Your planet or mine? SGA, PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rating: PG-13
Author’s Note: Ehrm yeah. Sorry for this. It’s so bad and sappy and what-not, that I’m blushing just thinking of it. And their all OOC. Except for perhaps Ronon, who doesn’t say much. Written for the summersteam challenge and is so sappy and silly and AU that it makes puppies and babies cry. anyway, it's about Earth being destroyed, Lizzie grocery shopping and John trying to save her... that made sense... not.
Your Planet or Mine?
The heel had broken as she had been leaving the office. She had decided not to drive barefoot, but took off her shoes as she left the car. Seemed smarter to be barefoot than destroying the other heel just because she had to make a quick stop at the supermarket. It was open late and Elizabeth hoped there wouldn’t be too many people remembering a barefoot woman shopping bread and milk for breakfast at eleven p.m. She’d buy some ice cream too, she told herself. She deserved it. Annoyed, Elizabeth closed the door to the car. It wasn’t even she who’d forgotten the groceries. It was Simon. Yeah, once again her fiancée had been so caught up during the day that he “couldn’t go out for even a minute, honey. I’m sorry. Could you please..?” And of course she’d said she could, no problem. But problems were all they had. Liz shook her head as she entered the big glass doors. She didn’t want to think about it now. She grabbed a basket and headed for the dairies.
John had been in a supermarket once before. It wasn’t one of his most pleasant memories. Not the most unpleasant either. It was more in the “trying to find the toilet in somebody else’s space ship”- area than in the “being hunted by man-eating aliens”- area. He looked around. Yeah he was definitely trying to find something this time. Rodney had helped him “google” the person in question. John didn’t really want to know what that meant, but it had worked. They had found her area, and then they had managed to get some of her DNA (Teyla had managed to sneak in at the same ladies room as her and pretended to have forgotten her hair brush) and they had a lock on her!
Liz was just putting the milk in her basket when some one tapped her shoulder. She swung around.
“Hey!” A guy, looking like her age, quite smartly dressed, hair in totally disorder…
“Shit! John!” An instinct to flee kicked in, and Liz close to just dropped her basket right there and made it for the doors, but something stopped her. Might’ve been common sense. “What are you doing here?” She whispered, or well, hissed at him. Shit, he couldn’t be here!
“I’ve come to get you. Earth is about to be attacked, it’s a long story, and I didn’t want you to go down with it.” Liz didn’t know what to say. Was he mad? Was the man she’d met in New York a few weeks back a lunatic? What was going on? “And oh, I need a toaster.”
“Wha-“
“A toaster. I can’t understand no other planet has anything like them. Me and Ronon loves them. Sorta broke the last one.”
“Ronon? Who? What?” For all the schools Liz had been to, for all the essays she’d written, she couldn’t find any words. This guy was talking about Earth being destroyed and planets without toasters. What was going on? Where was the hidden camera?
"Ronon! He’s great. Kinda big, but you know. Good to have around. Anyway, the toasters? Do they have them here?” He grabbed her arm and began walking out from the dairies and towards the other end of the big hall. Liz was still confused, but decided this must be some kind of joke she just didn’t understand.
“John. I’m sorry but I’m not really following. You’re talking about Earth being destroyed?” She laughed a little nervously. “What movie have you been watching?” He stopped and looked at her.
“Elizabeth, I’m not joking.” Jesus, those eyes. Liz remembered those eyes. “I know you won’t believe me until I show you, because that is how you work, but there are lives on other planets, and there are space ships and you humans are not alone. But Earth is being destroyed, and I’m trying to save one of its inhabitants.” He was still looking at her, and she could come up with nothing else to do but to nod. “Good. Now I need that toaster.”
He found his toaster, but Liz still hadn’t found any words. What was going on? And when he suddenly said out loud “Rodney, I got what I need” she just looked around. Rodney who? But then the world became dizzy, the store disappeared to be replaced by what looked like big room, a kind of science fiction looking bridge, and in one of the chairs sat her old friend Rodney McKay, and Liz fainted.
“Liz? Liz? You ok?” Everything was blurry. But the voice sounded concerned, and she didn’t want it to be. “Liz?” She opened her eyes. The face above her smiled. She smiled back, he was cute. “Everything’s ok?”
“Yeah.” Her voice wasn’t strong enough yet, it sounded weak. She cleared her throat and with his help sat up. “Yeah… yeah I think so…” She looked around in the room. It really did look like a sci-fi bridge of some kind. There was a huge window behind her, and in front of her two seats, behind that it seemed to be some sort of working area, big blinking lamps on the walls and a man who was looking at all the lamps, a laptop in his hands. “Rodney?” She looked at John. “What’s he doing here?” John gave her a wry smile.
“Sorta picked him up in New York. He seemed smart enough to fix the ship, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and well… I think he likes it here.”
“I heard that John,” came from Rodney who was still working with is laptop, “I don’t like it here, but you have managed to cause quite a lot of damage to this place, and the technology’s fascinating.” John smiled and whispered to Elizabeth while helping her up, “As I said, he likes it here.” She stood up, feeling better.
