FIC: "From a Million Miles," Sam Carter/Olivia Benson

[geonncannon]

Title: From a Million Miles
Author: geonncannon
Pairing: Sam Carter/Olivia Benson, Sam/Janet and Olivia/Alex past relationships
Word Count: 10,763
Category: Action, drama
SG-1 Spoilers: "The Broca Divide," "Zero Hour," "200," "The Road Not Taken"
SGA Spoilers: "Thirty-Eight Minutes," "Trinity," "Conversion," "Critical Mass," "First Strike, "Adrift," "Doppelganger," "Tabula Rasa," "The Seer"
SVU Spoilers: "Philadelphia," "Florida," "Screwed," "Alternate"
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Warnings: Rape, non-con
Rating: NC17
Author's Notes: Set between Seasons 8 and 9 in the SVU world, and in the middle of Season 4 of Stargate Atlantis. The sequel to my previous story Give and Take.
Summary: A shocking crime in Atlantis leads to Sam bringing in an expert from Earth.

"Tormented by the futility of life
I can see the stars, from a million miles
Are you out there, somewhere?"
-- Single Gun Theory

She felt it in the middle of the night. She woke from her first sound sleep in years and rolled onto her back, blinking at the lights flickering across her bedroom ceiling. Neon lights, headlights, streetlights that needed to be fixed ten years ago... She wasn't sure what had woken her, but she took the opportunity to visit the bathroom.

She had only gotten to bed three hours earlier, after spending the night drinking with her team. The past few days had been horrific. Their jobs were on the line, thanks to Internal Affairs. Cragen might end up being transferred to another department. She and Elliot might get split up and put with different partners. It seemed like the past year, their lives had imploded and all that was left was to sift through the ashes and cinders.

When she returned from the bathroom, she stopped at the window and peered out through the blinds. It wasn't just the badness of the past year that was killing her. It was Alex. They had met for dinner, in the hopes of maybe rekindling the relationship they'd had before the witness protection fracas. An awkward dinner, some bad sex and a forced sleepover later, they had decided they were both different people now. Maybe they had never been meant to be together, but it still hurt. Their official break-up had lasted two damn years. She wasn't sure the ache would ever fade from a wound that deep.

She let the blinds fall, blocking out less than half the light from the street, and shuffled her bare feet across the carpet back to bed. As she climbed under the covers again, she thought about the feeling that had woken her. The feeling that something was about to happen. Something huge. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and closed her eyes.

Whatever was going to happen, it could wait two hours for Olivia Benson to meet it in the morning.

~

Sam wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and stepped out onto her balcony. General O'Neill had always joked that she would end up living where she worked. Now here she was, with quarters just a few steps away from her office. But the view... The only downside was the cold. She liked the sound of the waves, loved the salt smell on the air, but she hadn't anticipated the cold of the air off the water. Her hair was loose, blowing in the wind behind her, and she closed her eyes and thought of other places she might be. Maui. No, someplace colder.

She was considering English beaches in early winter when her comm device chirped. She walked back into her quarters, hooked the device over her ear and said, "Carter."

"This is Sergeant Hayes. We have a situation in one of the botany labs."

Sam was already getting dressed. "What kind of situation?" She remembered an instance at Stargate Command a few years back when a plant had started growing out of control. It had infiltrated the walls and systems of the base. She dreaded the thought of another outbreak like that.

"There was an attack, ma'am."

Sam went cold. "I'll be right there."

~

Olivia didn't want to answer the door. Let whoever it is move on to the next apartment with their magazine subscriptions or whatever bullshit they were peddling now. She knew she should feel lucky that she still had a job, but she was going crazy sitting around with nothing to do. She was dressed in sweatpants and an old Police Academy t-shirt and had spent the morning alternating between staring out the window and trying to tidy her apartment.

The knock came again, louder this time, and accompanied by a voice. "Detective Olivia Benson?"

She turned to face the door from the couch.

"Detective Benson, please open the door. We know you aren't at work."

She pushed off the couch and shuffled to the door. The voices sounded official. She had been on the other side of the door enough times to know the inflection. She looked through the peephole and saw uniforms, but not the kind she had expected. Crisp, dark blue and shining with medals. She remembered seeing the uniform on a certain blonde about two years back. She opened the door and frowned at the Air Force officers. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Detective Olivia Benson?"

"Of course I am," she said. She looked from one man to the other. "What is this about?"

"We have orders to bring you with us."

"Whose orders? Take me where?"

"Colonel Samantha Carter, ma'am. She's requested we escort you to Colorado Springs, Colorado, immediately."

A shiver ran down Olivia's spine. "What is this about?"

"It's a matter of some urgency, ma'am."

"How long am I going to be gone?" Olivia asked. She already knew she would say yes. Besides, it wasn't like these fellows were likely to give her much choice in the matter...

"As long as it takes, ma'am. It definitely will not be less than a week, I'm told."

At least a week away from this place, away from IAB and the fallout from all the shit that had been going down... a chance to see Samantha Carter again. She said, "You've cleared this with everyone?"

"Yes, ma'am. Everyone who needs to know you'll be incommunicado has already been contacted."

Olivia stepped back and said, "I'll need to change and pack a bag."

The officers waited in the living room while she quickly packed a suitcase. She was only taking enough for a week; anything longer and she could just do laundry. The officers escorted her downstairs, into a waiting black sedan, and they whisked her off to an air force base. The plane was already waiting to take off as they hustled her on-board. "Must be kind of a big deal," she said as she took her seat.

"I wouldn't know, ma'am," the officer said as he strapped in next to her.

Olivia looked out the window as the plane taxied down the runway. Forty minutes ago, she had been considering one of the inane daytime talk shows. Now she was on a cargo plane, lifting off and headed for Colorado Springs, Colorado. She knew NORAD was located there, inside Cheyenne Mountain. But she assumed whatever business Colonel Samantha Carter was involved in wasn't quite that well-known.

She settled into the seat of the plane and closed her eyes. Might as well get some rest while she could. Who knew when she would get another chance to sleep?

~

The airman escorted her into a standard, non-descript government briefing room with drab gray carpeting and a massive oak table. The General was seated at the head of the table in front of a window that seemed to show a star map. The wall to his left had a window that was currently blocked by a blast door that had been lowered on the opposite side. Olivia wondered what a window could possibly look out on; they had taken an elevator down twenty-eight levels into the depths of a mountain.

The General smiled and rose from his seat. "Detective Benson, I assume. General Hank Landry. I've heard great things about you."

"Thank you. Why am I here?"

"Straight to the point." Landry sat again and indicated for her to do the same. "I'm afraid to report that there was an incident requiring your specific expertise."

