help me? I didn't understand this," Elizabeth said, pointing at a problem.
Melody smiled; while Elizabeth was among the best students of the school, she always had a harder time to grasp scientific stuff. Melody, on the contrary, always understood them even before the teacher had finished explaining. It was as if it was already somewhere in the back of her mind, and she just needed something to prompt it to the front. No one but Elizabeth knew this, though; it was their secret.
She explained everything to Elizabeth in simpler terms, and she could see the moment her friend understood it.
"You'd make a good teacher one day, Melody."
It wasn't the first time her friend told her that, but she had always dismissed it. She knew it just wasn't in her future. Her future wouldn't be a happy one spent with friends and family, it just wasn't possible for her. She might have escaped them, she might have stopped looking over her shoulder, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before they found her. So, she would never become a teacher, of that she was sure.
"I'm glad I can help you," she only replied.
Teyla was wary of the two newcomers. They hadn't expected to encounter anyone, and especially not people like them. Even though they didn't say so explicitly, she could read in their body language that they were not like them. There was something else, something more with them, but she didn't know what.
What she knew for sure was that they weren't part of this galaxy. If they had been, people would have talked about them, and she would have heard about them one way or another. They didn't go unnoticed.
She shared a look with John, and nodded as she understood that he wanted her to keep an eye on this 'Doctor' while he stayed with Elizabeth and the woman. Ronon was stuck baby-sitting Rodney, as the scientist really shouldn't be left alone while off-world. As she returned her eyes to the Doctor, she saw that he was playing with a weird object, pointing it towards the ruins. She almost wanted to ask what he was doing, but she wasn't sure she wouldn't be stonewalled.
As she raised her eyes back to his face, she noticed he was looking at her, a smile on his face. She smiled back, and he took it as an invitation to walk towards her.
"It looks like your CO wants you to watch me. I can understand it. And he's probably right."
"Why? Are you dangerous?" she asked, joking a bit.
"I can be. Even for those I love."
If she had expected him to joke back in reply, she was taken aback when she saw in his eyes that he was dead serious. She couldn't help but wonder what could have happened for this man to believe that he was dangerous to his own friends. She noticed some sadness in his eyes, too; it was carefully concealed, and if she hadn't been so good at reading people, she would have missed it.
Instead of stepping away from him, as he probably expected her to, she came to his side. She almost wanted to put her hand on his shoulder, but she didn't know how he would react to it. So instead, she started to speak in a soft voice.
"There was a moment when I thought I would be a danger to my friends, and my people. We have these enemies, in this Galaxy, called the Wraith. Colonel Sheppard said that they were like vampires, but they suck the life out of you instead of blood. A Wraith scientist experimented on my ancestors, and I possess some Wraith DNA. It gives me the ability to feel them when they're close, but at one point, I thought that they would be able to control me. I was afraid I would end up hurting the ones I love."
"But you never did."
"No. But I almost convinced myself that it would be better if I left everything behind, and ran."
She had never admitted that to anyone, before. No one knew where her thoughts led her after she had found out about her 'gift'. But when her ability turned into an asset during the Siege, she had decided to stay and help her friends and her people the best way she could. And thus far, she hadn't regretted her decision. Nor did she regret her decision to hide this from her people; they didn't need to know that some of them possessed the DNA of their worst enemy.
"That's the difference between you and me. I have hurt my friends before, and I will hurt them again. But I don't walk away from them when there's still time."
She didn't know what to reply to that. She could see on his face that she wouldn't be able to convince him that he wasn't a threat to his friends. And maybe he was right, and he was; she didn't know him, and she might be mistaken, but she couldn't imagine him posing a danger to anyone.
"Take River, for example," he continued, without her asking him to. "She was separated at birth from her parents because my enemies wanted to create the perfect weapon against me. And they almost succeeded. The child of my best friends, and I couldn't do anything to stop them. I still can't, because changing her past would mean changing who she is now."
There was nothing she could say after this. She could see how it still tortured him, even though it obviously happened a long time ago. It also didn't surprise her when it revealed that he was older than he looked; she had already seen in his eyes that he was older and wiser than any of them.
"Why don't you tell me about these Ancients?" he asked, cheerfully.
The mood change almost gave her whiplash, as John would have said, but she still complied. He did seem sincerely interested to learn about the Ancestors.
"That's really fascinating," Elizabeth said, as she examined a portion of the wall.
"The text or the fact that it's already translated?" River asked, smiling.
"Both, I guess."
They had been working side by side for the past hour. Elizabeth had wanted to start with the parts of the wall she had already translated, to make sure that she hadn't missed something, or misinterpreted the text; the Ancients were known to be ambiguous about certain things after all.
They finally moved on to the part of the text Elizabeth hadn't been able to decipher before. It was still hard to read, but with the both of them, they were making good progress. Moss had grown over the wall, and River was cleaning it with the tools the TARDIS had provided her, while Elizabeth transcribed the text, and sometimes took photos.
Leaning against one of the walls they had already examined, John observed them working side by side. He was surprised by how easy it was for them to work together when they didn't know each other a little more than an hour before.
"This translation matrix is really useful," Elizabeth said, as she compared the captures she made from the video Lorne's team took, to the wall before her; she still couldn't quite grasp the fact that the text that was in Ancient was now in English before her eyes. "I don't suppose you have a spare one I could borrow?"
"Sorry," River replied. "And anyway, it only works if the Doctor is around, and conscious. It wouldn't be of much use to you."
"It was worth a try. Daniel would have been amazed by this. And a bit jealous, too, I guess. He's an archaeologist," she added for River. "He's our leading expert on the Ancients. He even lived with them on another plane of existence for a while. Long story," she replied to River's raised eyebrow.
"The Doctor and I have our fair share of long stories, I understand. And I'm an archaeologist too, so I understand how useful the TARDIS translation matrix can be. Now, what is this?" she asked out loud, as another portion of moss fell to the ground, revealing a strange line.
"The ghosts of your past must be faced before you can lay down your burden," Elizabeth read. "I think it talks about the ascension. And look, it looks like it's a plaque or something."
"Maybe there's something else underneath. Let's see if we can take it off the wall."
River took a small trowel out of her bag, and placed it carefully beneath the plaque, slowly lifting it off the wall. Elizabeth helped her by holding it so that it wouldn't fall on the ground and break. When it finally came off, they were faced with circuitry, the last thing any of them expected to find in these ruins.
"It looks like it's dead."
"Lucky I have an expert in Ancient technology on the team," Elizabeth replied to River, before turning to look for Rodney. "Where's Rodney?" she asked John when she couldn't see him anywhere nearby.
"He was driving Ronon crazy so he killed him, and now he's burying the remains. Kidding," he answered to her raised eyebrow. "They were bored, so I sent them on a perimeter tour. You need him?" he asked, raising his hand to his radio.
"Actually, I may be able to help too," River intervened. "Sweetie, I need the sonic!" she called.
"What for?" he asked, throwing it towards her anyway.
"A little bit of repairs. Now, let's see if we can do this," she said, turning back to the wall, with Elizabeth by her side.
She selected the correct setting and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the circuitry in the wall. It lit up, and the next thing the two women saw was a bright light just as their respective men shouted for them.
"River!"
"Elizabeth!"
Part Two