“But where is here?” John grinned at her.
“Welcome aboard the space-ship Daedalus, doctor Weir.” It took all her strength not to faint again.
“Space-ship?” Rodney looked up from his computer.
“Space-ship yes. As in flying saucers, UFO, life on other planets,jedi knights and what not’s.” He went back to the laptop and the wall with blinking lights. Elizabeth looked at John, who helped her stand up.
“So, a space ship huh, never told me about that one in New York.” She gave him a wry smile, he gave her one back. She’d always thought he looked like Peter Pan when he did that.
“Well, I wasn’t sure how you’d react. Wouldn’t have wanted you unconscious the whole weekend.” He leaned in on her, she was still holding his arm for support. “I like you more awake.” She couldn’t help but blush, and was thankful for Rodney’s preoccupation with the wall. She couldn’t come up with a response, so she just cleared her throat to avoid an awkward silence. He seemed to take the hint.
“Come on, I’ll show you your quarters.”
It was a small room, but nice. John told her it wasn’t far from the kitchen. It was rectangular, with a desk at the entrance, then a bed by the window. There were wardrobes by the other side, facing the desk. Which brought up the question of clothes…
“John.”
“Yeah?” he was looking out the window, she was by the desk.
“If all this is true, all this with Earth, then I have no clothes, no hygienic articles… I don’t even have shoes!” John looked at her. She was becoming upset. Here she was, taken away from her home, her family, her friends and all of her things. And why?
“I guess you’ll have to borrow from Teyla in the meantime-“ she cut him off by a wave of her hand. She stared at him.
“I don’t want to borrow stuff! I want to know why you’ve taken me away from my home, with some stupid story about Earth being destroyed!”
“Earth is being destroyed.”
“So you say!” She was now yelling at him.
“Yeah, so I say!” he was yelling back. “Listen to me! Earth will be attacked very shortly, from enemies you are not prepared to face! The entire galaxy has learned to fight these aliens, or to run from them which is the smartest thing to do. Earth is totally defenseless!”
“So why don’t you warn them all! Why just Rodney!”
“I NEED him!”
“Why me then!?” She was so angry, steam could have come from her. He stared at her, looking just as angry. They stood like that for a while, her question hanging in the air. Then he seemed to relax, his face sadden. He didn’t look at her when he walked to the door. There he stopped, the door open.
“You know why I came for you,” and as he walked out, down the corridor he added, “Get some sleep Elizabeth. We’re leaving here tomorrow. Rodney says everything should be fixed then.”
When he’d left, Elizabeth sunk down on the bed. Her head was spinning, she was tired and confused. She looked out of the window, space filling her view. She was a skilled diplomat, a woman of respect and some power, quite pretty even if stress had made some marks on her face, with a fiancée and a dog, who suddenly found herself kidnapped on a space-ship, by a man with whom she’d slept with a few weeks back when she’d been a little too drunk on a conference in New York! What on Earth had gone wrong? And why could she only care about the fact that she’d upset John?
She met Teyla and Ronon the next morning in the kitchen. Her mobile phone still had batteries so she’d been able to put the alarm. Not that she’d slept much anyway. Teyla was a young, muscular but slender woman with dark brown hair who had greeted her with a smile and showed her how the kitchen worked, and what everything was. She had apparently heard about Elizabeth’s lack of clothes, and they were soon on their way to Teyla’s quarters. Ronon had mostly grunted a “good morning” before heading out. Teyla had told her he had some things to finish before they left this solar system.
“Teyla…?”
“Yes, Elizabeth?” The young woman smiled at her as they were looking through her wardrobe, Teyla eyeing Elizabeth, pulling something out of the wardrobe and throwing it on the bed were Elizabeth sat.
“I was wondering… these aliens John told me about yesterday… what are they?” Teyla’s smile faded, she looked down at the skirt she was holding. “I’m sorry, I… maybe I shouldn’t have but…”
“But it’s your planet, naturally you’re concerned.” She sat down next to Elizabeth. “I am a little surprised John hasn’t told you anything but…” she sighed, “ but the Wraith… they have destroyed so many planets, so many lives. It is hard to talk about. And planets who haven’t heard of them… they are rare.” They looked at each other.
“The Wraith? That is their name?”
“That is what we call them.” She started picking with the clothes on the bed. “They are very much alike what you call vampires, though more scary looking. They feed on humans.” Elizabeth shuddered, was this what her planet was facing? “I am sorry Elizabeth that you have to hear of this. But at least you’ll have the chance to flee. The Wraith are… impossible to defeat I’m afraid. Many have tried, but they have all been beaten eventually. People are still trying, and we still hope some one will come up with a way…” Elizabeth reached out for the other woman.
“I am sorry. Your planet..?”
“Was culled when I was a child. A few of us managed to escape. I was separated a few years back, but then I ran into John and Ronon. Their story is quite similar.”
“And this is what it is like in the whole galaxy?” Teyla nodded.
“To my information, yes.”
“But that is horrible! Teyla, there has to be something we can do!”
