[SGA] City of Your Dreams- Chapters 17 & 18
City of Your Dreams- Chapters 17 & 18
Stargate Atlantis. John/Elizabeth. PG-13. Spoilers for the latter half of season 3. 2,390 words.
“You really should get some real food,” John’s trailing behind her as she carefully peels a banana on their way to Kate’s office.
“If we don’t land this damn city pretty soon I’m going to spend the next several days puking my guts out. Real food can wait.”
“Did you try telling Lana that?”
Sharply. “Yes,” Elizabeth turns to frown at him, “she’s sympathetic but insistent. We’re not going anywhere until I send you floating out into space.”
John backs off looking sheepish. He still wasn’t used to the sudden changes of mood Elizabeth’s pregnancy seemed to be drawing out of her. “Maybe if you locked me up?”
“So Rodney could let you out. I don’t think so.” Elizabeth cracks a bit of a smile, “that would make a good story though.”
John chances a laugh as he reaches to ring the bell outside of Kate’s office.
The door slides open and Kate gestures for them to come in. “I hope you don’t mind I’m still eating.” She puts her sandwich down next to the bowl of soup on the tray laid out before her.
John shrugs and Elizabeth shakes her head. “I guess I’m a little overeager to get started,” she says.
“That’s understandable,” Kate smiles as she watches Elizabeth slide into her usual seat. “Perhaps the couch would work better this time.”
“Right,” Elizabeth agrees although she hesitates before getting up, the couch isn’t quite wide enough for her liking she realizes as it leaves her sitting inches from John. Elizabeth squirms, uncomfortable, only stopping when John leans over to place a hand on her arm.
“Tell Lana to get lost for a bit,” John suggest quietly and Elizabeth wonders how he’d known it’d been Lana’s voice, not her own, nagging at her in the back of her mind.
Kate slides into the chair across from them and John pulls away, leaving the air between them empty and cold.
“Lana’s becoming quite the nag.” Kate comments.
Elizabeth shrugs, “she’s trying to protect me and I’m not making it easy on her. That’s not exactly behavior that begets understanding.”
“You said before she’s been unhappy with John, how do you feel about that?”
“It’s understandable to an extent I suppose, not that I agree with her actions,” Elizabeth amends rapidly.
“I think she’s always been a bit off her rocker,” John chimes in making Elizabeth smile.
“Elizabeth you said you don’t understand her anger, yet you’ve got every right to be just as angry, if not more so.”
Elizabeth frowns, “I don’t think so. John was acting out of good faith. I couldn’t necessarily see it at the time-“ she trails off.
“Is it possible that Lana’s responding to your emotions, all of them?”
“Are you suggesting that on some level I’m asking her to do this?”
“Not at all.” Kate says gently, “I’m just wondering if Lana’s acting out in this way because you refuse to. Maybe she’s feeling you’re acting unreasonably. Perhaps she wants you to be more cautious in your relationship at least until you figure this out. There’s been a lot of turmoil between the two of you recently.”
“I trust him.”
“Do you?” Kate asks. “Don’t look at him.” Kate amends when Elizabeth starts to glance in John’s direction.
“Of course I do.”
Kate doesn’t look convinced.
“I trust him.” Elizabeth tries again.
“How about you John?” Kate asks turning to watch him as he scoffs the floor with the toe of his boot.
John swallows, “I trust her.”
“And the other morning?”
“I honestly didn’t think it was her. I know it seems impossible-“
Something flickers across Kate’s face that Elizabeth recognizes as the ‘ why can’t you see what I see?’ look and Elizabeth sighs. “Ok so maybe I am confused, and a little pissed off, and a little confused,” she admits, “but I don’t see what this has to do with Lana.”
“Can you think of a time when she reacted to your emotions regardless of their rationality?”
“After I came back from New Athos,” Elizabeth starts slowly, “I didn’t realize until after but Lana had me flushing my sleeping pills down the toilet. I know- I knew it wasn’t rational, but I was worried that they’d hurt the baby.”
“How much of leap then would it be to assume that perhaps she could be viewing John as a threat, or at least a possibly safety risk even if you believe he’s not going to send you back?”
Elizabeth stares at Kate for a moment trying to decide if she’s serious.