"A rape?" Olivia said. "You have military police for that, right? I'm sure you don't need to pull a New York detective off the street to come in and investigate."

Landry said, "We do have people who could investigate this, but to be honest, very few of them have the clearance necessary to receive the whole story. There are matters of national security to think about. Colonel Carter told me that you were entrusted with some very sensitive information a few years back. Zat guns, nish'ta... and none of it was ever leaked to the public. You've kept quiet, and for that, we're grateful. And it proves you can be trusted."

Olivia said nothing.

Landry pushed a manila folder toward her. "This is a standard non-disclosure agreement. You'll need to sign that before we move on with the explanation of why you're here."

Olivia took the folder and opened it. She took the pen, but didn't sign. "Where is Colonel Carter?"

"I'm afraid she couldn't be here at the moment. It would be easier for her to meet you halfway."

Olivia frowned. She clicked open the pen, hesitated and then signed the paper. She pushed it back to Landry and he folded his hands together in front of him. "Now, since you seem to appreciate getting straight to business: Colonel Carter is in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"What does that mean?"

Landry chuckled. "It's not code, Detective. She's in the Pegasus Galaxy right now. The stars were pointed out to me once, but, ah... I can usually find the moon, and that's about it." He smiled and stood up. "Come over here."

She joined him at the window as he hit a button. The blast door slowly rose out of the way and revealed a stark, concrete bunker beyond.

Olivia wasn't sure what she was looking at. The central piece of the room was a giant stone ring, maybe two stories high, with a metal ramp leading up to it. She frowned. "What is that?"

"That is a Stargate, Detective. That is how Colonel Carter got to the Pegasus Galaxy... and it's how you will join her there."

She blinked. "There was a rape in outer space?"

Landry's smile faltered and he turned toward her. "Yes, there was. Colonel Carter trusted you to investigate it."

Olivia looked at the ring again. "Okay."

~

Olivia changed into an olive-drab uniform - jacket, cargo pants, cap and black boots - and met Colonel Cameron Mitchell in what they called the Control Room. It was underneath the briefing room, connected by a metal staircase. Olivia remembered Mitchell from the incident in New York, with the mind-altering drug called 'nish'ta.' He had been a member of Carter's team. She greeted him with a nod and turned to face the ring again. It seemed to be active, with the decorated inner ring slowly spinning. Occasionally, it would stop and one of the red braces lit up.

A small man in glasses manned the control console. He announced, "Chevron four encoded."

Mitchell looked her up and down - checking to make sure the uniform was right, not leering - and said, "All right. You look good to go."

Olivia tore her attention away from the ring. "What do I need to know?"

"The only really pertinent information is that that..." he pointed through the glass at the Stargate, "...is a trip and a half. I was a die-hard flyboy until I stepped through that for the first time. You'll love it, but you'll be ruined for any other kind of travel."

Olivia forced a smile. "I can't wait."

Mitchell nodded. "Now, to take care of your other questions... it doesn't hurt, it doesn't feel like much of anything, really. You may have a little queasiness on the other side, but that's normal. My advice is to exhale on this side, inhale on the other side."

"This side of what?"

The man in glasses said, "Chevron seven, locked!" The Stargate in the other room seemed to explode. Olivia jumped back from the control table and Mitchell caught her before she fell. Her eyes were wide, her jaw hanging open as she watched the explosion settle into a solid, vertical pool of blue light. "Oh, my God," she gasped.

Mitchell smirked at the man in glasses. "I tell ya, we oughta give tours of this place..."

When Olivia had started blinking again, Mitchell escorted her down to the Gate Room. "I'm not going to be able to join you, kind of got a lot of irons in the fire here, you know. But Sam will be on the other side. She'll take care of you, fill you in on everything you need to know." He walked her up the ramp, closer and closer to the impossible thing at the other end. Mitchell smiled at her and swept his fingers across the pool. It rippled like water.

"I'll drown," she said.

"Nope, no one has yet." He seemed to catch himself and shrugged. "Well, there was that one time. But that was a Russian expedition. Nothing to do with us, I promise. You ready?"

"No."

"Too bad. You know how much it costs to turn this thing on?" He smiled and said, "Have a nice trip."

He shoved her forward.

Olivia reached out instinctively to catch herself before she hit the ground and both hands disappeared into the blue. Pins and needles, like both of her hands had fallen asleep at the same time, began to spread. She couldn't stop herself and fell the rest of the way through. By the time she thought to panic, she was back on solid ground. Suddenly someone had their arms around her torso and she was on her knees. She was retching, but her stomach was empty. Thank God she'd never finished her coffee.

"It's all right," a soft voice next to her ear said. "Take your time. It happens to everyone."

"What just happened?" Olivia rasped.

"You just traveled a couple hundred thousand light years. Give or take."

Olivia swallowed hard and looked up. She saw Samantha Carter for the first time in two years. She was just as beautiful as Olivia remembered. The only difference was that her hair had grown and was currently pulled back into a ponytail. Olivia smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," Sam said. She returned the smile and nodded at Olivia's hair, which was also in a ponytail. "Looks like we have the same stylist. Can you stand?"

"I think so." She took Sam's hand and hoisted herself up. She leaned against Sam's side as she was walked to a chair and lowered down. "God. Colonel Mitchell was right. That was quite a trip."

"Well, you'll have a few more chances to enjoy it. This is Midway Station. We still have to go through another Stargate to reach our destination."

"Our destination...?"

"Atlantis." She anticipated Olivia's next question and nodded. "Yes, the lost city of Atlantis. It's an ancient highly technologically-advanced outpost in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Atlantis is in space," Olivia muttered. She looked around for a window. "This is outer space? But there's gravity."

Sam nodded. "Yes, there is. We perfected artificial gravity a while ago. Well... borrowed, really."

"Borrowed?"

"From aliens," Sam said. She squeezed Olivia's hand. "Are you okay?"

Olivia took a deep breath, exhaled and shook her head. "No. But I will be."

"Well, we have time. There's a quarantine imposed on all travelers from Earth. We'll have to stay here for two days before we're cleared to go through the other Stargate."

"What if the people in charge, on the other side, don't clear us?"

Sam smiled. "Well, there's little chance of that happening.

"Why?"

"I'm the one in charge."

Olivia blinked. "You're the leader of Atlantis."

"And I'm a full Colonel now."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Olivia said, "I think you should start talking. Because it's going to take the full two days for me to grasp everything that just happened."

Sam leaned back. "Okay. The broad strokes. This station is a midpoint between Stargate Command on Earth and the Atlantis base. The Stargate doesn't have enough power to connect the two destinations directly, so we jerry-rigged a network to link them together. We discovered Atlantis just over four years ago. We sent an expedition to explore the city and they set it up as an outpost. Are you with me so far?"

