'Dulcet' Chapter 1/1
Title: "Dulcet"
Chapter: 1 of 1.
Rating: PG
Pairing: John/Elizabeth
Genre: Romance/Angst
Summary: "It's the sounds, she notices, that make a place alien."
Author's Note: I will have you guys note, this was never intended to be shippy. It just kind of ran that way after it decided I was a bitch for not letting it be shippy. So it's done it's own thing and I'm completely responsible, lol. Enjoy regardless, I'm sure you will.
Disclaimer: All Stargate Atlantis characters and/or locations are the property of MGM. No copyright inringement is intended nor is profit gained from the distribution of this story.
It's the sounds, she notices, that make a place alien.
Back on Earth, sitting by the bay window of her Georgetown terrace, with a battered volume of Dickens rested open and unfinished in her lap, she could remember hearing the sounds of the world outside, passing by in blissful unawareness. The sounds of sirens echoed in the distance; police, fire department, ambulance, she was never sure which was which. Birds, car engines and the patter of footsteps on pavement were louder in between, closer to the house.
Sitting outside in her peaceful little courtyard, surrounded by hedges and the view of the boats moared in the Marina, she'd graded her Poli-sci class's papers in the afternoon sun, listening to the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees and the harping of the seagulls being shooed away from the picnic's being enjoyed in the waterfront park.
All of these sounds meant Sunday's, families, people going about their lives. The gentle laughter of children playing on the far-off jungle-gym was an everyday occurance and the gentle smile that came to her lips as she listened to them, was an unconcious, though yearning, reaction.
They're the sounds you take for granted. The sound of raindrops on the window-panes and the three-horn dispute of vehicles passing in the street. They're sounds easily ignored; sounds that honed her ability to relax, to close off; to not be afraid of every, single, ambient noise.
The rumble of the old copper-pipes in her terrace had frightened her for the first few months she'd lived there. Until her mother had stayed over and laughed at her when she pointed out exactly what the noise was. The cracking of the wooden door-frames expanding when the warmer months defrosted the chill in the house, had once made her shoulders twitch every time. Until she was the one convincing her brother she didn't have ghosts.
It was different on Atlantis. From the moment she'd arrived, she could feel it. From the moment they'd stepped through, it'd been a whirlwind of shouts and orders and sighs of wonder at the treasures discovered. The pounding of Military standard issue boots repeating on ten-thousand year old ancient flooring that was neither tiled, nor linoleum, but solid and practically unmarked. The constant clicking and rattling of P-90's being pointed at unknown threats, the deep-breathing of their collective anticipation and the rustling of backpacks being dropped and dragged and crates, being pushed out of the way to make room for the rest of the expedition to come through.
With the constant beeping of computers and the panicked ramblings of scientists that didn't quite know how to save the city from being crushed by the weight of the ocean, the blaring sirens of the incoming wormhole and Sheppard's shouting as he ran towards her; she could never have concieved of it being quiet at all. But then the city had rumbled to the surface and rumbled to life with the bone-rattling shake of ten-thousand years of idle steel clawing to the ocean floor and warm sunlight had beemed brilliantly through the stained-glass windows, coating their faces in a golden glow.
The cascading waters had slowly subsided and the ripple across the ocean surface could be seen for miles until darkness descended and the hoots and hollers of victory, hope and anxious excitement had filled the halls. The sound of Sheppard's jacket rustling against the fabric of her own suit as he stood beside her and the gentle sips of Champagne, replaced the panic of earlier.
And though all that time she'd felt there was a difference between Atlantis and Earth, it hadn't been clear to her, until night descended and the expedition began to disperse, finding their way to the rooms they'd chosen in the section of the tower Rodney had deemed safe enough and large enough for them all to inhabit.