“People try. Some flee really far, there are rumors about people reaching other galaxies. Many planets try to work against the Wraith by using technology and weapons. They cannot be every where all the time, they are not that many and so there can go generations before they come back to a planet. And some people create small resistance movements.”
“And you?”
“We flee. Sometimes we fight.” Elizabeth nodded. Suddenly Teyla sighed, shrugged and gave her a wry smile. “Let’s not talk of it. You must pick some clothes, and I’ll make sure John makes us go by Vala’s store soon.”
“Vala?”
“A girl from… oh I don’t remember. But she’s married to an Earthling!”
It was later that evening that John came looking for her. She’d changed out from her red shirt and black pants and was wearing a dress of Teyla’s she felt worked for her. It was long and black, with a black leather belt in the waist. Very simple, but she’d come to like it. And she had shoes! A pair of dark red leather sandals. She felt very different from her usual, suit- dressed self. John too looked surprised. But she was happen to noticed that he seemed positively surprised.
“Hi.” She greeted as he stepped inside.
“Hello. See you and Teyla had the time to do something about your wardrobe problems.” He smiled, not wanting to accidentally anger her.
“Yeah, we did.” She stopped straightening her sheets. “She told me about some store owned by a woman married to an… Earthling I believe the word was.” Elizabeth gave him a smile.
“Ah yeah. Vala and Daniel. Yeah, we should try and go there. They’d be happy to meet you. And maybe Sam’s there too. She’s also from Earth, Daniel’s sister.” She nodded.
“That would be nice.” Things were definitely a little tense between them, she hated it.
“Talking about Earth,” he looked away from her, “where leaving now. Thought you’d like to say goodbye.” Elizabeth felt the blood disappear from her face. Of course. They had to leave.
“Yes.” It was barely a whisper. He looked up, but didn’t look into her eyes. He opened the door, motioning for her to follow. Her body felt numb.
At the bridge Rodney was looking out the huge window, their planet shining outside. He hardly acknowledged they had entered, but greeted her with a nod when she joined him. John left them to their goodbye, and began putting in data somewhere behind them. Elizabeth could hear him hitting buttons and machines warming up.
“So, this is it then.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll miss my cat.” And with that, they started to drift away, the planet becoming smaller and smaller, until it was too far away to see. If it’d taken a minute or an hour Elizabeth didn’t know but she and Rodney stood there in silence until the lamps on bridge faded, indicating evening and Rodney went to see to an alarm on the wall.
She’d left for her quarters, her mind suddenly empty after all the thoughts that had rushed through it when she’d seen her planet disappear. She’d thought about her family, about her co-workers, about her dog, about Simon. She’d wondered if any one had reported her missing, if any one had seen her with John. She’d wondered about what TV shows people were watching, what politics were debated, about babies being born and old people dying. She’d still been questioning if all this was true. But now her mind was quite blank and calm, and she was startled to see John sitting on the edge of her bed when she entered. She jumped a little, he looked up, but neither spoke until she had placed herself besides him.
“You ok?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” He took her hand. Squeezed it gently, managing to make her heart skip a beat.
“It’s weird, I know. I never had the chance to really say goodbye to my planet.” He began caressing her hand, holding it in one, making patterns on the upper side with the other. “I was just rushed in to a ship. I think my uncle dragged me in. I know my cousin was there.”
“You ran from the Wraith?” Her other hand found his.
“Yes.” She leaned on him. They sat like that for a while, his hand caressing hers, her other hand caressing his arm. They were just two people in an unstable galaxy, with an enemy so much greater than them.
“How did Rodney seem to handle it?” he asked after what was probably 20 minutes.
“He said he’d miss is cat.” And suddenly everything fell apart inside Elizabeth. She freed her hands and put them over her face as she began to sob uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry John! So sorry, I… I don’t know why I just…I’m sorry!” She cried and sobbed and she knew she must look horrible and frighten him with her sudden outburst but she couldn’t control it! Everybody she knew was down on that planet, everything that was a part of her life was left there, threatened by an enemy no one had ever beaten! And his arms were around her and his voice was in her ears trying to sooth her and she just cried and cried and cried. She was mourning so much, so many. She was mourning her own life, others’ life, others’ deaths, she was afraid of the future and embarrassed she couldn’t control it. She fell asleep still fully dressed, still crying, in his arms. “Just cry it out Lizzie, just cry.”
They ran into Vala the other day. Lizzie had thought that the shop was stationary. That was not the case. In times this unstable, the shop was on board Vala’s ship. Shop might’ve been the wrong word however. It was more like a marketplace. There were loads of rooms with different things, one for women’s clothes, one with cutlery, one with toys and so on. You picked what you needed and then paid Vala before leaving. And marriage might not be the word Lizzie would use to describe the relationship with Daniel. But she couldn’t really find another word either. Daniel was apparently an archeologist who’d “disappeared” in Egypt when he’d accidentally pushed the wrong button, been beamed away and taken captive. By Vala, as it turned out. She’d eventually fallen for him, and they’d decided to… live together. Daniel liked the traveling life, he got to meet people from other planets, find likenesses between Earth culture and other planets’, and Vala still had some piracy in her, so being on the move seemed of essence.