"Where do the aliens come in?"

"The aliens," Sam said. "The aliens are complicated. It won't be necessary for you to know about them for your job here. Suffice to say, if anything blue-green and... alien-looking offers to shake your hand, decline."

"Right."

"The expedition is multi-national. The best and brightest scientists from all over the world were brought in to explore the city and hopefully make use of the technology we find there."

"Okay. So you're living in this city, exploring it..."

"It, other worlds, and the differences between our world and alien planets. Dr. Antoinette Poole, the woman who was attacked, is a botanist. She was studying the effects of alien atmospheres on Earth plants."

Olivia said, "She was raped?"

Sam nodded and looked down, her bangs shielding her eyes. "Yes. About four days ago, a security officer found her in her lab. She had been working late at night. Her clothes were torn, her face was bruised and bloody... when she woke up, she said that she had been raped."

"Four days?" Olivia said. "Why did you wait so long to call for help?"

"It took two days for us to determine the cause wasn't alien in origin. It took another forty-eight hours for me to make the decision to bring you in, and convince my bosses it was worth the risk."

"I thought you were the boss."

"Just of Atlantis. I still have to deal with an oversight committee. Believe me, bureaucrats are everywhere."

Olivia nodded. "So I assume there were no... alien influences?"

"No. We've encountered viruses that can affect a person's behavior in this way in the past. Make them aggressive, sometimes sexually."

Olivia frowned. "You're saying a virus can make someone rape another person? I don't believe it. I know what I saw the last time I worked with you, but a rapist is a rapist."

Sam leaned back, seemed to debate something with herself for a moment, and then said, "I practically raped my commanding officer ten years ago when I was under the influence of the virus I'm talking about. My male commanding officer. Because he would be good breeding stock." She raised her eyebrow. "Impossible is one thing I've learned not to say on this job."

"I stand corrected," Olivia said. "Please, continue."

"We examined Dr. Poole, and looked at everyone who had been working for her. But we're in a bit of a bind."

"Everyone on the base was hand-picked to be there," Olivia said. "They were vetted by the United States government and the thought that a rapist slipped through your fingers..."

"Exactly," Sam said. "Another reason they were willing to bring in someone from the outside. We have civilian scientists working alongside the military, so sometimes tensions are a bit strained."

"God, no wonder your people were willing to bring me in."

Sam nodded and reached out. She took Olivia's hand and squeezed it. "Thank you for coming, Olivia. You're saving my life."

Olivia looked down at Sam's hand. She turned her hand over and pressed her palm to Sam's. "I couldn't resist seeing you again."

Sam inhaled sharply and straightened her spine, rolling her shoulders as she threaded her fingers with Olivia's. "I didn't want to be presumptuous."

"So I'm assuming you're not with anyone...?"

"No," Sam said. "Not lately."

Olivia nodded. She took her hand from Sam's and leaned back. "That's good to know."

Sam smiled. "We have two days. Anything else you would like to know?"

Olivia said, "What's with the hair?"

Sam laughed and reached back, drawing her ponytail through her fingers and letting it drop onto her shoulder. She nodded at Olivia and said, "I could ask you the same thing."

Olivia grinned.

~

The quarters - tiny, cramped spaces with a foot locker and a window - had obviously been added as an afterthought. But Olivia didn't notice the room. She dropped her bag near the bed, ignoring it as it tumbled to the floor, and walked directly to the window. She didn't dare blink, could barely breathe. She touched the glass - it couldn't be regular glass, could it? It would shatter - and wondered if it really felt cold, or if she was just imagining it.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

Olivia didn't turn around. Stars, strange blue-green amorphous clouds that seemed close enough to touch but were really further than anyone had ever traveled before. She shook her head and finally said, "Oh, my God."

Sam's voice came from directly behind her. "Look to your right."

Olivia turned her head and had to move closer to the window. What she saw made her gasp. A swirling yellow nebula, seemingly directly ahead of them. "Oh, my God."

"That way is Earth," Sam said. "Everyplace, everything, everyone you know is about... one-point-three-five-five million light years that way."

Olivia turned and found herself trapped between Samantha Carter and eternity. Behind her, there was nothing for a billion miles. Her heart fluttered.

"How about you?" Sam asked. Her voice was low and husky, her eyes focused on Olivia's lips. "You know I'm not with anyone." She touched Olivia's hip and quickly withdrew her hand.

"I haven't seen anyone in a while," Olivia breathed. She turned her head to look at the stars again. "Oh, how do you stand it?"

Sam put her hand on Olivia's chin and turned her head so they were looking at each other again. "I really want to kiss you."

Olivia leaned in and touched her lips to Sam's. Sam put her hand on Olivia's hip, slid it around to the small of her back and pressed her against the window. Olivia moaned, suddenly afraid that the window would break and she would go hurtling out into space. She opened her mouth to Sam's tongue and wrapped her legs around Sam's waist.

Sam used her free hand to pull down the zipper of Olivia's jacket. Her fingers groped for the hem of her black t-shirt and yanked it up, baring Olivia's belly. Sam broke the kiss and slid down to her knees, kissing Olivia's chin and her neck and her breasts before she pressed her face into the smooth, warm skin of her stomach. She touched her tongue to Olivia's navel, dipped it inside, swirled it and pressed her lips against the downy, almost invisible hair of her abdomen.

Olivia reached out with both hands, braced herself against the window frame and lifted her legs. She rested her thighs on Sam's shoulders and rested the back of her head against the window. Next to space. The only thing between me and space is this thin layer of whatever it is. She was on the edge of oblivion with a gorgeous woman between her legs undoing the button of her trousers.

She looked down and saw the top of Sam's head, her ponytail held with a plain black scrunchy. Sam was broader, more muscular than Alex, but the resemblance was definitely there. Olivia's breath caught and she said, "Hold, wait... Sam..."

Sam had Olivia's trousers open, her hands on Olivia's hips in anticipation of shoving them down. She was focused on her dark gray panties and had to force herself to look up into Olivia's eyes. "What? Should I not..."

Olivia ran her hand down Sam's face. The long blonde hair, the pink skin... it was almost close enough that she could pretend... Sam closed her eyes and let Olivia explore her cheeks, her nose, her lips. Sam opened her mouth and sucked Olivia's fingers in. She sucked them gently, letting her tongue curl around the pads as Olivia slowly pumped them in and out. Sam moaned and eased Olivia's pants down her thighs. Olivia lifted her hips off the windowsill and let her pants be pushed down.

"Who?" Sam asked when Olivia's wet fingers fell from her mouth. "Who do I remind you of?"