“It’s no secret you two have been at odds since this whole thing started.”
“I don’t-“
Kate raises an eyebrow and Elizabeth shoots a pleading look in John’s direction. When he doesn’t respond she replies quietly, “It’s possible.”
“Even if that’s true there’s not much we can do about it. You can’t convince a 10,000 year old computer program change it’s mind because you want it to.”
“No and I wouldn’t expect you to, but you can start trying to make a go of it. Nobody’s saying you’ve got to move in together, but John whatever’s making you want to run in the opposite direction don’t let it run the way you think. Try and be there for E and the baby, go to Elizabeth’s doctor’s appointments, help decorate the nursery. And Elizabeth let John help out, stop resisting, stop assuming you have to do everything by yourself, alone. Let Teyla take back over command for now, on a temporary basis and get some rest. Show Lana you’re not acting rashly, show her you’re trying to protect the baby too. Eventually you can contact the SGC let them know what’s going on and have them send a temp replacement. Someone to take over part time until the baby comes and then while you’re on maternity leave.”
Elizabeth looks slightly terrified as she tries to take in what Kate’s saying. “And if that doesn’t work?”
“Have Rodney write a program that won’t let you through the gate or one that won’t let anyone beam you out I don’t know, but you’ve got to try something.”
“So we’re good?” John asks watching Kate with wide eyes.
“No I want to see the both you back here in a couple of days at most.”
John’s “Seriously?” echoes Elizabeth’s more exasperated, “Kate.”
“I’m serious,” she says although she knows neither needs the assurance. “I’m expecting you back here regardless of current situation. I don’t care if the city’s fifteen minutes away from flying into the closest sun if you’re not here by this time on Friday we’re going to have a problem.”
*****
*****
Elizabeth honestly didn’t know what she’d expected to happen when the whole thing had blown over, but she knew she hadn’t expected it to be this peaceful. With the city constantly on watch for sources of danger the city’s personnel seemed to relax, falling into a normal routine once they were allowed back into most of the rest of the city. Although the rolling blackouts were driving Rodney nuts as the power seemed to go out every time he tried to mess with power distribution to the gate.
They knew where they were now, for this Elizabeth was glad, although it wasn’t much help, it’s not like Lana would’ve let anyone near the DHD, or the gate for that matter.
John seemed to have let up on the constant apologizing, which was nice although the fact that he suddenly seemed to be hanging around all the time was silently wearing on her nerves. He had work to do, work she couldn’t do now that Carson had insisted she only work half days, but John still spent the majority of his day following along behind her like a stray dog. Puppy dog eyes and all.
“John, you’ve got to get a life.” She tries another strategy to reach him but he seems content to follow his current path trailing along behind her.
“I don’t like that you keep coming out here by yourself,” he insists again, “it’s not safe.”
“The nanites are almost done repairing the damaged circuitry, you’d know as soon as I would that something was going wrong. You could have someone out here in a matter of minutes now that we’ve discovered where the transporter is.”
“A few minutes is too long, what if something-“
“Nothing truly horrible’s going to happen. There’s no one or anything in this city that can hurt me. Lana wouldn’t allow it.”
“What about the baby?”
“The baby’s fine that’s what all my pesky nanites are for remember. Lana told us-“
“Actually McKay found the research.” John interrupts before allowing her to continue.
“The nanites are programmed to stick around and protect the baby until she’s born at which time they’ll leave my body along with everything else and shut down when they meet the air.”
“They’ll be gone for good.” John can’t help but be reassured by the fact.
“I’ll be 100% nanite free.” She joins in with his smile, “at least that’ll be nice.”
“Watch your step,” John suddenly grabs her arm and she frowns at him.
“I saw that.”
“You were going to trip.”
“No, no I wasn’t,” she insists before she remembers he’s not listening to her reasoning and lets it drop.
“I don’t like you being out here alone,” he starts again even as she rolls her eyes and she sighs.
“Nothing’s going to happen John. The nanites have almost completed...”
* * *
“You’d think after all the nagging Carson and Kate do he’d cut it out, but he’s still so insufferable, Elizabeth complains.”
“He’s making an effort is he not?” Teyla inquires, and Elizabeth ignores the implications, plowing ahead.