But the one Lizzie liked meeting the most was Sam. They’d run into each other in the shoes’ room, where Sam was half-way into the wall, trying to mend something. All Lizzie could see first was her light khaki pants.
“Hello?” Elizabeth couldn’t help but greeting. After ten seconds Sam had managed to pull out from the wall. She looked up. She was a pretty girl, short blond hair and a plain black t-shirt. Quite different from the dark haired Vala, dressed in leather pants and a top.
“Hi there, can I help you with something?”
“Not really, but I was wondering if you are, perhaps, Sam?”
“Yeah. And you?” She seemed to get a little suspicious. Lizzie guessed that’s what happens when living like this.
“I’m Elizabeth Weir, originally from Earth, used to be a diplomat, now a resident of the Daedalus.” She reached out her hand. Sam took it and smiled.
“Nice to meet you!” She stood up. “I’m Sam, used to be in the Air Force and an astrophysicist, was in a space exploring mission that went wrong and here I am!”
“But I thought you were Daniel’s sister?” Sam laughed.
“Everybody does! We are very alike, both bookworms and from Earth, so out here we more or less are.” Lizzie smiled. “So, shopping?”
“Yeah, I don’t have anything to wear. Everything was left… on Earth.” She looked away.
“Yeah I heard. I’ve seen what the Wraith can do… never thought it would happen to us, though.”
“How long have you been here?”
“In space?” Elizabeth nodded. “Four years I think.”
“Any more people from your mission?”
“At first I thought I was alone. But I found Murray after a while, and we found Jack. We’re still looking for Jonas. The Gate took us to different places.”
“The Gate?”
“They found a big ring in Egypt, apparently one can travel to other planets with it.” She shrugged. “I guess we should have waited until we’d found the manual as well.” She laughed, not bitterly, just like you do at a half-bad joke. She seemed quite alright with being here. Elizabeth wondered if she could feel the same. They had had to go shortly after that, but she had promised Sam to look for a young man, looking a little lost by the name of Jonas Quinn for her.
That evening the five of them had a little party. They had all bought something nice in the shop, Ronon had a knack for good cheese, Rodney had bought fruits, Teyla had a mix of ingredients and was in charge for the main course and John and Elizabeth had bought bread and wine. It was loads of fun, talking about stories from there lives. Rodney and Elizabeth got to hear the most amazing stories of people they’ve meet, things they’ve done. The others in turn asked them about their lives, and were amazed and thrilled over small things.
Teyla asked about pantyhose, something she’d taken as many as she could with her at their last stop, and Ronon and John still obsessed about toasters. They had to end it when Rodney began snoring where he’d fallen asleep at the other end of the table, and Teyla began yawning. They decided to do the cleaning tomorrow and Ronon threw Rodney over his shoulder, giving him a brusque wakening, and they left for Rodney’s quarter, a laughing Teyla in the wake. John and Elizabeth walked slowly after them, her quarter being the first one they passed.
“I hope you’re not too angry with me for bringing you along,” John said to her as they stopped in front of her door.
“Not at all. I’m just confused and shocked, you know.” She played with his collar, she couldn’t help it. “I blamed you first, but… now I’m grateful. Even though I feel a little lost out here.” She smiled at him. John smiled back, his hand wrapping around the one near his face, bringing it up to kiss the inside of her palm.
“We all are a little lost.” He gave her the wry smile, his head a little tilted.
“The Lost Boys.”
“What?” She gave him a big smile, and opened the door.
“Nothing.” He closed the door behind him, their hands still entwined. “But I do believe I know what Wendy felt like.” He still looked puzzled. She laughed, a small, silly laugh. He leaned in on her, his body close to her, his breath playing with her curly hair when he whispered,
“You make no sense, but I love to hear you laugh.” And he put his free hand on her lower back, met her gaze and kissed her. First it was light, testing his waters. But her lips soon remembered him, remembered how it had been, and she parted her lips, letting him in. And she lost all thoughts, her mind never even began making lists of good and bad reasons for this, she just acted, her body had yearned for this for such a long time, and he knew her so well. He knew just how to kiss, where to kiss, to make her moan (moan! from a kiss!) and it wasn’t long before his hands began caressing her body, before she craved for more of this, for more of him. And she did not sleep alone that night either.
Elizabeth never slept alone after that night. What had first been merely attraction between the two of them, quite fast became something more. John, she learned, was some one she could trust, some one who listened and cared for her, more than she had ever experienced before. Once she’d accepted that, and let him come really close, she had learned to love him. And the others didn’t raise an eyebrow, after all John had come to look for her. With John’s crazy ideas, Rodney’s knowledge of technology, Ronon and Teyla’s strength and Elizabeth’s patience to look everything through again, they had dealt some hard blows on the Wraith fleet. They were on the run, they were living on a small ship which was as made for conflicts, but Elizabeth had never felt freer in her life. And when they’d found Jonas on a Wraith ship and she got to see the happy face of Sam (and Murray and Jack too), she felt there maybe not all was lost. Earth might be no more, but there were still Earthlings, and there was still hope.