"It doesn't matter," Olivia whispered. "We're the only two people here." She put her hand on the back of Sam's neck and guided her down. They were the only people for a million light years. Their closest neighbors were in a different solar system. Her toes curled inside of her boots as Sam kissed her through her panties. Olivia's heart pounded and she arched her back.

Sam pushed Olivia's underwear out of the way and brushed the pad of her thumb over Olivia's pussy lips. Olivia closed her eyes and pressed against Sam's touch. Sam licked her lips and bent down. She kissed Olivia's thighs and then lifted her thumb out of the way. As her tongue touched the puffy, outer lips of Olivia's pussy, her thumb slowly circled the hood of Olivia's clit.

She was slow in her lovemaking, gentle and patient. She backed off just long enough to suck her thumb, getting it wet so that it could slide easily across Olivia's clit. Her tongue was mighty, sweeping and probing and gently easing her lips apart with sure, quick strokes. Olivia turned her head, her jaw dropping, and opened her eyes.

All she could see beyond her faint reflection was space. Stars, the nebula, the strange clouds. Lights that would flicker briefly and then vanish. Starships? Dying stars? Her eyes drifted shut and she reminded herself where she was. Higher than she'd ever been, farther than she'd ever been, on a fucking space station and Sam's tongue was inside of her. She grunted and pressed herself against Sam's mouth.

She folded into herself as she came, her upper body bending forward over Sam as her lower body clenched. She crossed her arms at the wrist, put her hands on Sam's back and squeezed her eyes shut as Sam's licks turned into gentle kisses on her pubic hair and thighs. Sam licked from Olivia's upper thigh to her knee and then sat up.

They stared at one another for a moment, Olivia's eyelids drooping from her climax, as they caught their breath. Then Olivia pulled Sam to her, shoved her backwards with a bruising kiss and stumbled to the cot. Sam groped behind herself to find the edge of the cot, hoisted herself up and pulled Olivia onto the canvas with her. They kissed as they fought to undo zippers and catches, their clothes slowly coming loose as the metal frame croaked beneath them.

Olivia slid her hand over Sam's stomach and shoved it down into her pants, past her underwear to the slick folds of her pussy. Sam grunted and pressed her face into Olivia's shoulder. She thrust her hips against Olivia's hand. "Inside," she gasped. "Put your fingers inside of me, Olivia..."

"Sam..."

Sam lifted her head and growled. She ground her hips against Olivia's fingers, tightened her thighs and climaxed with a weak whimper. Olivia kept her hand where it was, kissing Sam's breasts through her thin blouse.

Finally, Sam sagged into Olivia's arms, her face against Olivia's throat. "We're not going to be able to sleep together on this cot," she finally said.

Olivia shifted and the cot groaned under their combined weight. As Olivia dumped the blanket and pillows on the floor, Sam stood up and stripped out of her clothes. Olivia, on her knees, looked up at Sam's naked body. Her breasts were fuller than she remembered, her stomach flatter and more toned. Her pubic hair was neatly trimmed, and the muscles of her thighs rippled as she kicked out of her trousers.

"What?" Sam said when she noticed Olivia staring. She reached back, undid her ponytail and shook her hair free.

"Two days, huh?" Olivia said with a grin. "Before we can go anywhere."

"Well," Sam said as she lowered herself to the blanket. She draped her arms around Olivia's neck and pulled her down alongside her. "It's more like forty-five hours now."

"Either way," Olivia said as she kissed between Sam's breasts. "Plenty of time."

~

When the two day quarantine expired, Olivia stood next to Sam at the dialing computer. She watched as Sam pressed a seemingly nonsensical series of buttons that had patterns drawn on them. Sam nodded at the Stargate. "Watch." She hit the 'enter' button and the Stargate came to life. Unlike the one in Colorado, the new one was lit with blue chevrons. It didn't spin, but the patterns Sam had 'dialed' lit up in the correct order. The blue pool was the same, however; it exploded outward toward them and Olivia took a step back.

"That one is different."

"Different galaxy, different network," Sam explained. She took Olivia's hand and walked her down to the front of the Stargate. "It's why we needed this outpost to connect them. That, and the distance between our galaxies."

"Who built it?"

"The Stargates or the network connecting them?"

"Either. Both. I don't know," Olivia said. She was scared of going through again and was willing to delay it by any means possible.

"Well, the Stargates were built by a race we call the Ancients. Not really very creative, but you know how it is. As for the bridge, well... it's the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge."

"'Carter'? As in...?"

Sam smiled.

"Your name is second."

Sam's smile widened to show her teeth and she shrugged. "I didn't care enough to fight for first billing."

"You mean you weren't egotistical enough."

"What are you, a detective?" Sam said. She winked and released Olivia's hand to touch the device hooked over her ear. "This is Colonel Carter to Atlantis. Preparing to step through the Stargate with Detective Benson."

A few seconds later, Olivia heard a voice through a small speaker on the outside of the earpiece. "Confirmed, Colonel Carter. The door is open and you're cleared to come through."

Sam looked at her. "Are you ready to see Atlantis?"

"As I'll ever be," Olivia said.

Sam stepped closer and lowered her voice. "It's perfectly safe. It's a little uncomfortable the first time, but then it gets easier every time after. I've done it thousands of times by now."

Olivia exhaled and shrugged. "I've come this far. And unless I want to spend the rest of my life stuck between galaxies with you..." She looked at Sam and arched an eyebrow. "Well. I'll go anyway."

Sam laughed and said, "Do you want a push?"

"No." She took a deep breath, let it out and stepped forward. Another wrenching, twisting, nothing sensation, falling and standing up too quickly combined to make her feel stretched and like every limb had fallen asleep at the same time and then... she was in another room. She was almost blinded after the darkness of Midway Station. It was impossibly grand, massive with light green walls and windows everywhere. A short staircase with lights set into the steps rose from the floor and branched off to the left and right. At the landing, stained glass windows shone with impossibly bright light. It looked like a fairy tale.

She blinked, brought up a hand to cover her eyes and turned to see Sam was indeed directly behind her. Sam put her hand on Olivia's shoulder. "Olivia Benson, welcome to the city of Atlantis."

"Thank you," Olivia muttered. She was busy staring at everything. The walls, the walkways of the second level. There was a glassed-in control room that was far more elegant than the one she had seen back on Earth. Back on Earth, she thought. There's a concept for you.

When her gaze fell on the steps again, she saw two men coming down toward them. One was tall, thin and had an unruly head of dark black hair. He was unshaved, the sleeves of his dark blue jumpsuit rolled up to his elbows. The other man was even more unkempt, his jacket unzipped. He looked frustrated, irritated and harried.

Sam said, "Olivia Benson, meet Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and Dr. Rodney McKay."

"Nice to meet you both." Olivia shook their hands and said, "McKay, huh?"

