How To Save A Life: Epilogue
Lyrics are from Dashboard Confessional again, and any lines I reference or steal from the show are TPTB’s, not mine. Special dedication to Khermione, my fellow stressed student.
How To Save A Life: Epilogue
“It’s been three hours since they left,” Rodney said in the briefing room. “Can we go look yet?”
Ronon, Teyla and the others shared glances.
Lorne stirred uncertainly. “We have our orders, you know.”
“Hypothetically,” Teyla said quietly, “Those orders could be countermanded by the leader of this facility.”
“And he’d do the same for us,” Ronon added.
X
“Until the last resilient hope
Is frozen deep inside my bones,
And this broken fate has claimed me
And my memories for its own,
Your name is pounding through my veins,
Can't you hear how it is sung?”
An hour after she’d radioed, John was standing up and the trees weren’t moving around him. Decidedly glad he didn’t have a concussion, just the last remains of a sedative in his system, he paced restlessly in the clearing near the transporter.
He came to a complete stop and his eyes widened when he saw an impossibly bright flash behind the clouds. Running from his small camp to the transporter, he looked around, thoughts jamming and racing all at once.
She wouldn’t have.
He didn’t know if he meant Elizabeth - she can’t have died - or ‘Elizabeth’ - she can’t have betrayed us, but either in denial or through some connection, he was sure of both.
It didn’t make his heart beat any slower.
He turned at the sound of a twig snapping and raised his gun, eyes meeting wide green and familiar ones.
X
“There is a secret that we keep,
I won't sleep if you won't sleep,
Because tonight may be the last chance we'll be given,
We are compelled to do what we must do,
We are compelled to do what we have been forbidden.”
Elizabeth stopped when she saw him point the gun.
Moving slowly, she sat the ARG down on the ground and lifted a hand to her arm. She tugged on the blood-soaked bandage and stretched out her arm, feeling bruises that didn’t yet show.
Wincing with pain as the wound reopened and blood began to flow hot and thick down her arm again, Elizabeth lost her balance and sat hard at the base of a tree.
John, looking as battered and shell-shocked as she felt, stared and slowly lowered the gun back to his thigh. Wordlessly, he reached out a hand to help her to her feet. He surprised her by pulling her into a tight hug.
“I thought we agreed to stop doing that thing where we think we’re dead,” He said softly above her head, calm tone of voice incongruous with the rapid beating of his heart.
“I said ‘I’d like that,’ and you said we ‘should,’” Elizabeth replied against him, voice miraculously as even as his. “I admit I didn’t expect us to actually stop.”
There was a moment of awkward silence as he ducked slightly, wrapping her right arm around his shoulders to help her to the makeshift camp near the transporter. Sitting down on the blanket, John broke the silence.
“Well,” He said with a smile and a look at the remains of the blue checked material wrapped around her arm and the frayed end of her trouser leg, “The bandage is interesting.”
With closed eyes and a smile of her own, Elizabeth replied, “First thing to go when we get home.”
"Too right," he laughed, reaching for the first aid pack. "Carson's going to have a fit."
"Not unless you have something more sensible," Elizabeth said, rubbing her arm and wincing at the thought of her chief medical officer's reaction to the rather rubbish field dressing as John gently cleaned the cut.
As John carefully wrapped the white linen bandage around the deep cut, he stole a look at Elizabeth only to realise she wasn’t watching him. Looking at the sky, he watched the pieces of the ship begin to fall into and burn up in the planet’s atmosphere.
“Want to head back home?” John asked, patting her arm and moving away very slightly after finishing her bandage, “We could be back in time for dinner.”
“Not just yet,” Elizabeth said softly, closing her eyes to lean back on the grass as a cool wind brushed through the trees, “But I’d like to have dinner with you.”
John carefully avoided looking at her when she looked at him, both of them eventually giving in to relieved laughter. Elizabeth winced when her injured arm touched the hard ground. Hearing her hiss of pain, John turned around and was surprised to see how close they suddenly were. "Are you okay?" he asked her quietly, eyes intent and hand reaching for her cheek.
"You seem to ask me that a lot," Elizabeth replied quietly. She reached out a hand to his. She had no idea who started the kiss but was sure they both stopped caring. Later on, she would answer him and this time the answer was yes.
X
"Are they done yet?" Rodney asked loudly, to which his only reply was a cuff over the head from Ronon and glare from Teyla.
"Well, it isn't as if we're doing anything useful here." Teyla and Ronon shared a glance and started walking back to the gate. "Hey!" Rodney, shouted after them, running to catch up.
"Don't leave me here with them! I always hated playing fifth wheel in school..." As they walked back to the jumpers, Rodney's constant stream of talking could be heard continuing into the distance.
X
Two Months Later
“You know,” John asked Ronon in a lull in the conversation as they stood on the balcony. “You never told me who thought we’d get together and who didn’t.”
When Ronon looked at him, John clarified, “That bet. The one about me and Elizabeth.”
Ronon laughed and John was a little puzzled. I didn’t think it was that funny.
“Oh man,” Ronon said quietly, shaking his head and grinning. “It was never about if you’d get together - everyone knew that. We were betting on which one of you would do something about it first.”
“Oh,” John answered, unable to come up with anything better. Everyone except us, apparently. Something occurred to him. “Who won?”
“No-one. Teyla still bullied Rodney into learning hand to hand and stick fighting, though,” Ronon said with a grin. “You should watch some time. It’s funny.”
Shaking his head and laughing, John replied, “I wondered where those bruises were coming from.”
As Ronon opened his mouth to reply, the balcony door opened. Clapping a hand on John’s shoulder, Ronon grinned and nodded to Elizabeth as he left. “All done for the day?” John asked as she stood beside him, their shoulders touching.
She smiled and nodded, “Officially, anyway. No doubt there’ll be something urgent for me at some point before tomorrow.”
“There always is,” John replied softly, playfully pushing her shoulder with his. “You’re all sorts of special.”
“You know,” Elizabeth commented, voice lightly teasing as he wrapped his arms around her waist, “If people keep leaving rooms we’re in, it’s going to make me reconsider this whole thing.”
“No, it won’t,” He answered, kissing her cheek.
Turning her head to look at him, she narrowed her eyes. “You’re confident.”
He kissed her quickly, taking her by surprise. Breaking the kiss with a small laugh, Elizabeth smiled and replied, “You’re also right.”
THE END
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Did you really think - after all this - that I'd kill her? And miss the sappy ending? Ha, not a chance.
Kay x