FIN
Rating: PG-13
Author’s Note: Ehrm yeah. Sorry for this. It’s so bad and sappy and what-not, that I’m blushing just thinking of it. And their all OOC. Except for perhaps Ronon, who doesn’t say much. Written for the summersteam challenge and is so sappy and silly and AU that it makes puppies and babies cry. anyway, it's about Earth being destroyed, Lizzie grocery shopping and John trying to save her... that made sense... not.
Your Planet or Mine?
The heel had broken as she had been leaving the office. She had decided not to drive barefoot, but took off her shoes as she left the car. Seemed smarter to be barefoot than destroying the other heel just because she had to make a quick stop at the supermarket. It was open late and Elizabeth hoped there wouldn’t be too many people remembering a barefoot woman shopping bread and milk for breakfast at eleven p.m. She’d buy some ice cream too, she told herself. She deserved it. Annoyed, Elizabeth closed the door to the car. It wasn’t even she who’d forgotten the groceries. It was Simon. Yeah, once again her fiancée had been so caught up during the day that he “couldn’t go out for even a minute, honey. I’m sorry. Could you please..?” And of course she’d said she could, no problem. But problems were all they had. Liz shook her head as she entered the big glass doors. She didn’t want to think about it now. She grabbed a basket and headed for the dairies.
John had been in a supermarket once before. It wasn’t one of his most pleasant memories. Not the most unpleasant either. It was more in the “trying to find the toilet in somebody else’s space ship”- area than in the “being hunted by man-eating aliens”- area. He looked around. Yeah he was definitely trying to find something this time. Rodney had helped him “google” the person in question. John didn’t really want to know what that meant, but it had worked. They had found her area, and then they had managed to get some of her DNA (Teyla had managed to sneak in at the same ladies room as her and pretended to have forgotten her hair brush) and they had a lock on her!
Liz was just putting the milk in her basket when some one tapped her shoulder. She swung around.
“Hey!” A guy, looking like her age, quite smartly dressed, hair in totally disorder…
“Shit! John!” An instinct to flee kicked in, and Liz close to just dropped her basket right there and made it for the doors, but something stopped her. Might’ve been common sense. “What are you doing here?” She whispered, or well, hissed at him. Shit, he couldn’t be here!
“I’ve come to get you. Earth is about to be attacked, it’s a long story, and I didn’t want you to go down with it.” Liz didn’t know what to say. Was he mad? Was the man she’d met in New York a few weeks back a lunatic? What was going on? “And oh, I need a toaster.”
“Wha-“
“A toaster. I can’t understand no other planet has anything like them. Me and Ronon loves them. Sorta broke the last one.”
“Ronon? Who? What?” For all the schools Liz had been to, for all the essays she’d written, she couldn’t find any words. This guy was talking about Earth being destroyed and planets without toasters. What was going on? Where was the hidden camera?
"Ronon! He’s great. Kinda big, but you know. Good to have around. Anyway, the toasters? Do they have them here?” He grabbed her arm and began walking out from the dairies and towards the other end of the big hall. Liz was still confused, but decided this must be some kind of joke she just didn’t understand.
“John. I’m sorry but I’m not really following. You’re talking about Earth being destroyed?” She laughed a little nervously. “What movie have you been watching?” He stopped and looked at her.
“Elizabeth, I’m not joking.” Jesus, those eyes. Liz remembered those eyes. “I know you won’t believe me until I show you, because that is how you work, but there are lives on other planets, and there are space ships and you humans are not alone. But Earth is being destroyed, and I’m trying to save one of its inhabitants.” He was still looking at her, and she could come up with nothing else to do but to nod. “Good. Now I need that toaster.”
He found his toaster, but Liz still hadn’t found any words. What was going on? And when he suddenly said out loud “Rodney, I got what I need” she just looked around. Rodney who? But then the world became dizzy, the store disappeared to be replaced by what looked like big room, a kind of science fiction looking bridge, and in one of the chairs sat her old friend Rodney McKay, and Liz fainted.
“Liz? Liz? You ok?” Everything was blurry. But the voice sounded concerned, and she didn’t want it to be. “Liz?” She opened her eyes. The face above her smiled. She smiled back, he was cute. “Everything’s ok?”
“Yeah.” Her voice wasn’t strong enough yet, it sounded weak. She cleared her throat and with his help sat up. “Yeah… yeah I think so…” She looked around in the room. It really did look like a sci-fi bridge of some kind. There was a huge window behind her, and in front of her two seats, behind that it seemed to be some sort of working area, big blinking lamps on the walls and a man who was looking at all the lamps, a laptop in his hands. “Rodney?” She looked at John. “What’s he doing here?” John gave her a wry smile.
“Sorta picked him up in New York. He seemed smart enough to fix the ship, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and well… I think he likes it here.”
“I heard that John,” came from Rodney who was still working with is laptop, “I don’t like it here, but you have managed to cause quite a lot of damage to this place, and the technology’s fascinating.” John smiled and whispered to Elizabeth while helping her up, “As I said, he likes it here.” She stood up, feeling better.