Walking along the corridor, dragging her bag from the room she'd claimed as her office, she'd found her way to the door Rodney had set aside for her with a post-it note that read - "Dr Weir's Quarters" - in his near illegible scrawl. It was nearest to the tower stairways, though far enough away that she wouldn't be disturbed by the constant comings and goings, at all hours.
It was then, as the thud of her bag hitting the floor in the centre of the modest room, reverberated off the walls, that she noticed the difference.
Atlantis was silent.
She could hear no cars or far off sirens. There were no street lights streaming in her window, no haunting sound of an owl, hooting in the night or the flapping of bats wings in flight. There was no rustling of leaves against her window as the wind buffeted outside and from this high up, she couldn't even hear the sound of the waves, lapping at the city piers.
She sat on the edge of her bed long after she'd showered and changed. The sound of the running water had been a relief, in the almost crushing silence. But when she'd shut the water off, the efficiency of Atlantis had not allowed a single drip to trickle through. She was warm and comfortable and the lights in her room were dim enough to make her sleepy, but it wasn't working. She knew from the day they'd had, that she should have been tired. But without the steady sounds of the world passing by outside her window, she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to sleep.
And in that silence that seemed to stretch farther than her imagination, the clear ringing of her door-chime caused her to nearly jump clear out of her skin. Nervously, she patted herself down, checked her hair quickly to see that the untamed curls were in slightly less disarray than usual. Her first shower on Atlantis and she'd realised, only belatedly, that she hadn't brought a straightener. She shrugged, resigned to be unable to change that fact, and headed for the door. She stopped mid-way, to grab a black hoodie and quickly slipped it on over her tank-top, zipping it up just as she let the door open. She was surprised to see who it was standing before her.
"Hi, Doctor Weir, I hope I'm not disturbing you." He shuffled anxiously and she was loathe to admit that the sound of his voice and the rustling of his clothes as he shifted, was a welcome relief.
"No," She admonished, half-reaching for him in sincerity before pulling her hand back, remembering herself. "no it's fine. I actually," She chuckled slightly. "couldn't sleep, myself."
He furrowed his brow, as though dilvulging a well-kept secret. "It's really quiet here, isn't it?"
She released a shuddering breath on the wings of a gentle laugh. "Yes, it really is." He laughed with her then, both realising in that moment that they'd each thought they were alone in their observation. Happy to know they could share it with someone.
"Would you," He licked his lip nervously, switching from foot to foot as he glanced down the hall. "would you like to take a walk, with me?"
Elizabeth smirked, knowing that she was blushing and knowing that on her freshly cleaned
face, it couldn't be hidden by her make-up. For some reason though, feeling so suddenly like a school-girl, she wasn't so bothered by it especially when he was studying her hair so closely, like that. "I would like that, thank you...John." She breathed, testing out his given name on her lips.
She'd discovered earlier in the day, that she wasn't going to be able to refer to every person under her command, by their rank or surnames, not knowing how long they were going to be stuck out in the middle of a foreign galaxy, with no way home and no one but each other. She wanted it to be more personal than that. They were all each other had, now. She needed it to be more personal than that.
She'd said his name earlier in the day, but somehow trying it out now felt more like she was laying the groundwork for the future; it was the middle of the night and they were alone. It didn't feel the same as when they were out on the balcony, with everyone they had, just inside the doors. She was setting the positions in which they stood and she was asking him, in her own way, irrespective of his military training, to be not her employee, but her friend. She was asking him to ignore that she was now the leader of an entire planet, and believe that she was but simply a woman who was just as alone as the rest of them and just as new to this, as the rest of them. It was the first step to the belief that she wasn't infallible. But she hoped that perhaps he already knew she'd do her best to try and be.
John smiled awkwardly and took a step back, gesturing for her to head out ahead of him. She dipped her head, letting her door close behind her as she slowly padded out into the hall, ignoring that she was still wearing only her socks. Though, when she glanced toward her feet to see John's come up beside her, she smiled to herself to see his bare toes.