“He’s smothering me, most of the time, and when he’s not he’s too busy avoiding my questions. I tried to talk to him this morning about what we were going to do about the SGC, what we’re going to tell the IOA, and he got all squirmy and wouldn’t answer any of my questions. I didn’t even bother trying to get him to pin down a response because it would’ve ended like last time, and I’d be even more pissed off because there’s no way that every time I press him he suddenly remembered he had a sparing match with Ronon.”
“He is uncomfortable with the situation.”
“So am I.” Elizabeth reminds the other woman with a frown, “regardless of what he might think that’s no excuse. Holding off on telling them isn’t going to make things any better, if anything it’s going to make them worse. The IOA doesn’t take kindly to being lied to or mislead.”
“Even so it might help to give the issue a rest of a day or two. Surely that would not be all too disadvantaged.”
“He did better at your appointment with Dr. Beckett yesterday did he not?”
Elizabeth’s still not convinced. “it’s his third time around, he’d better be getting better.”
* * *
“I don’t know the first thing about babies,” John’s repeating empathically much to Elizabeth’s amusement.
“It would only be for a couple of hours,” Kate’s continuing in her maddeningly calm voice. “I think it would be good for both of you to have this experience.”
“Someone else will be there though right,” Elizabeth seems content to agree until Kate shakes her head with a smile. “Seriously?” She asks as if the action will change Kate’s mind, “I don’t know the first thing about changing a diaper. I’m pretty good with the whole bottle feeding thing, but I draw the line at stinky diapers.”
“Think of it as a unique bonding experience, or a trial run, or a shared torture. It doesn’t make a difference to me as long as you’re both there and participating equally.”
“It sounds to me less like a suggestion and more like you’ve got the whole thing planned out.” John doesn’t look happy.
“You can’t see it now but I’m sure this will turn out to be a valuable experience. Now if you’ll excuse yourselves I’m afraid you’re going to be late meeting your guests. They should be gating in any minute now.”
* * *
There’s another wail and John throws a despite look in Elizabeth’s direction and resists the temptation to throw the child in his arms at her. He can’t understand how but she’s managed to ignore every noise the small boy had been making for the last half hour and was hard at work reading over a set of reports on recent scientific research.
“Elizabeth,” he finally raises his voice loud enough to be sure it can be heard over the crying. “I could use your help over here.”
“Oh sorry.” She looks up surprised, “I guess I got a little bit caught up in all of this. It’s truly fascinating.”
“I’m sure.” John sighs in relief as the noise stops the instant he hands the bundle of eardrum agony over to her.
“There, there,” she croons smiling as she rocks the child, “no need to fuss now.” She tries to hold onto the smile, but it falls short of convincing. She’s exhausted he can tell, even with the reduced workload and the almost non-existent stress from the daily activities of the city.
“Maybe I should take him.” John’s trying to sound like he’s not feeling totally miserable.
“I think you’re ears could use a break.” She finally acknowledges the noise that had plagued them both since the last time she’d handed, Jaren, the baby, to him.
“You’re exhausted,” he insists, but she moves away shaking her head.
“Maybe if we all laid down together. If you know, he’ll go for it.” John suggests carefully.
Elizabeth shrugs, “it’s worth a shot isn’t it. He’s probably exhausted by now don’t you think?”
“He’s eleven months old, I’m how many times older than that? I don’t have a clue.”
Elizabeth laughs and sits on the edge of the bed before scooting closer to the center and laying down before patting the other half of the bed. “Sir John your nap awaits,” she laughs.
“Thank you,” John sighs as his head hits the pillow, “even if we don’t get any sleep this feels a million times better.”
“Mmm.” Elizabeth agrees, “although I’m not sure this is what Kate had in mind.”
“What she doesn’t know can’t hurt us,” John says by way of agreement and Elizabeth smiles running her hand over the mop of blonde hair currently moving to curl closer to her. John’s hand falls to rest against her back, the other arm tucked under his head as Jeren’s face burrows to rest against her chest.
“He was just tired.” she whispers as amused as she was relieved a moment later as the small boy lets out snore after snore.
“Me too,” John agrees to something as Elizabeth’s eyes flutter shut