“But where is here?” John grinned at her.
“Welcome aboard the space-ship Daedalus, doctor Weir.” It took all her strength not to faint again.
“Space-ship?” Rodney looked up from his computer.
“Space-ship yes. As in flying saucers, UFO, life on other planets,jedi knights and what not’s.” He went back to the laptop and the wall with blinking lights. Elizabeth looked at John, who helped her stand up.
“So, a space ship huh, never told me about that one in New York.” She gave him a wry smile, he gave her one back. She’d always thought he looked like Peter Pan when he did that.
“Well, I wasn’t sure how you’d react. Wouldn’t have wanted you unconscious the whole weekend.” He leaned in on her, she was still holding his arm for support. “I like you more awake.” She couldn’t help but blush, and was thankful for Rodney’s preoccupation with the wall. She couldn’t come up with a response, so she just cleared her throat to avoid an awkward silence. He seemed to take the hint.
“Come on, I’ll show you your quarters.”
It was a small room, but nice. John told her it wasn’t far from the kitchen. It was rectangular, with a desk at the entrance, then a bed by the window. There were wardrobes by the other side, facing the desk. Which brought up the question of clothes…
“John.”
“Yeah?” he was looking out the window, she was by the desk.
“If all this is true, all this with Earth, then I have no clothes, no hygienic articles… I don’t even have shoes!” John looked at her. She was becoming upset. Here she was, taken away from her home, her family, her friends and all of her things. And why?
“I guess you’ll have to borrow from Teyla in the meantime-“ she cut him off by a wave of her hand. She stared at him.
“I don’t want to borrow stuff! I want to know why you’ve taken me away from my home, with some stupid story about Earth being destroyed!”
“Earth is being destroyed.”
“So you say!” She was now yelling at him.
“Yeah, so I say!” he was yelling back. “Listen to me! Earth will be attacked very shortly, from enemies you are not prepared to face! The entire galaxy has learned to fight these aliens, or to run from them which is the smartest thing to do. Earth is totally defenseless!”
“So why don’t you warn them all! Why just Rodney!”
“I NEED him!”
“Why me then!?” She was so angry, steam could have come from her. He stared at her, looking just as angry. They stood like that for a while, her question hanging in the air. Then he seemed to relax, his face sadden. He didn’t look at her when he walked to the door. There he stopped, the door open.
“You know why I came for you,” and as he walked out, down the corridor he added, “Get some sleep Elizabeth. We’re leaving here tomorrow. Rodney says everything should be fixed then.”
When he’d left, Elizabeth sunk down on the bed. Her head was spinning, she was tired and confused. She looked out of the window, space filling her view. She was a skilled diplomat, a woman of respect and some power, quite pretty even if stress had made some marks on her face, with a fiancée and a dog, who suddenly found herself kidnapped on a space-ship, by a man with whom she’d slept with a few weeks back when she’d been a little too drunk on a conference in New York! What on Earth had gone wrong? And why could she only care about the fact that she’d upset John?
She met Teyla and Ronon the next morning in the kitchen. Her mobile phone still had batteries so she’d been able to put the alarm. Not that she’d slept much anyway. Teyla was a young, muscular but slender woman with dark brown hair who had greeted her with a smile and showed her how the kitchen worked, and what everything was. She had apparently heard about Elizabeth’s lack of clothes, and they were soon on their way to Teyla’s quarters. Ronon had mostly grunted a “good morning” before heading out. Teyla had told her he had some things to finish before they left this solar system.
“Teyla…?”
“Yes, Elizabeth?” The young woman smiled at her as they were looking through her wardrobe, Teyla eyeing Elizabeth, pulling something out of the wardrobe and throwing it on the bed were Elizabeth sat.
“I was wondering… these aliens John told me about yesterday… what are they?” Teyla’s smile faded, she looked down at the skirt she was holding. “I’m sorry, I… maybe I shouldn’t have but…”
“But it’s your planet, naturally you’re concerned.” She sat down next to Elizabeth. “I am a little surprised John hasn’t told you anything but…” she sighed, “ but the Wraith… they have destroyed so many planets, so many lives. It is hard to talk about. And planets who haven’t heard of them… they are rare.” They looked at each other.
“The Wraith? That is their name?”
“That is what we call them.” She started picking with the clothes on the bed. “They are very much alike what you call vampires, though more scary looking. They feed on humans.” Elizabeth shuddered, was this what her planet was facing? “I am sorry Elizabeth that you have to hear of this. But at least you’ll have the chance to flee. The Wraith are… impossible to defeat I’m afraid. Many have tried, but they have all been beaten eventually. People are still trying, and we still hope some one will come up with a way…” Elizabeth reached out for the other woman.
“I am sorry. Your planet..?”
“Was culled when I was a child. A few of us managed to escape. I was separated a few years back, but then I ran into John and Ronon. Their story is quite similar.”
“And this is what it is like in the whole galaxy?” Teyla nodded.
“To my information, yes.”
“But that is horrible! Teyla, there has to be something we can do!”