"It's strange isn't it?" He spoke gently, quietly, as though disturbing the silence was almost a sacrilege.
"You mean, the quiet?" She crossed her arms over her chest, nodding as she licked her lip.
"Yeah, there aren't even any strange little noises that make you think you might run into a ghost. It's just, absolutely nothing."
"I know, it's very peculiar. Though, not as unsettling as you'd think."
"Yeah," He agreed. "hey, lets go somewhere it's not so quiet?"
Elizabeth frowned, looking up at him and realising their height difference for the very first time. "Like where?"
He smirked, reaching across the divide between them, to take her hand. Elizabeth shivered at the contact, feeling her throat tighten and an image of Simon, dance across her eyes. But she didn't let go, couldn't, because the way he smiled before moving swiftly down the hall, warmed her heart and she knew the gesture was anything but romantic. There was something else there, something that caused this military man to reach over the divide; but it wasn't romantic, at least not yet and she wasn't sure, with Simon back home, that she was ready to admit that it had the potential to be.
They made their way through halls where the only sound was the water trickling through the pillars, but even those were only in certain parts of the city and only when closer down towards the level of the ocean. And she could feel, by the way he gripped her hand, that this was just for them. A single moment in time. A ripple in the ocean, not to be shared.
When they stepped out of a transporter, gathering their bearings, the pair of them nearly jumped when a door ahead of them opened of it's own accord.
"Did you do that?" Elizabeth questioned, knowing that because she didn't have the gene, it wasn't likely to have been her.
"I think so," He breathed. "I was thinking of the ocean and it just, happened."
At precisely the same time, they both took a step back in wonder at what stood before them. The doors had opened out onto a wide expanse of open ocean. There was a deck that reached far out ahead of them and stars scattered across an unending sky.
"It's beautiful," Elizabeth breathed, unaware of John's eyes on her.
"Yeah," He whispered, yet to see the stars. "it is."
"Come on," She was the one pulling now, dragging him out onto the deck where she could hear the waves crashing against the edge of the motionless city. The water swelled and dipped in different directions, the rips catching on the corners of the deck. A breeze rippled across her skin and she was all of a sudden grateful for the jacket she'd pulled on before leaving her quarters. She could hear the breeze whistling in the grooves that shaped the city, smiling at the overwhelming relief that there was sound beyond the great walls.
"You're different," John whispered as he sat beside her on the very end of the deck. The water was too far below for their feet to touch, but they dangled them anyway and she imagined they were sitting at the end of a rustic wooden pier with the sound of birds in the trees and the smell of Cherry Blossom on the wind.
She turned to him, brushing her hair back behind her ear as short, untamable curls whipped her in the face. "Oh?"
He laughed gently, turning his eyes back out to the skyline and she watched his chest rise and fall as he breathed in the salted air. "Yeah, I mean, when I met you you were so amazed by all this crazy technology I'd never heard of, talking about aliens and space-travel and I thought all of you guys were a little weird."
She laughed. "Excuse me?"
"Well, not so much weird," John paused, turning to her as his lips pressed to a thin line. "Okay, so, mostly Rodney. But you know all about this stuff and I'm still a bit amazed that it's all not one giant hoax."
Elizabeth took a deep breath, studying him for a moment as she did her best to hold her hair back. And it didn't go unnoticed by her, that every time she touched her hair, he seemed to be momentarily fascinated.
"John," She studied him for a moment, still testing his reaction to the use of his name. But it seemed to relax him the more she used it. His shoulders eased and he rested his hands in his lap. "I don't know much more about all this than you do and I certainly don't know everything. And even if I did, I doubt I'd be any less terrified that we're out here, blindly groping in the dark."
"You think that's really what we're doing?"
"Yeah," She smiled softly. "but it's not a bad thing. We're like the first explorers, perilously travelling across unchartered territory. It's never going to be safe. But we have to make the most of it. For humanity's sake."
