(Untitled)

[ranger_alone]

Marcus was sitting under a tree, within view of the compound he had no intention of entering. He had been walking, pondering everything and nothing, when he realised that the island had taken his last real friend when it sent Teyla back to…where ever it was people went when they left. Everyone he had loved, with the exception of Evey, had gone.

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[vendettaevey]

Evey had gone into the compound to do laundry earlier that day. While the machines were running, she'd taken the opportunity to get another book or two from the shelf. It'd been in a mood, though, and had only presented her with books she couldn't read in languages she was quite sure were not from Earth. Finally, when one had appeared in English, she'd snatched it, which was probably exactly what the shelf had wanted her to do in the first place. It was a book about vampires, so it wasn't precisely great literature, but it would do.

She left the compound with the book in the pocked of her sundress and the laundry in its mesh bag and immediately spotted Marcus sitting under a tree, clearly thinking quite hard. She approached him obliquely, always careful not to sneak up on him even now.

"Penny for them?" she asked, looking down at him but not crowding him at all. He'd talk if he wished and if he didn't, she'd take the laundry back.

[ranger_alone]

Marcus looked up with a wide grin. "For you, love, they are free." He stood up and with a kiss on the forehead leant over slightly to relieve her of the clean laundry. "Back to the hut?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

"I was just thinking about Teyla, and all the other people who have disappeared from our lives. Ian, everyone."

[vendettaevey]

She let him take the laundry, of course. She wasn't silly enough to fight that if he wished to carry it. She did take his hand, though, as they walked. If they were to discuss people disappearing she rather liked the comfort of his hand in hers.

"It's unfortunate. I'd hoped I'd be free of sudden and random disappearances once I left London, but apparently not," she agreed quietly.

[ranger_alone]

He squeezed her hand gently. "I never seem to get used to it. I suppose I should be grateful for that but I just can't summon the gratitude."

He paused momentarily to throw the laundry bag over his shoulder, making it easier to carry and maintain the hand-hold with Evey, and they continued along the path.

"We just don't know how long we have here. Or what happens after we leave. What if the island takes one of us? Or both at the same time but we return to our seperate lives?"

[vendettaevey]

She actually liked this mood as long as he actually talked to her about what he was contemplating. He made her think and she hoped she made him think sometimes too.

"If the island takes one of us, I suppose we go on. There isn't much else we can do, is there?" she pointed out, but not cruelly. "If it takes us both to our own worlds, I suppose I'll help V blow up that building."

Or she'd blow it up herself, if V was correct. She still wondered about that, ever since Grigg had told her about the movie.

[ranger_alone]

"There is always a choice," he said, referring to the events which had directly preceeded his arrival on the island "although it seems that the practical thing to do would indeed be to just try to get on with things the best we can."

"Although, if I were to return to the moment I left, I would be dead."

[vendettaevey]

She couldn't stop the shiver at that idea. She knew quite well that Marcus was dead in his own world, but she didn't like thinking about it. She knew he felt the same way about some of her history.

"I agree. We can't dwell on what ifs. It'll drive us mad," she agreed simply.

They were near the path to the waterfall, so she tugged him in that direction. It was away from their hut, but they hadn't been to the waterfall in quite some time, certainly not since the weather had changed back again.

[ranger_alone]

"Something other than home in mind?" He asked, his tone slightly teasing. "I don't think either of us have a swimsuit...although I'm game if you are."

[vendettaevey]

She blushed at his implications, which he had to know she would do.

"No, I just thought the waterfall might be peaceful. I haven't been there since we stopped living in a yurt," she said simply. That had been odd, to live in a yurt. It had been warm and comfortable, though, which was really the important part of any living situation.

[ranger_alone]

He leant over to kiss her blush-warm cheek. "Ah, shame. Although you're right, and just having somewhere peaceful to sit will be lovely."

[vendettaevey]

"I thought so," she agreed simply, waiting patiently for the blush to die down again, which of course it would. They continued walking and she hoped there wouldn't be anyone at the waterfall. Marcus seemed as though he needed peace and quiet.

"Have you eaten?" She'd also got some bread and put it in with the laundry in case he hadn't.

[ranger_alone]

"I-" Marcus frowned. "I don't remember. Which is as good as no."

[vendettaevey]

"Well, then, it's a good thing I got some bread when I did the laundry," she replied, perhaps a little smugly. She'd anticipated that he might forget to eat if he was very engrossed in thought, which he had been ever since Teyla had gone.

"And I might even let you have some," she added teasingly.

[ranger_alone]

"What didI do t deserve you?" he asked. It had started as simply returning her tease, but by the end of the sentence Marcus found he was deadly serious.

[vendettaevey]

Evey still wasn't entirely sure she deserved him and she certainly couldn't tell him what he'd done, if anything, to deserve her, so she decided to treat the statement lightly

"Been a upstanding citizen of the universe, perhaps?" she said simply. "Helped little old ladies across the galaxy? Given your last pound to the poor?"

She knew part of being a Ranger was service, so none of those statements seemed out of the realm of possibility.

[ranger_alone]

"Well, I did do all of those things. It must be that." He replied, just as lightly.