“People try. Some flee really far, there are rumors about people reaching other galaxies. Many planets try to work against the Wraith by using technology and weapons. They cannot be every where all the time, they are not that many and so there can go generations before they come back to a planet. And some people create small resistance movements.”
“And you?”
“We flee. Sometimes we fight.” Elizabeth nodded. Suddenly Teyla sighed, shrugged and gave her a wry smile. “Let’s not talk of it. You must pick some clothes, and I’ll make sure John makes us go by Vala’s store soon.”
“Vala?”
“A girl from… oh I don’t remember. But she’s married to an Earthling!”
It was later that evening that John came looking for her. She’d changed out from her red shirt and black pants and was wearing a dress of Teyla’s she felt worked for her. It was long and black, with a black leather belt in the waist. Very simple, but she’d come to like it. And she had shoes! A pair of dark red leather sandals. She felt very different from her usual, suit- dressed self. John too looked surprised. But she was happen to noticed that he seemed positively surprised.
“Hi.” She greeted as he stepped inside.
“Hello. See you and Teyla had the time to do something about your wardrobe problems.” He smiled, not wanting to accidentally anger her.
“Yeah, we did.” She stopped straightening her sheets. “She told me about some store owned by a woman married to an… Earthling I believe the word was.” Elizabeth gave him a smile.
“Ah yeah. Vala and Daniel. Yeah, we should try and go there. They’d be happy to meet you. And maybe Sam’s there too. She’s also from Earth, Daniel’s sister.” She nodded.
“That would be nice.” Things were definitely a little tense between them, she hated it.
“Talking about Earth,” he looked away from her, “where leaving now. Thought you’d like to say goodbye.” Elizabeth felt the blood disappear from her face. Of course. They had to leave.
“Yes.” It was barely a whisper. He looked up, but didn’t look into her eyes. He opened the door, motioning for her to follow. Her body felt numb.
At the bridge Rodney was looking out the huge window, their planet shining outside. He hardly acknowledged they had entered, but greeted her with a nod when she joined him. John left them to their goodbye, and began putting in data somewhere behind them. Elizabeth could hear him hitting buttons and machines warming up.
“So, this is it then.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll miss my cat.” And with that, they started to drift away, the planet becoming smaller and smaller, until it was too far away to see. If it’d taken a minute or an hour Elizabeth didn’t know but she and Rodney stood there in silence until the lamps on bridge faded, indicating evening and Rodney went to see to an alarm on the wall.
She’d left for her quarters, her mind suddenly empty after all the thoughts that had rushed through it when she’d seen her planet disappear. She’d thought about her family, about her co-workers, about her dog, about Simon. She’d wondered if any one had reported her missing, if any one had seen her with John. She’d wondered about what TV shows people were watching, what politics were debated, about babies being born and old people dying. She’d still been questioning if all this was true. But now her mind was quite blank and calm, and she was startled to see John sitting on the edge of her bed when she entered. She jumped a little, he looked up, but neither spoke until she had placed herself besides him.
“You ok?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” He took her hand. Squeezed it gently, managing to make her heart skip a beat.
“It’s weird, I know. I never had the chance to really say goodbye to my planet.” He began caressing her hand, holding it in one, making patterns on the upper side with the other. “I was just rushed in to a ship. I think my uncle dragged me in. I know my cousin was there.”
“You ran from the Wraith?” Her other hand found his.
“Yes.” She leaned on him. They sat like that for a while, his hand caressing hers, her other hand caressing his arm. They were just two people in an unstable galaxy, with an enemy so much greater than them.
“How did Rodney seem to handle it?” he asked after what was probably 20 minutes.
“He said he’d miss is cat.” And suddenly everything fell apart inside Elizabeth. She freed her hands and put them over her face as she began to sob uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry John! So sorry, I… I don’t know why I just…I’m sorry!” She cried and sobbed and she knew she must look horrible and frighten him with her sudden outburst but she couldn’t control it! Everybody she knew was down on that planet, everything that was a part of her life was left there, threatened by an enemy no one had ever beaten! And his arms were around her and his voice was in her ears trying to sooth her and she just cried and cried and cried. She was mourning so much, so many. She was mourning her own life, others’ life, others’ deaths, she was afraid of the future and embarrassed she couldn’t control it. She fell asleep still fully dressed, still crying, in his arms. “Just cry it out Lizzie, just cry.”
They ran into Vala the other day. Lizzie had thought that the shop was stationary. That was not the case. In times this unstable, the shop was on board Vala’s ship. Shop might’ve been the wrong word however. It was more like a marketplace. There were loads of rooms with different things, one for women’s clothes, one with cutlery, one with toys and so on. You picked what you needed and then paid Vala before leaving. And marriage might not be the word Lizzie would use to describe the relationship with Daniel. But she couldn’t really find another word either. Daniel was apparently an archeologist who’d “disappeared” in Egypt when he’d accidentally pushed the wrong button, been beamed away and taken captive. By Vala, as it turned out. She’d eventually fallen for him, and they’d decided to… live together. Daniel liked the traveling life, he got to meet people from other planets, find likenesses between Earth culture and other planets’, and Vala still had some piracy in her, so being on the move seemed of essence.
