FF: The Longest Time 1/2 NC-17 (SGA) (Cadman/Weir)
Title: The Longest Time
Author: Manda
Show: SGA
Pairing: Laura Cadman/Elizabeth Weir
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Takes place post-Return I, so everything up to and including that episode.
Feedback: Adored, either here, or should the mood strike, at Bellamance@aol.com
A/N: This is the final installment in my "Time" series. *sniffle* I've had fun writing for these ladies, but alas, it's time to move on. At least to another concept with these two. Thanks for reading!
Previous stories in this series can be found here:
The Luxury of Time
Oblivion
Time to Learn
Options and Obligations
Enjoy! ~ Manda
~*~*~
Laura stands at the end of a deserted hallway, cradling her cell phone between her ear and her shoulder. "Please listen to the music while your party is reached." She pulls the phone away, staring in disbelief at the device while some sugary pop song plays through the ear piece. It takes her a moment to recognize Elizabeth's voice cutting through the noise.
"Hello? Laura?"
"Oh, uh, hey... Do you know there's a Jessica Simpson song that plays while I call your phone?"
"There is?"
"Yep."
"Who's Jessica Simpson?"
Laura laughs softly. "Watch a few more hours of TV and you'll find out."
In her apartment, Elizabeth stares at her phone before shaking her head. "Is it at least a decent song?"
"Not really," Laura answers. "Go back to the store and have the guy put on some Mozart. That's a little bit more your style."
"Or at least a decent Rolling Stones song."
"You're a Stones fan?" Although Elizabeth can't see it, she knows Laura's eyes have lit up by the tone in her voice.
"I haven't seen them in concert or anything, but I have a few albums." And she did mean albums. There were some things she could willfully ignore, but the decade's worth of age difference between them wasn't one of them.
"We'll have to listen to them sometime," Laura says. It's the best offer Elizabeth's had in a week - ever since Laura was called away from dinner to go chasing after SG-11.
Laura looks around at the gray walls of the hallway, the dim underground lighting, and sighs. She's on the second level of the mountain, in a rarely used hallway that was once an access point for the ICBMs they used to house before the Cold War ended and the great Galactic Space War they are now in began. It is also the only place she can have privacy enough to use her cell phone and call Elizabeth without going all the way to the surface and hiding out in a supply closet.
"Hey, I know I was supposed to come over tonight, but we're on alert. If there's a problem-"
"-which there always is-" Elizabeth fills in.
"-my team has to be ready to go."
"Of course you do," she sighs. Elizabeth is the one woman in the world who understands Laura's schedule, or lack thereof. It doesn't mean she always likes it. "Don't worry about it. Carson came by for a visit today."
"He did?" Laura asks, feigning nonchallance.
"Yes, he did," Elizabeth responds, not at all fooled. "It seems someone mentioned I might not be adjusting to my new life as well as I should be."
"I swear," Laura explains, her words running together, "Carson and I were having a private discussion in the mess and then Colonel Sheppard just sat down and the next thing I knew he'd talked Carson into coming to see you."
Instead of being angry, Elizabeth laughs. "It's okay Laura. I'm not mad."
"You're not?"
"You were worried about me," Elizabeth says softly. "That's very sweet."
"Maybe if things calm down here I can come by tomorrow night?"
"Actually, you can't. Rodney's coming into town and Carson shanghaied me into going to dinner with him, Rodney, and John."
"That could be a problem," Laura says thoughtfully. "I'm not sure I have enough bail money for all of you."
Over the line she can hear Elizabeth laugh, the soft throaty chuckle that sends sparks shooting across her skin. Her chest tightens with an ache to be somewhere, anywhere else with Elizabeth than where she is right now - stuck underground and on the brink of war.
"I'm hoping it's going to be a quiet evening, but with those three, you never know."
"Just make sure you have plenty of singles on hand for the strippers later."
There is a moment of silence as they both picture that scene: John getting a lap dance, Carson blushing so fiercely he looks purple, Rodney stuttering incoherently as a woman shimmies in front of him, and Elizabeth sitting imperiously over them all, doling out singles and lecturing the strippers on reaching their potential.
At the same time, both women burst into giggles. "Oh my God, I can just picture the look on McKay's face," Laura laughs, her shoulders shaking.