Sam chuckled and McKay looked up. "What? What, were you two talking about me?"

"Lighten up, Rodney," Sam said. Her mood changed when she asked Sheppard, "How is she doing?"

"Good. She's awake, but she can't remember anything about the attack. Keller hasn't been able to give us anything else to go on."

Olivia said, "I guess that's my cue."

"I'll show you the way to the infirmary," Sheppard said.

Sam said, "I can handle it, Colonel."

"Are you sure? It's no bother."

Sam glared at him and Sheppard lifted his hands in surrender. "Okay. Fine. Just call me if you need anything."

Sam took Olivia's duffel bag and handed it to a nearby airman with instructions on where to take it. Olivia waited until they were out of earshot and said, "Horny men at the edge of the galaxy."

"They're harmless," Sam assured her.

"No," Olivia said. "I didn't mean it to be funny. You trust Sheppard, right?"

Sam didn't hesitate. "I do."

"He just about tripped over his tongue when he saw me. I trust your word that he wouldn't try anything, but it's a bad sign. How is the ratio of men to women on the base?"

Sam shrugged. She hadn't thought about it. "I supposed it's about seventy-thirty in favor of the men."

"It's Lord of the Flies," Olivia said. "Even you're not immune to it."

Sam bristled at that. "I'm sorry. I thought you wanted..."

"I did," Olivia said softly. "All I'm saying is that there's a possibility that someone on this base is sexually frustrated. Maybe enough so that they would go to the extreme of rape."

"We have regular contact with Earth," Sam argued. "People take weeks off, they go home... no one gets frustrated enough to attack anyone."

"Maybe you should check that," Olivia said. "See if there's anyone who hasn't been back to Earth for a while. Maybe they're working on a long-term project, maybe they claim they don't have anyone to see back on Earth and are content to give their shore leave to someone else."

Sam dropped the subject as they walked the rest of the way to the lift. She pressed the call button and stepped back, worrying her lip. She had considered Olivia's idea, but she hadn't truly wanted to explore it. There was one person on the base who fit the bill, but she really did not want to think him capable of something like this.

~

The infirmary was quiet; apparently Dr. Poole was still the only patient. Sam found a petite brunette at the back peering into a microscope. "Dr. Keller. This is Detective Olivia Benson. Olivia, Dr. Jennifer Keller."

The doctor looked up and gave a perfunctory nod to Olivia. "Nice to meet you. Colonel. I'm glad you're back."

"Have you found something?"

The trio walked to a nearby bed. Dr. Antoinette Poole was in a rumpled white hospital gown, her right eye covered by a gauze patch. There was a bruise under her left eye, and another bandage covered her right arm. Her right hand was encased in a white glove. She was asleep and Sam said, "Colonel Sheppard told us she was awake."

"She dropped off a few minutes ago," Keller said. "I could wake her..."

"No," Sam said quickly. "Let her rest. Have you found anything?"

Keller shook her head. "We haven't found anything to point toward a suspect; we're pretty sure whoever it was wore a condom."

Sam said, "I would ask if you had supplied any recently..."

"Take a number," Keller said. "Thirty men have requested condoms recently, and eight women."

"Requested?" Olivia said.

"Requisitions," Sam explained. "There's not exactly a CVS down the street for people to drop in and buy a box."

Olivia shook her head. "Right. I keep forgetting where in a different galaxy."

Keller said, "Because of the condom, there was very little physical evidence. But we did find this." She pulled the sheet back and gently touched Poole's left wrist. There was a smear of green, like someone had spilled paint on her arm and she had missed a spot cleaning up.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Mold. I asked one of the members of her team, and they revealed she had been working on a plant from P44-8M7 that produced mold like this. They checked, and it started flowering the night she was attacked. When it flowers, it ejects spores of the mold that cling to whatever warm body happens to be nearby."

"Like the rapist," Sam said. She looked at Olivia. "Looks like you might have a scarlet letter to look out for."

"One can only hope," Olivia said. "How did you find her?"

"A guard wandered across her on his patrol," Sam said. "She was alone, and the guard didn't see anyone else in the area before or after. When we brought her here, Dr. Keller confirmed that she had been raped as well as beaten."

"Did you know her?"

Sam nodded. "We met briefly. She was assigned here before I was, but we had a meeting to discuss her department's annual budget. She was polite. Quiet."

"No enemies, then?"

Keller answered. "Everyone seemed to love her. We've had a steady stream of people she worked with. Flowers, cards..."

"Who? Do you have their names?"

Keller blinked. "Um. No. I left them alone."

"One of those well-wishers may have been the rapist covering his tracks," Olivia said. All the amazing sights she had been blinded by - the city, the Stargate... Sam - had faded. Now she was a detective again, facing a doctor who was trying to protect a patient. "I'll need to see the cards and flowers."

"Okay," Keller said.

"In the meantime, we've set you up in a spare office," Sam said. "I'll show you the way."

When they were alone again, Sam said, "You shouldn't have yelled at her like that."

"What?" Olivia said.

"Keller is young," Sam said. "She's never worked on a rape before. She's doing the best she can. She saw people bringing cards, she thought it was nice. It's not the end of the world that she didn't document each and every one of them and watch their visits for suspicious behavior. You were too hard on her."

"I'm working a rape, Colonel," Olivia said. "I'm not sorry if I step on any toes in the process."

Sam turned and stepped into Olivia's way. "You had better be sorry. One person on this base was violated. No one else will be. I want you to catch whoever did this, but not at anyone else's expense. Do you understand me, Detective?"

The forty-eight hours they had spent making love on Midway evaporated. They now had both feet firmly in the professional world.

Olivia said, "I'm not going to play nice if I think someone made a mistake. Yelling keeps future mistakes from being made."

"Or it makes the person so jumpy that they make even more mistakes."

"Who are you protecting, Colonel? Because it's certainly not Poole."

"I'm protecting Dr. Keller," Sam said. "One person on this base is a rapist, Olivia. I won't have you treating everyone like a suspect."

"Wrong," Olivia said. "The reason you brought me here is because I am the only one who can treat anyone like a suspect. The rest of you are too cozy in your little outpost to know what to do when the real world comes barging in."

Sam glared at Olivia a little longer, then stepped around her and stormed angrily back down the hall. "What about my office?" Olivia called, not bothering to turn to watch her go.

"Find it yourself," Sam said. "You're the detective, after all."

Olivia stopped at the end of the corridor and stepped out onto the balcony. She leaned against the railing and stared out at the city around her. It was something out of science-fiction. She had gone through a portal, to a space station a billion light years from nowhere, to a magnificent shining city in the sea called Atlantis. An alien-built city inhabited by an expedition of military officers and scientists. It was too much to take in.