John laughed and Elizabeth smiled at how the stars sparkled in his eyes. Before he turned back to her, his smile no less bright. "Do you always think on such an epic scale?"
Elizabeth blushed, looking away and nervously twisted her hands in her lap, pulling at the sleaves of her sweater. "What we're out here doing, it's so much greater than we'll ever be." She turned back to him, ignoring her own blush. "don't you think that deserves some respect?"
He licked his lips, nodding. "Oh yes," She stiffened slightly, watching as he studied her eyes. Wondering what on Earth he could be seeing. She'd never been this close to a soldier before. She'd never had this much honest conversation with one that didn't consist of a little bit of yelling thrown against mutual levels of contempt. But this was so very different to all that. John was so different. He smiled, the moons casting a glow across his face and at the point she thought she'd have become uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she was surprised with how much she liked it, how much she revelled in his silent appraisal of her. "but what's your favourite flavour of ice-cream?"
Elizabeth giggled. And honest-to-god, giggle and she quickly raised her hand to her mouth, immediately mortified. Though when she saw the cheeky grin on his face, she dropped her hand and grinned broadly. "Peppermint choc chip." It was so sudden and so perfectly clear, the moment she felt like she could be this leader they were all looking at, this strong woman she wasn't even sure she'd met yet. But she could be a woman too, even if it were only when the night was silent and the only sounds she could hear, were all coming from John.
He nodded, as if it were the most important response in the universe. "Nice. If you'd have said Moose-tracks, I'd have lost respect for you. But Peppermint is the perfect mix of fun and serious."
"Is that so?"
He nodded. "It's a documented study."
"Really?" She smirked as he nodded, before looking back out to the sea.
The wind picked up again and she breathed the air in deeply, savouring the sound of the waves crashing beneath them. She could hear John's pajama bottoms rustling against the deck as he shuffled closer. She could feel the warmth of his leg, pressed to the side of her thigh and she smiled, turning back to him. His eyes weren't set on her face though and she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks as she watched his hand come up towards her. The feel of his fingers in her hair and the sound of his breath so close, made her heart quicken and as he tucked a loose curl behind her ear, she'd have sworn that it'd stopped.
"I like it like this." He stated simply and she frowned.
"The sound of the ocean, instead of silence?"
"Your hair." He grinned, meeting her eyes again. He was blushing too, she noticed. All across his cheeks and down his neck. But he seemed to know how to tame it, better than she did. But then he suddenly cleared his throat and dropped his hand to his lap, looking away. "But, if the silence gets too much again, I'm happy to come out here and chat with you, if you want?"
Elizabeth was momentarily frozen and not even the blissful sound of the waves and the breeze, could break through to her. She thought of Simon and lazy sundays, walking hand-in-hand through the Farmer's Market. But then, looking up at John, she thought of the Stargate and adventures, bare-feet and walking hand-in-hand through Atlantis in the middle of the night. She thought about silence and sirens and never going home.
She studied him silently, watching the way he twitched and stared out to sea. She traced a line with her eyes, down from his clenched jaw, across his defined shoulders and down his arms, into his hands that were clasped together in his lap. She reached across, then. She pushed Simon to the back of her mind and she thought of here and now. She thought of how she'd never thought she'd ever be going home and how she'd been okay with that since the very beginning. She felt for Simon and probably always would. But they'd been drifting apart for so long, that it only seemed natural to let him go. She knew him well enough to know that while it'd broken his heart, to say goodbye, there was a part of him that was glad of the release.
Gently, she took his hand into hers, tentatively creeping her fingers into his as he slowly turned to her. He stared at her for a moment, and the sounds around her narrowed to nothing but their hearts and breath. "Thank you." She breathed and he gripped her hand tighter.
"You're welcome." He breathed and while their words were few, their meanings were bountiful. And she knew, in that moment, that silence was their domain. It's where she felt safe, lost in silence with him and seeking out the sounds of this new world, together.