But the one Lizzie liked meeting the most was Sam. They’d run into each other in the shoes’ room, where Sam was half-way into the wall, trying to mend something. All Lizzie could see first was her light khaki pants.
“Hello?” Elizabeth couldn’t help but greeting. After ten seconds Sam had managed to pull out from the wall. She looked up. She was a pretty girl, short blond hair and a plain black t-shirt. Quite different from the dark haired Vala, dressed in leather pants and a top.
“Hi there, can I help you with something?”
“Not really, but I was wondering if you are, perhaps, Sam?”
“Yeah. And you?” She seemed to get a little suspicious. Lizzie guessed that’s what happens when living like this.
“I’m Elizabeth Weir, originally from Earth, used to be a diplomat, now a resident of the Daedalus.” She reached out her hand. Sam took it and smiled.
“Nice to meet you!” She stood up. “I’m Sam, used to be in the Air Force and an astrophysicist, was in a space exploring mission that went wrong and here I am!”
“But I thought you were Daniel’s sister?” Sam laughed.
“Everybody does! We are very alike, both bookworms and from Earth, so out here we more or less are.” Lizzie smiled. “So, shopping?”
“Yeah, I don’t have anything to wear. Everything was left… on Earth.” She looked away.
“Yeah I heard. I’ve seen what the Wraith can do… never thought it would happen to us, though.”
“How long have you been here?”
“In space?” Elizabeth nodded. “Four years I think.”
“Any more people from your mission?”
“At first I thought I was alone. But I found Murray after a while, and we found Jack. We’re still looking for Jonas. The Gate took us to different places.”
“The Gate?”
“They found a big ring in Egypt, apparently one can travel to other planets with it.” She shrugged. “I guess we should have waited until we’d found the manual as well.” She laughed, not bitterly, just like you do at a half-bad joke. She seemed quite alright with being here. Elizabeth wondered if she could feel the same. They had had to go shortly after that, but she had promised Sam to look for a young man, looking a little lost by the name of Jonas Quinn for her.
That evening the five of them had a little party. They had all bought something nice in the shop, Ronon had a knack for good cheese, Rodney had bought fruits, Teyla had a mix of ingredients and was in charge for the main course and John and Elizabeth had bought bread and wine. It was loads of fun, talking about stories from there lives. Rodney and Elizabeth got to hear the most amazing stories of people they’ve meet, things they’ve done. The others in turn asked them about their lives, and were amazed and thrilled over small things.
Teyla asked about pantyhose, something she’d taken as many as she could with her at their last stop, and Ronon and John still obsessed about toasters. They had to end it when Rodney began snoring where he’d fallen asleep at the other end of the table, and Teyla began yawning. They decided to do the cleaning tomorrow and Ronon threw Rodney over his shoulder, giving him a brusque wakening, and they left for Rodney’s quarter, a laughing Teyla in the wake. John and Elizabeth walked slowly after them, her quarter being the first one they passed.
“I hope you’re not too angry with me for bringing you along,” John said to her as they stopped in front of her door.
“Not at all. I’m just confused and shocked, you know.” She played with his collar, she couldn’t help it. “I blamed you first, but… now I’m grateful. Even though I feel a little lost out here.” She smiled at him. John smiled back, his hand wrapping around the one near his face, bringing it up to kiss the inside of her palm.
“We all are a little lost.” He gave her the wry smile, his head a little tilted.
“The Lost Boys.”
“What?” She gave him a big smile, and opened the door.
“Nothing.” He closed the door behind him, their hands still entwined. “But I do believe I know what Wendy felt like.” He still looked puzzled. She laughed, a small, silly laugh. He leaned in on her, his body close to her, his breath playing with her curly hair when he whispered,
“You make no sense, but I love to hear you laugh.” And he put his free hand on her lower back, met her gaze and kissed her. First it was light, testing his waters. But her lips soon remembered him, remembered how it had been, and she parted her lips, letting him in. And she lost all thoughts, her mind never even began making lists of good and bad reasons for this, she just acted, her body had yearned for this for such a long time, and he knew her so well. He knew just how to kiss, where to kiss, to make her moan (moan! from a kiss!) and it wasn’t long before his hands began caressing her body, before she craved for more of this, for more of him. And she did not sleep alone that night either.
Elizabeth never slept alone after that night. What had first been merely attraction between the two of them, quite fast became something more. John, she learned, was some one she could trust, some one who listened and cared for her, more than she had ever experienced before. Once she’d accepted that, and let him come really close, she had learned to love him. And the others didn’t raise an eyebrow, after all John had come to look for her. With John’s crazy ideas, Rodney’s knowledge of technology, Ronon and Teyla’s strength and Elizabeth’s patience to look everything through again, they had dealt some hard blows on the Wraith fleet. They were on the run, they were living on a small ship which was as made for conflicts, but Elizabeth had never felt freer in her life. And when they’d found Jonas on a Wraith ship and she got to see the happy face of Sam (and Murray and Jack too), she felt there maybe not all was lost. Earth might be no more, but there were still Earthlings, and there was still hope.
FIN