Someone came up behind her and contritely said, "You'll never find your office alone. This place is the size of Manhattan."

Olivia turned and saw Sam. "I'm not going to apologize."

"I know," Sam said. "I wasn't going to ask you to. You're right. We brought you in because we need you to ask the hard questions. We're not going to get anywhere working of preconceived notions. And we're not going to get anywhere protecting people. So there is someone you need to speak to."

~

The door slid open - another science-fiction aspect of this city - and Olivia walked into the room that had been set aside for interrogations. The man at the table shifted uncomfortably and pushed himself straighter in his seat. Olivia checked the file. "Major Evan Lorne?"

"That's right, ma'am," he said. He kept his jaw tight, his eyes locked on hers as she took her seat.

"I suppose you know why I'm here."

"Someone assaulted Dr. Poole. I assume you're investigating me, although I don't know why."

"According to the file Colonel Carter provided, you were recently revealed to be a sleepwalker."

Lorne sighed. "Not since I was a kid. This recent instance was alien-influenced."

Olivia closed the file and folded her hands on top of it. "Seems like a lot of stuff on this base can be attributed to 'alien influence.' Where were you the night Dr. Poole was attacked?"

"I was here. On-base. Asleep in my quarters. I had just gotten back from a three-day scouting mission on M66-21G and I was pretty damn exhausted."

"Did you know Dr. Poole?"

He shrugged. "To say hello to. We weren't exactly friendly, but there are a lot of people on this base. We can't all be friends with each other."

"No, I guess you can't." She paused. "Colonel Carter must like you. She was willing to leave your name off her suspect list."

"Frankly, there's no reason I should be on it, ma'am, other than my sleepwalking. Which is a non-issue."

"Dr. Keller reported that you asked for some sleeping pills recently."

Lorne sighed. "There was an incident a few weeks ago. I got hooked on some uppers I was using to keep my memory intact." He smirked. "Alien influence again. They were keeping me up nights. What with the one-time resurgence of my sleepwalking, I decided to be better safe than sorry."

"Why haven't you been home recently?"

Lorne frowned. "What?"

"Earth. Colonel Carter tells me that you haven't requested leave for over three months. And since she's only been here for three months, it makes me curious. How long has it been?"

Lorne shifted and pursed his lips. "It's been a while."

"How long?"

"I don't know! The last time I went to Earth to visit someone we had a fight. We broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Long relationship?"

"Six years." He looked annoyed at being reminded of it.

"There's no one else on Earth you might want to visit? Family...?"

"My parents live in Maine. By the time I flew there from Colorado Springs, I would only have enough time to turn around and come straight back to Atlantis. It's not worth the trouble. I send them cards as often as I can."

Olivia said, "Must be hard. Long-term relationship folding like that... being stuck here alone in Atlantis. How do you take the edge off?"

"Masturbation," Lorne said bluntly. "Are we done here, or do you need to see the magazines?"

Olivia idly wondered if the porn came in a separate shipment or if it required quarantine as well. She cleared her throat and said, "No significant others on Atlantis? No one-night stands?"

"Kind of hard to find a willing partner, ma'am."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Handsome guy like you? Come on, Major."

He leaned forward with a smirk. "No, ma'am, it's hard because I'm military, and there aren't exactly any gay bars around here. My relationship back on Earth was with a man, a civilian, named Henry Jameson. I've been celibate on Atlantis because I'm not out. I didn't attack Dr. Poole - conscious or not - because she's female. I didn't find her attractive."

Olivia didn't have a reply for that. "I assume Colonel Carter doesn't know."

"No. Only Colonel Sheppard and the members of my team."

Olivia said, "All right. I'm letting you go, but your off-world activities are suspended until further notice."

"You don't have--"

"Colonel Carter granted me that right. If I suspect someone..."

"I would never hurt a woman, Detective, and I would never rape one."

"Be that as it may. I'd like it if you stuck around for the time being."

Lorne sagged and held his hands out palm up. "Fine. Can I go back to my quarters or do you need to fit me for an ankle bracelet?"

"You can go."

Lorne pushed away from the table, nearly tipping the chair over as he rose from it. Olivia stayed seated until the Major was gone, then leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. One suspect down, only a couple hundred to go.

~

Dr. Poole woke a few hours later, around lunchtime. Olivia returned to the infirmary, on her own since she was starting to get the hang of the place, and joined Dr. Keller at the woman's bedside. Her eyelids hung heavy and she stared at the wall until Keller spoke. "Toni? This is Olivia Benson. She's a detective."

"Detective?"

"Colonel Carter brought me in to find out what happened to you," Olivia said softly. "She wanted to make whoever did this was brought to justice. I know it's hard, but if you could try and remember what happened..."

"I went through it with Dr. Keller and Colonel Carter."

"I know. But if you could just try, one more time. It would really help me."

Toni swallowed and closed her eyes. "I was working late in the botany lab. We call it Botany Bay." A slight smile. "It was a little past midnight. Some of the flowers I was working on are night-blooming. I wanted to track their progress. All I can really remember is... checking the growth charts. I might have heard a noise and got up to investigate, but that might have been another night..."

She wiped her eye with her unbandaged hand. The mold that Keller had pointed out earlier was bandaged as well. "I don't remember anything else. I don't remember anything that might help."

"You did fine, Toni," Olivia assured her. She touched the woman's hand and said, "Thank you for your help."

Toni nodded and Olivia stepped away from the bed. Keller followed her. "Is it normal that they don't remember the attack?"

"It happens," Olivia said. "A severe trauma like that. If there was no actual damage, then she might have just blocked it out herself."

"I imagine that makes your job all that much harder."

Olivia nodded. "I'm used to it. Thanks for letting me speak to her."

"No problem."

Olivia left the infirmary and ran into Sam. "Hi. I was just coming to find you."

Sam gestured for Olivia to keep walking and fell into step beside her. "You've cleared Major Lorne?"

Olivia nodded. "I still want to restrict his off-world travel, but it doesn't seem likely he was the suspect. I take it you and he are pretty close?"

Sam nodded. "We were best friends in another reality."

"Another reality?" Olivia frowned. "Please tell me you're being metaphorical."

"Sorry," Sam said.

Olivia sighed. Aliens, faster-than-light travel and now alternate realities. What next, robots? Clones? "It's good, though. It shows me that you're not going to protect people just because you like them."

"That would defeat the purpose, don't you think?" Sam said. She held out the file she was carrying. "But on that subject, your next interview."

Olivia opened the file. "Dr. Colin Kavanagh. Another friend?"

"Not exactly," Sam said.