The End.
Chapter: 1 of 1.
Rating: PG
Pairing: John/Elizabeth
Genre: Romance/Angst
Summary: "It's the sounds, she notices, that make a place alien."
Author's Note: I will have you guys note, this was never intended to be shippy. It just kind of ran that way after it decided I was a bitch for not letting it be shippy. So it's done it's own thing and I'm completely responsible, lol. Enjoy regardless, I'm sure you will.
Disclaimer: All Stargate Atlantis characters and/or locations are the property of MGM. No copyright inringement is intended nor is profit gained from the distribution of this story.
It's the sounds, she notices, that make a place alien.
Back on Earth, sitting by the bay window of her Georgetown terrace, with a battered volume of Dickens rested open and unfinished in her lap, she could remember hearing the sounds of the world outside, passing by in blissful unawareness. The sounds of sirens echoed in the distance; police, fire department, ambulance, she was never sure which was which. Birds, car engines and the patter of footsteps on pavement were louder in between, closer to the house.
Sitting outside in her peaceful little courtyard, surrounded by hedges and the view of the boats moared in the Marina, she'd graded her Poli-sci class's papers in the afternoon sun, listening to the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees and the harping of the seagulls being shooed away from the picnic's being enjoyed in the waterfront park.
All of these sounds meant Sunday's, families, people going about their lives. The gentle laughter of children playing on the far-off jungle-gym was an everyday occurance and the gentle smile that came to her lips as she listened to them, was an unconcious, though yearning, reaction.
They're the sounds you take for granted. The sound of raindrops on the window-panes and the three-horn dispute of vehicles passing in the street. They're sounds easily ignored; sounds that honed her ability to relax, to close off; to not be afraid of every, single, ambient noise.
The rumble of the old copper-pipes in her terrace had frightened her for the first few months she'd lived there. Until her mother had stayed over and laughed at her when she pointed out exactly what the noise was. The cracking of the wooden door-frames expanding when the warmer months defrosted the chill in the house, had once made her shoulders twitch every time. Until she was the one convincing her brother she didn't have ghosts.
It was different on Atlantis. From the moment she'd arrived, she could feel it. From the moment they'd stepped through, it'd been a whirlwind of shouts and orders and sighs of wonder at the treasures discovered. The pounding of Military standard issue boots repeating on ten-thousand year old ancient flooring that was neither tiled, nor linoleum, but solid and practically unmarked. The constant clicking and rattling of P-90's being pointed at unknown threats, the deep-breathing of their collective anticipation and the rustling of backpacks being dropped and dragged and crates, being pushed out of the way to make room for the rest of the expedition to come through.
With the constant beeping of computers and the panicked ramblings of scientists that didn't quite know how to save the city from being crushed by the weight of the ocean, the blaring sirens of the incoming wormhole and Sheppard's shouting as he ran towards her; she could never have concieved of it being quiet at all. But then the city had rumbled to the surface and rumbled to life with the bone-rattling shake of ten-thousand years of idle steel clawing to the ocean floor and warm sunlight had beemed brilliantly through the stained-glass windows, coating their faces in a golden glow.
The cascading waters had slowly subsided and the ripple across the ocean surface could be seen for miles until darkness descended and the hoots and hollers of victory, hope and anxious excitement had filled the halls. The sound of Sheppard's jacket rustling against the fabric of her own suit as he stood beside her and the gentle sips of Champagne, replaced the panic of earlier.
And though all that time she'd felt there was a difference between Atlantis and Earth, it hadn't been clear to her, until night descended and the expedition began to disperse, finding their way to the rooms they'd chosen in the section of the tower Rodney had deemed safe enough and large enough for them all to inhabit.
Walking along the corridor, dragging her bag from the room she'd claimed as her office, she'd found her way to the door Rodney had set aside for her with a post-it note that read - "Dr Weir's Quarters" - in his near illegible scrawl. It was nearest to the tower stairways, though far enough away that she wouldn't be disturbed by the constant comings and goings, at all hours.