"And poor Carson wouldn't know what to do with himself," Elizabeth says, wiping away moisture from her eyes. "That's just... priceless." Their laughter slowly dies away, leaving in its wake the realization that they will likely never all be together again. Not like the nights on Atlantis when they would share a couch on movie night, or all converge on the mess hall at 2:00 a.m. to bust into the latest stash of ice cream the Daedalus brought back.
"I turned down the job at Stanford," Elizabeth says, changing subjects.
"Why?"
"I didn't like their mascot." She sighs, tempering her sarcasm. "And I don't want to be another 'well-respected' academic. I want something more."
When she had told Carson earlier that she'd been writing her memoirs it hadn't been a lie. She'd been working on them off and on since the first day she'd heard the word Stargate; writing scraps of thoughts here and there, longer diary entries when she could. Now, she was piecing them all together, trying to get it straight in her head how she managed to go from a fairly popular professor at Georgetown who moonlighted in high level diplomatic negotiations to the leader of the greatest expedition of mankind since Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and Apollo 11.
"What do you want Elizabeth?"
Laura is certain her answer is going to be Atlantis. She isn't prepared for the answer Elizabeth does give.
"I want you."
There is a long silence as Laura considers the implications of what Elizabeth has just said. It's something she's wanted to hear for far longer then she is willing to admit just yet. Still, there is something wrong in hearing the words spoken over a cell phone while she hides out in an abandoned hallway.
"We can't do this now," she says, her voice breaking.
"I know," Elizabeth says. "But I didn't want to let it go unsaid any longer. Not when-"
"-Don't," Laura whispers. "Don't say it. Not yet." She doesn't want to think about saying goodbye when she's just been given this glimpse of hope. "What the hell did Carson say to you anyway?" Laura asks, slightly breathless, blatantly deflecting the moment with a joke.
Elizabeth thinks back, picturing the mess her normally tidy apartment was in when he'd arrived, the crossword puzzle she was halfheartedly filling in despite the fact it could have been done an hour before if she'd put some effort into it. It was the embarrassment at having Carson see her like that, so unkempt and lazy, that provided the real kick in the pants as much as his words. It wasn't like her to wallow in self-pity or brood for too long. At some point she reached her own internal barrier and the type A personality that had gotten her through years of academia and politics kicked in and pushed her on to something else. Apparently, this time around, it had needed a little extra help from her pride.
"It wasn't so much what he said, but the fact I was ready to hear it."
"I'm glad. Listen, Elizabeth, you should know I feel-" Laura's voice is drowned out by the sound of klaxons ringing throughout the base. "God damn it," she curses, muttering a few more profanities Elizabeth can't quite make out. "I've got to go."
"Go."
Laura hesitates. "Elizabeth I-"
"Go, Laura, we'll talk later."
"Yes, we will," Laura promises with a smile.
*
A little more than 24 hours later, Elizabeth rushes out of Bill Lee's lab, glaring at Rodney the entire way. "Could you have been any slower?" she demands as they clear the lab hallway.
"I could only go so fast!"
"I was about three seconds away from asking the man out on a date," she hisses. "And what the hell is Warcraft?"
Rodney stops so abruptly she runs into his back. "You don't know what- I can't believe - you know what? Never mind." With a sad shake of his head he walks on looking for all the world as if his entire view on life has been shaken to the core.
"How much time do we have?" Elizabeth asks, hiding a grin.
Rodney checks his watch. "We're supposed to meet Sheppard in thirty minutes at the armory."
"I have something I need to do first."
Rodney looks at her, questioning, but lets it slide. "You better hurry. He hates it when people are late for missions. He does this whole 'sighing' thing... it's actually kind of fun to watch," he says, grinning.
Elizabeth grins back. "I won't be long."
She heads toward the elevator bank, going down two levels to the personnel quarters. Elizabeth's lips quirk into the hint of a smile as she finds the room with Laura's name written on the placard beside the door. As she expected, it is locked and dark since Laura is off world. Taking the note from her pocket, no more than a few hastily written words on a blank piece of paper, she shoves it under the door. With one last look at Laura's name on the plate outside the door, she turns and heads for John's office.
Part Two