Day 9: Graphic & Fic; 'Alone, Yet Not Alone'
Hey there, my fellow Sparkies! <3 For day NINE, I have a tumblr graphic and little ficlet for you guys! I hope you like them! Everything is under the cut. :D (And it's also cross-posted to my tumblr. :D)
Author: linesfade
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Word Count: 702
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Elizabeth Weir, John Sheppard, Ronon Dex; John/Elizabeth
Summary: Drabble/Ficlet. Elizabeth is home, but it hasn't been the homecoming that anyone had hoped for.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just playing in the sandbox. Don't mind me! :)
~ x ~
Alone, Yet Not Alone
“It’s not my city anymore, John,” she told him softly. She knew the IOA had ordered her room bugged; she could practically feel the radio waves as the devices transmitted back to their dedicated recorders. In truth, she could have shut them down with a mere thought if she had cared about being stealthy, but she had wanted them to see that she wasn’t a threat.
“This will always be your city,” he countered, his brows knitted in frustration. “I’m not the only one who is glad you’re home.”
“Home,” she repeated, measuring the word on her tongue. “I haven’t had a home in a very long time.”
“You’ve always had a home,” he answered, shaking his head as he took her hand, protocols be damned. “Atlantis will always be your home, I don’t care what the IOA, the Air Force, or the US government has to say.”
She gave him a small smile, her chin trembling as her eyes welled up.
“I’ve missed Atlantis,” she confessed in a soft whisper, and laced her fingers with his. “Missed you.”
“You have no idea how much I have missed you,” John told her, his whisper matching hers. “This place finally feels right, again, now that you’re back.”
She smiled gently as he squeezed her hand.
“You’ve done well in my…absence. I could tell that the moment we stepped through the gate,” she told him, trying to avert the course of the conversation.
“I suppose, but it wasn’t the same. Carter was put in place, after you…” he took a shuddering breath, “and now Woolsey. It still doesn’t function quite right, but they’re working on it.”
“Give him a little more credit, John,” she warned him lightly. “Richard Woolsey is probably the best choice the IOA could have sent to Atlantis, at least from our perspective, and believe me-”
“He’s not you, Lisbeth,” John cut in, his eyes boring straight into hers. “He’ll never be you, or be what you were to this city.”
“John,” she admonished lightly. “He’s probably listening.”
“Let him, he knows it’s the truth. Atlantis needs you,” he continued, undaunted. “Everything that we built here ever since the first time we stepped through that gate…everything she stands for, everything she is, Elizabeth, it’s because of you, and I will fight for you to have some sort of place here, until my last breath.”
“John,” she gasped, gripping his hand tighter. “Don’t…please, don’t.”
“I will,” he answered solemnly. “And I am. Don’t you give up; this isn’t over. This will never be over, until there’s a place for you at my side.”
A tear slipped down her cheek as the door chime sounded. She dropped his hand an instant before the door slid open.
“Time’s up,” Ronon told them, poking his head in from the doorway. “The airman’s heading this way.”
“It’s all right, Ronon,” Elizabeth nodded. “Thank you for managing us the extra time.”
“Any time,” he nodded.
“Do you need anything?” John asked her quickly, as he got to his feet.
“A book?” she begged.
“I’ve got just the one,” he answered, giving her a hint of his trademark smirk, and then motioned to Ronon. Ronon tossed him the copy of War and Peace that had come with him from Earth, and Elizabeth laughed, despite herself.
“Really?” she asked, shaking her head in amusement.
“Just…try not to get too far ahead of me. I think I’m still on page five,” he winked. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Deal,” she nodded. “Thank you, John. You don’t know what this means to me.”
“I know what you mean to me, so we’re even. Hang in there, Lisbeth. I’ll be back for you,” he promised, and then exited the room. They held each other’s eyes for the few seconds it took for the doors to slide closed and lock, and then she was alone again…only she suddenly felt a little less so. At least she had a large guest suite on Atlantis, instead of being locked in the infirmary’s quarantine ward, or in one of the cells.
And she had John. Whatever else she might not have had, she knew now that she had him.