It was then, as the thud of her bag hitting the floor in the centre of the modest room, reverberated off the walls, that she noticed the difference.
Atlantis was silent.
She could hear no cars or far off sirens. There were no street lights streaming in her window, no haunting sound of an owl, hooting in the night or the flapping of bats wings in flight. There was no rustling of leaves against her window as the wind buffeted outside and from this high up, she couldn't even hear the sound of the waves, lapping at the city piers.
She sat on the edge of her bed long after she'd showered and changed. The sound of the running water had been a relief, in the almost crushing silence. But when she'd shut the water off, the efficiency of Atlantis had not allowed a single drip to trickle through. She was warm and comfortable and the lights in her room were dim enough to make her sleepy, but it wasn't working. She knew from the day they'd had, that she should have been tired. But without the steady sounds of the world passing by outside her window, she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to sleep.
And in that silence that seemed to stretch farther than her imagination, the clear ringing of her door-chime caused her to nearly jump clear out of her skin. Nervously, she patted herself down, checked her hair quickly to see that the untamed curls were in slightly less disarray than usual. Her first shower on Atlantis and she'd realised, only belatedly, that she hadn't brought a straightener. She shrugged, resigned to be unable to change that fact, and headed for the door. She stopped mid-way, to grab a black hoodie and quickly slipped it on over her tank-top, zipping it up just as she let the door open. She was surprised to see who it was standing before her.
"Hi, Doctor Weir, I hope I'm not disturbing you." He shuffled anxiously and she was loathe to admit that the sound of his voice and the rustling of his clothes as he shifted, was a welcome relief.
"No," She admonished, half-reaching for him in sincerity before pulling her hand back, remembering herself. "no it's fine. I actually," She chuckled slightly. "couldn't sleep, myself."
He furrowed his brow, as though dilvulging a well-kept secret. "It's really quiet here, isn't it?"
She released a shuddering breath on the wings of a gentle laugh. "Yes, it really is." He laughed with her then, both realising in that moment that they'd each thought they were alone in their observation. Happy to know they could share it with someone.
"Would you," He licked his lip nervously, switching from foot to foot as he glanced down the hall. "would you like to take a walk, with me?"
Elizabeth smirked, knowing that she was blushing and knowing that on her freshly cleaned
face, it couldn't be hidden by her make-up. For some reason though, feeling so suddenly like a school-girl, she wasn't so bothered by it especially when he was studying her hair so closely, like that. "I would like that, thank you...John." She breathed, testing out his given name on her lips.
She'd discovered earlier in the day, that she wasn't going to be able to refer to every person under her command, by their rank or surnames, not knowing how long they were going to be stuck out in the middle of a foreign galaxy, with no way home and no one but each other. She wanted it to be more personal than that. They were all each other had, now. She needed it to be more personal than that.
She'd said his name earlier in the day, but somehow trying it out now felt more like she was laying the groundwork for the future; it was the middle of the night and they were alone. It didn't feel the same as when they were out on the balcony, with everyone they had, just inside the doors. She was setting the positions in which they stood and she was asking him, in her own way, irrespective of his military training, to be not her employee, but her friend. She was asking him to ignore that she was now the leader of an entire planet, and believe that she was but simply a woman who was just as alone as the rest of them and just as new to this, as the rest of them. It was the first step to the belief that she wasn't infallible. But she hoped that perhaps he already knew she'd do her best to try and be.
John smiled awkwardly and took a step back, gesturing for her to head out ahead of him. She dipped her head, letting her door close behind her as she slowly padded out into the hall, ignoring that she was still wearing only her socks. Though, when she glanced toward her feet to see John's come up beside her, she smiled to herself to see his bare toes.
"It's strange isn't it?" He spoke gently, quietly, as though disturbing the silence was almost a sacrilege.