~

Kavanagh straightened as the door opened and Olivia stepped in. "Dr. Kavanagh," she said. "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

"Well, it's not like I had much of a choice, now is it?" he said as she took a seat. He was a tall, thin man with his hair pulled back in a short ponytail. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and his lips were pressed tightly together in a smirk. His arms were folded across his chest; classic defensive posture, Olivia thought.

"Besides," he continued, "I've been expecting this. Anything goes slightly wrong on this base, I'm the one called in. I'm the number one suspect. It's harassment."

"I've noticed you put in a lot of complaints about this base's former commander, Dr. Elizabeth Weir."

"She didn't know what she was doing half the time. She was surrounded by yes-men and brainwashed masses, so no one was ever willing to tell her when she was risking the lives of everyone on this base for a whim. I took it upon myself to make sure the people back on Earth knew what was really going on here."

"And yet, Elizabeth Weir was never removed from duty. She was only replaced after she was taken captive on an enemy world. Why do you think the people in charge never listened to your complaints?"

Kavanagh sighed. "Have you ever tried to get bureaucrats to change anything? It takes an act of Congress to get softer toilet paper in the restrooms here. As long as the world isn't blowing up, they were content to leave her in charge. Maybe if she'd been removed and sent back to Earth, she would still be alive."

"Maybe she should have been removed," Olivia said. "And maybe Colonel Carter should be reassigned as well."

He shrugged. "She seemed fine at first, but now it seems as if she's going down the same road Dr. Weir did. So yes, maybe it would be best if she left."

"And Dr. Katie Brown? Dr. Antoinette Poole?"

"What?"

"You have a problem with women in charge," Olivia said. "You're a misogynist."

"I am no such thing. I have no problem with women in charge."

"You requested Katie Brown be removed as the head of the botany department when it was feared a plant she had harvested had led to a base-wide instance of memory loss."

He cleared his throat. "At the time..."

"In fact, any time you see an opportunity to remove a woman from power, you grab it."

"I attack incompetence. The fact that these are all women..."

"What about Dr. Rodney McKay? He's not a woman."

Kavanagh stared at her.

"He blew up a solar system two years ago, according to the files Colonel Carter gave me. Dr. Carson Beckett created a retrovirus which nearly killed Colonel Sheppard. And yet, there have been no requests to remove them from duty."

"Dr. McKay is one of the best scientific minds in two galaxies," Kavanagh said. "It would be ludicrous to remove him from duty for something..."

"He's the head of your department, right? If you got him removed, you could be promoted. So it's not a matter of advancement. You just want these women out of power because they're women." She leaned forward. "Do you have a problem with me, Doctor?"

He glared at her through his glasses. "Only in that you're an outsider who has no idea what she's talking about."

"Where were you the night Antoinette Poole was raped?"

"In my quarters. Asleep."

"Alone?"

He smirked again. "Yep."

Olivia leaned back. "Report to the infirmary. I want Dr. Keller to check you out for signs of a particular fungus." She paused and said, "Dr. Keller. She replaced Dr. Beckett, didn't she? A woman taking the place of a man. That can't sit well with you. Get checked as soon as possible." She stood and the door opened. Two guards stepped in and Olivia said, "Make sure he gets to the infirmary."

~

Dr. McKay found Olivia on her way to Sam's office. "Ah, Detective," he said. "Just the woman I was looking for. Sam told me that you were asking about security camera footage. Naturally, we don't have the ability to cover every inch of the base with cameras. Reviewing the footage alone could drive you mad. But I thought of a way around it." They entered the control room and he rounded one of the strange yellow-brown tables.

He took a seat and punched in a series of codes. He pointed over her shoulder at a display on the wall. It showed an overview of the city. As he typed, bright red lights came to life all over the base, with a higher concentration in the central tower. "This is a life-signs monitor. Usually we only need it in real-time, finding out where people are at a certain instance. Finding out where they were isn't as much of a priority. But I got to thinking about the, ah... attack... and I looked at the layout and discovered there was a way to reverse the feed."

He typed another series of commands and the lights disappeared. A few seconds later, they came back in a different formation. He zoomed in. "This is Botany Bay, where Dr. Poole was working." Sure enough, there was a bright red light in the lab. "According to Dr. Keller, the attack was sometime around twelve-thirty or one in the morning. So we just cue it up to that point and..."

Another red light appeared in the corridor. It moved to the doorway. The red light inside the lab moved to the door and met the newcomer. They stood face-to-face, or what Olivia assumed was face-to-face for a moment and then Poole returned to the lab. The second light followed her. The two lights moved together as if they were dancing. They were too close together and the mechanism wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the more minute movements.

But it was obvious what they were watching. McKay shifted uncomfortably and looked down at the controls. He advanced the read-out five minutes and the red light left the room. "Slow it down," Olivia said. He did as she asked and followed the red light through the empty corridors. He stepped into a transport lift and vanished. "Where did he go?"

"No way to tell," McKay said. "One of those transports can go anywhere in the city." He zoomed back out, wound the image back and tried to see when the red light reappeared at another section. It wasn't as hard as it could have been, since the city was practically deserted at that time of night. "There!" he said. He zoomed in again and Olivia watched as the red light stepped back into the corridor. He moved south casually, passing people in the corridor without stopping to greet them.

"Come on," Olivia muttered. "Go back to your quarters..."

"Mm, no," McKay said. "He's nowhere near the quarters."

"Where is he going?"

"Here." The scientist's voice sounded strained, as if admitting that hurt him. "He's coming to Command."

Colonel Sheppard stepped into Command at that moment. Olivia and McKay both stared at him.

Sheppard frowned. "What?"

"Nothing. Coincidence. Sorry," McKay said.

"But just to put my mind at ease, Colonel, where were you the night Dr. Poole was attacked?"

Sheppard smirked playfully. "I was off-world, Detective Benson. Nice alibi, huh? I wasn't on the planet when the crime occurred."

McKay's eyes had widened and he was snapping his fingers. "Ooh. Oh."

"What's wrong with him?" Olivia asked.

"We still haven't quite figured that out. McKay...?"

McKay looked at Sheppard. "You called in a progress report, right?"

"Yeah."

"You hoped someone would be in Command to answer because it was the middle of the night here." To Olivia, he said, "We have to arrange missions and reports around off-world schedules. Some planets have longer days, some planets are shorter..."

"McKay!"

"You called in at, what, two in the morning? The rapist was here, in Command. Who did you speak to?"

Sheppard looked down and his eyes worked back and forth across the floor as he searched his memory. His brow furrowed, he glanced at McKay and then turned and ran.

"Sheppard!" Olivia called. She ran after him, with McKay bringing up the rear. She heard the scientist call for Colonel Carter over his earpiece as they ran through the corridors. Sheppard knocked people out of his way, clearing the path for Olivia and McKay behind him. "Colonel Sheppard!" Olivia called again. "Stop!"