"You mean, the quiet?" She crossed her arms over her chest, nodding as she licked her lip.
"Yeah, there aren't even any strange little noises that make you think you might run into a ghost. It's just, absolutely nothing."
"I know, it's very peculiar. Though, not as unsettling as you'd think."
"Yeah," He agreed. "hey, lets go somewhere it's not so quiet?"
Elizabeth frowned, looking up at him and realising their height difference for the very first time. "Like where?"
He smirked, reaching across the divide between them, to take her hand. Elizabeth shivered at the contact, feeling her throat tighten and an image of Simon, dance across her eyes. But she didn't let go, couldn't, because the way he smiled before moving swiftly down the hall, warmed her heart and she knew the gesture was anything but romantic. There was something else there, something that caused this military man to reach over the divide; but it wasn't romantic, at least not yet and she wasn't sure, with Simon back home, that she was ready to admit that it had the potential to be.
They made their way through halls where the only sound was the water trickling through the pillars, but even those were only in certain parts of the city and only when closer down towards the level of the ocean. And she could feel, by the way he gripped her hand, that this was just for them. A single moment in time. A ripple in the ocean, not to be shared.
When they stepped out of a transporter, gathering their bearings, the pair of them nearly jumped when a door ahead of them opened of it's own accord.
"Did you do that?" Elizabeth questioned, knowing that because she didn't have the gene, it wasn't likely to have been her.
"I think so," He breathed. "I was thinking of the ocean and it just, happened."
At precisely the same time, they both took a step back in wonder at what stood before them. The doors had opened out onto a wide expanse of open ocean. There was a deck that reached far out ahead of them and stars scattered across an unending sky.
"It's beautiful," Elizabeth breathed, unaware of John's eyes on her.
"Yeah," He whispered, yet to see the stars. "it is."
"Come on," She was the one pulling now, dragging him out onto the deck where she could hear the waves crashing against the edge of the motionless city. The water swelled and dipped in different directions, the rips catching on the corners of the deck. A breeze rippled across her skin and she was all of a sudden grateful for the jacket she'd pulled on before leaving her quarters. She could hear the breeze whistling in the grooves that shaped the city, smiling at the overwhelming relief that there was sound beyond the great walls.
"You're different," John whispered as he sat beside her on the very end of the deck. The water was too far below for their feet to touch, but they dangled them anyway and she imagined they were sitting at the end of a rustic wooden pier with the sound of birds in the trees and the smell of Cherry Blossom on the wind.
She turned to him, brushing her hair back behind her ear as short, untamable curls whipped her in the face. "Oh?"
He laughed gently, turning his eyes back out to the skyline and she watched his chest rise and fall as he breathed in the salted air. "Yeah, I mean, when I met you you were so amazed by all this crazy technology I'd never heard of, talking about aliens and space-travel and I thought all of you guys were a little weird."
She laughed. "Excuse me?"
"Well, not so much weird," John paused, turning to her as his lips pressed to a thin line. "Okay, so, mostly Rodney. But you know all about this stuff and I'm still a bit amazed that it's all not one giant hoax."
Elizabeth took a deep breath, studying him for a moment as she did her best to hold her hair back. And it didn't go unnoticed by her, that every time she touched her hair, he seemed to be momentarily fascinated.
"John," She studied him for a moment, still testing his reaction to the use of his name. But it seemed to relax him the more she used it. His shoulders eased and he rested his hands in his lap. "I don't know much more about all this than you do and I certainly don't know everything. And even if I did, I doubt I'd be any less terrified that we're out here, blindly groping in the dark."
"You think that's really what we're doing?"
"Yeah," She smiled softly. "but it's not a bad thing. We're like the first explorers, perilously travelling across unchartered territory. It's never going to be safe. But we have to make the most of it. For humanity's sake."