They ran down a corridor and Olivia had to fight not to turn and look out the windows they passed. She kept her eyes on Sheppard's back, wondering if he was fleeing or leading her to a suspect. Either way, she couldn't let him out of her sight.

He finally led them into the commissary. He paused at the doorway and looked around the room, giving Olivia a chance to catch up with him before he rushed off again. He ran onto the upper level, grabbed a guy by the back of his jumpsuit and hauled him out of his chair. Sheppard slammed the guy against the wall and said, "Why the hell did you do it? Huh?"

"Colonel!" Olivia barked. Sam had supplied her with one of the 'zat guns' she had used when she helped Carter's team in New York, but she felt awkward wielding it. Sheppard's face was beet red, his lips pulled back over his teeth. The man he was holding, a thin man with a pronounced jaw and a bulbous nose, looked terrified. There were bags under his eyes and his lip trembled as he looked down at Sheppard. "Colonel, put him down..."

Sam came into the commissary behind Olivia. "Colonel Sheppard!"

Sheppard glanced toward them, saw Sam and relaxed his grip. The technician dropped to his feet and reached up to smooth his jumpsuit out. Sheppard stepped back, seemed about to walk away, and then swung his elbow into the guy's face. The technician crumbled. Sheppard walked up to Olivia and gestured. "That's him. That's the guy who was in Command after Dr. Poole was raped."

"Command...?" Sam said.

"I'll let McKay explain it," Olivia said. She helped the technician up and gestured for two nearby airmen to come over as Sheppard left the commissary. "Take this man into custody. I want to have a nice, long conversation with him."

As the man was led out, McKay came running into the room. "I... it was... God, you two are in good shape..."

Sam ignored McKay and looked at Olivia. "Are you sure?"

"You know Sheppard better than I do. Would he just attack someone like this?"

"No," McKay said. "Especially not Dr. Pierson. He and Sheppard swap Johnny Cash records. They watch football together. He and John are friends."

"Probably not anymore," Olivia said.

~

Dr. Nicholas Pierson was checked out by Dr. Keller to make sure Sheppard hadn't done any permanent damage. In the process, they discovered a particular green fungus on the man's buttocks. He had been in the lab when the flower had bloomed. When Olivia interrogated the man, he had broken down and admitted it. He had pursued Poole for almost two years, ever since she came to Pegasus. She had rebuffed him at every turn. That night in the lab, they had both been on late shifts, alone in their respective stations. He thought it was kismet. When she disagreed, he had taken advantage of it.

The attack had been frustration, he said. He was angry that she had turned him down for two whole years. When he had her on the ground, the rape had just happened. He hadn't even realized he was doing it, he claimed.

Olivia read him his rights and he was removed to the infirmary where the fungus on his ass could be treated before he was returned to Earth for trial.

Sam found Olivia on a balcony overlooking the city. She joined her at the railing and said, "It's gorgeous, isn't it?"

"Now that I get a chance to enjoy it," Olivia said. "It's a shame I'll be leaving soon."

"You could stay," Sam suggested.

Olivia looked down at Sam's hands. "Thank you. But I would rather not be quarantined on Midway with a rapist."

Sam nodded. "Probably wise. Well, then you could stay here until he's gone."

Olivia grinned. "You just want to keep me here."

"We haven't gotten a chance to spend much time together. I didn't expect the case to get wrapped up so quickly."

"I just wish I could have done more to help."

"You did enough," Sam assured her.

Olivia said, "As nice as your offer sounds, I should get back to New York. I won't be suspended forever. Being here, working like this... it's made me realize how much I need to bring people like Dr. Pierson to justice."

"I'm glad," Sam said, even though she sounded anything but. "Let me know when you're ready to leave. I'll go to Midway with you and help you fill the time."

"Sudoku puzzles?" Olivia said.

Sam laughed. "Something like that." She reached over and squeezed Olivia's arm. She stepped off the balcony and went back into the dark corridor. Olivia looked back at the city, the gleaming glass towers reflecting the crystal-clear water below. She didn't know how sincere Sam's offer to stay was, or what kind of duration she had in mind. All she really knew was the main reason she had said no was because she had to. If she didn't get back to New York, back to her suspension and eventually back to SVU, she might be tempted to never leave this barely-believable paradise.

For now, thought, she could just enjoy the view.

~

Sam was right; the third time she went through the Stargate, returning to Midway Station, was much less nerve-wracking. She even took the time to enjoy the trip this time. When she stepped out onto the ramp, she looked around the interior of the station as if it was an old friend. "Well. Two days. Did you bring the Sudokus?"

Sam grinned. "As a matter of fact, I did. But only because I figure one of us will be asleep eventually when the other is awake."

"Smart woman."

"The smartest," Sam said without ego. She pulled Olivia to her and kissed her hard. Olivia broke the kiss and looked into Sam's eyes. "She'll be all right," she said. "Dr. Poole. I've spoken with your doctors and the base psychiatrist. She'll get the help she needs."

"I'm glad. For that, at least, I'm glad you came."

"I couldn't have said no to you, Sam."

Sam smiled. "That's very good to know. Come here." She took Olivia's hand and walked her to the control station. She guided Olivia's hand to the wall and said, "Hold that for a minute, please?"

Olivia gripped it tightly as asked. She turned as Sam walked to the keyboard. She wanted to find a window, something to look out and remind herself that she was in outer space. As she slowly turned, her foot slipped off whatever she had been standing on and she tried to swing it back before she fell. But when she looked down, she could only see the floor beneath her. About six inches below her, to be exact.

Her feet were drifting backward, like being in a swimming pool. "What...?"

Sam drifted close and wrapped her arms around Olivia's waist. "I turned off the artificial gravity. I can always claim a brief malfunction in the official report."

Olivia looked down and saw Sam's feet were also off the ground. Her moves through the air were graceful, easy. Olivia said, "You're flying."

"I have experience with weightlessness," Sam said.

"You have a lot of experience with amazing things," Olivia noted.

Sam released Olivia's hip with one hand and unzipped the front of her jumpsuit. Olivia was wearing the black t-shirt that seemed to be standard uniform on both Atlantis and the Colorado base. Sam spread her fingers over the material, over Olivia's upper chest. "I do," she admitted. "Let me show you a couple of them. And let go of the wall."

Olivia closed her eyes and forced her fingers to relax. They slipped away from the wall and she pulled Sam closer. They were both weightless, but clinging to Sam made Olivia feel a little bit safer.

Sam bowed her head and lightly kissed Olivia's lips. Olivia opened her mouth to Sam's tongue and let herself drift as the two of them floated lazily toward the ceiling.

end