John laughed and Elizabeth smiled at how the stars sparkled in his eyes. Before he turned back to her, his smile no less bright. "Do you always think on such an epic scale?"
Elizabeth blushed, looking away and nervously twisted her hands in her lap, pulling at the sleaves of her sweater. "What we're out here doing, it's so much greater than we'll ever be." She turned back to him, ignoring her own blush. "don't you think that deserves some respect?"
He licked his lips, nodding. "Oh yes," She stiffened slightly, watching as he studied her eyes. Wondering what on Earth he could be seeing. She'd never been this close to a soldier before. She'd never had this much honest conversation with one that didn't consist of a little bit of yelling thrown against mutual levels of contempt. But this was so very different to all that. John was so different. He smiled, the moons casting a glow across his face and at the point she thought she'd have become uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she was surprised with how much she liked it, how much she revelled in his silent appraisal of her. "but what's your favourite flavour of ice-cream?"
Elizabeth giggled. And honest-to-god, giggle and she quickly raised her hand to her mouth, immediately mortified. Though when she saw the cheeky grin on his face, she dropped her hand and grinned broadly. "Peppermint choc chip." It was so sudden and so perfectly clear, the moment she felt like she could be this leader they were all looking at, this strong woman she wasn't even sure she'd met yet. But she could be a woman too, even if it were only when the night was silent and the only sounds she could hear, were all coming from John.
He nodded, as if it were the most important response in the universe. "Nice. If you'd have said Moose-tracks, I'd have lost respect for you. But Peppermint is the perfect mix of fun and serious."
"Is that so?"
He nodded. "It's a documented study."
"Really?" She smirked as he nodded, before looking back out to the sea.
The wind picked up again and she breathed the air in deeply, savouring the sound of the waves crashing beneath them. She could hear John's pajama bottoms rustling against the deck as he shuffled closer. She could feel the warmth of his leg, pressed to the side of her thigh and she smiled, turning back to him. His eyes weren't set on her face though and she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks as she watched his hand come up towards her. The feel of his fingers in her hair and the sound of his breath so close, made her heart quicken and as he tucked a loose curl behind her ear, she'd have sworn that it'd stopped.
"I like it like this." He stated simply and she frowned.
"The sound of the ocean, instead of silence?"
"Your hair." He grinned, meeting her eyes again. He was blushing too, she noticed. All across his cheeks and down his neck. But he seemed to know how to tame it, better than she did. But then he suddenly cleared his throat and dropped his hand to his lap, looking away. "But, if the silence gets too much again, I'm happy to come out here and chat with you, if you want?"
Elizabeth was momentarily frozen and not even the blissful sound of the waves and the breeze, could break through to her. She thought of Simon and lazy sundays, walking hand-in-hand through the Farmer's Market. But then, looking up at John, she thought of the Stargate and adventures, bare-feet and walking hand-in-hand through Atlantis in the middle of the night. She thought about silence and sirens and never going home.
She studied him silently, watching the way he twitched and stared out to sea. She traced a line with her eyes, down from his clenched jaw, across his defined shoulders and down his arms, into his hands that were clasped together in his lap. She reached across, then. She pushed Simon to the back of her mind and she thought of here and now. She thought of how she'd never thought she'd ever be going home and how she'd been okay with that since the very beginning. She felt for Simon and probably always would. But they'd been drifting apart for so long, that it only seemed natural to let him go. She knew him well enough to know that while it'd broken his heart, to say goodbye, there was a part of him that was glad of the release.
Gently, she took his hand into hers, tentatively creeping her fingers into his as he slowly turned to her. He stared at her for a moment, and the sounds around her narrowed to nothing but their hearts and breath. "Thank you." She breathed and he gripped her hand tighter.
"You're welcome." He breathed and while their words were few, their meanings were bountiful. And she knew, in that moment, that silence was their domain. It's where she felt safe, lost in silence with him and seeking out the sounds of this new world, together.
The End.