Fic: The Long Way Home
Title: The Long Way Home
Author: tigs
Characters: Lorne, Team (gen)
Rating: PG
Recipient: kareswen
Spoilers: General Season 2
Summary: "So, Major," Sheppard said as Lorne stepped through the Stargate and onto the surface of M4X-372, "it seems that you made some friends the last time you were here."
The Long Way Home
"So, Major," Sheppard said as Lorne stepped through the Stargate and onto the surface of M4X-372, "it seems that you made some friends the last time you were here," and he looked as amused as he actually sounded, leaning back against the DHD, and that, Lorne thought, was a relief.
Colonel Caldwell, Lorne was pretty sure, would not have found it amusing.
General O'Neill, back on Earth, Lorne thought, might have, although it would have been masked under sarcasm so deep Lorne wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
Colonel Sheppard was smiling one of those lazy smiles of his, though, the friendly sort, not the dangerous sort, and that was the reason that Lorne started to let himself feel just a little bit flattered. It wasn't *every* day that the people on a planet with a pretty darn good coffee substitute asked for *him* to be the one to come through and help with the negotiating, after all.
"Yes, Sir," Lorne said as he reached Sheppard. "It would appear that I did."
Colonel Caldwell, Lorne was pretty sure, would have humphed at that and maybe would have leveled him with a steady look that wasn't quite a glare.
If he'd been back on Earth, joining SG-1's mission in this capacity, Lorne was pretty sure that General O'Neill would have said, again with that sarcastic edge of his, 'Good of you to come to our rescue, Major.'
Sheppard just clapped him on the shoulder, though, and together they started walking in the direction of the village, about a mile from the Stargate.
The last time Lorne had been to this planet, about three months ago, it had been summer, the weather warm and golden, but it was winter now. The grass of the field in which the Gate was located had previously been up to his knees, green and yellow and bright, but now it was dry and brittle, cracking to dust beneath his boots. The air was now bitter tasting, chilled and biting, making Lorne glad that Sheppard had thought to tell him to bring one of their winter jackets. He could see spots of snow on the ground, still white in the shadows, covering the mountains, the tops of the trees of the forest. There were heavy gray clouds on the horizon, too, and he wouldn't be surprised if they led to more snow soon.
"It wasn't that they *wouldn't* do business with us," Sheppard continued as they walked. "It was just that Elspeth--you remember her?--kept asking how that 'sweet young Major who came through the Gate last time' was, kept wondering why you hadn't been able to make the trip this time. I told her that we'd wanted to meet with them face to face, important allies that they're turning out to be, but--"
"But you decided to come get me anyway, Sir?"
"It was actually McKay," Sheppard said. "He's been salivating over the coffee plant since we got here and I think he's clueing them in to the fact that for us, this plant is a necessary staple and not just a luxury item. He's going to drive the price up if he keeps going on and on about how wonderful it is, so I decided it was time to employ desperate measures. Bring you back, try to even up the playing field again. I mean, having you here can only help us, right?"
"It'll be my pleasure, Sir," Lorne said, smirking too, and they walked in silence until they reached the first of the small houses on the outskirts of the village. Sheppard guided Lorne to the meeting house, located at the very center of the town, and as they were preparing to go in, said, "Okay, Major. Go in there and work your magic."
"Yes, Sir," Lorne said, and then he stepped inside.
*
The last time Lorne had been in the meeting house, the windows had been open, letting in too-warm evening air, the smells of hot earth and baked grasses. Elspeth had given them glasses of cool punch, flavored with fruits and flower petals and Parrish had spent the full two hours of their negotiations trying to (surreptitiously) fish them out of his glass when no one was looking so that he could stick them in his pocket and take them back to Atlantis.
The Olines had laughed when they'd realized what he was doing, and had given him a box full of ingredients at the end of the evening. Parrish had spent the whole of the next week in his lab after that, doing his Botanist thing, and really, Lorne had rarely seen him look so happy.
Today, though, the windows were closed, and there was a large fire in the hearth at the far end of the room, casting the white walls with a deep orange glow. He didn't see any glasses of the cool punch, but he did see steaming mugs of something that smelled warm and thick and just a bit like cinnamon. At least he assumed that that was where the smell was coming from; it very well could have been from the wood on the fire, too.
He stamped his feet as Sheppard let the door close behind them, rubbed his hands together, basking in the sudden heat, letting his body absorb it. Then, he saw a woman drawing closer to him, a large smile on her wide, wrinkled face, and she said, "Nic'las Lorne, you have *come*."
"I *told* you that I'd see what I could do," Sheppard said from behind him, and Lorne could hear the smile in his voice. "I told you that I'd see if I could find him."
And Elspeth, at all of five-foot-two, reached up to pat the Colonel on the cheek, and said, "Yes, you are a good boy, too." Then, she grabbed Lorne by the elbow and led him to the side of the table that the rest of Sheppard's team was sitting on, indicating that he should sit down in the only empty chair--the one which had been Sheppard's, and thus, was in the middle--then motioned for the rest of them to make room for the Colonel, too.
"We will get you drink," Elspeth continued, and even as she spoke, one of her girls came hurrying over, steaming mug in hand, and Lorne gratefully lifted it to his lips, letting the--yes, it was the drink--cinnamon smell tickle at his nose. Then he took a sip, closing his eyes, because it was just as good as the punch had been.
When he opened them again, licking his lips, he found all of Sheppard's team looking at him: Sheppard, still looking amused, Ronon and Teyla also, and Dr. McKay looking something resembling smug.
"It's good," Lorne said, after a moment, blushing slightly and ducking his head, and McKay said, "Well, of course it is. It's made with the imitation coffee plant. Apparently if you add in some--"
"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard said. "We know. You can tell the Major all about the wonders of the plant when we get back to Atlantis, alright?" Then, to Lorne's *own* amusement, he raised his hand and gestured the nearest cup-bearer, one of Elspeth's sons, closer and pointed him at McKay.
Amazingly enough, that stopped McKay's protest before it had even really begun, and that, Lorne thought, was something that he was going to have to remember, in case *he* was ever in the position of being the one that needed to distract the scientist.
"You have come at a good time," Elspeth said, taking her place across the table from them again. She was speaking to Lorne now, as if he was in charge of this mission as he'd been in charge of the last, and for a moment, Lorne felt another flicker of uncertainty. Because just as Colonel Caldwell wouldn't have been amused at asking Lorne to come through the Gate to help with negotiations, he wouldn't have put up with the people they were trading with addressing anyone but him. Lorne was again reminded that Sheppard wasn't Caldwell, though, when he looked over at Sheppard for permission to speak, and Sheppard again gave him a grin, a lazy nod, a go ahead.
He turned back to Elspeth and nodded. "Yes ma'am," he said.
"We are preparing for our winter celebration this coming week, and we look forward to what you may provide for us in exchange for our--what is it that your doctor friend calls it? Our imitation coffee plant?"
"Nearly as good as the real thing," McKay said, raising his mug a few inches off the table, and he was listening intently to Lorne now--more intently than Lorne had ever seen him listen to anything before, actually, which was a little scary, now that Lorne thought about it.
"Well, we hope we'll be able to work out a deal that's satisfactory for both of us," Sheppard said.
"Yes, we trust that you will give us a fair offer," Elspeth said, to Lorne again.
"We will," Teyla said. "And we all, along with Major Lorne, wish to work out an offer that will meet everyone's needs, yes? We hope that you will be as pleased with what we offer today as you were with what Major Lorne offered the last time he was here."
"I'm sure you will be, ma'am," Lorne said. "We try to be as fair as we can in all of our deals."
"And we consider you our friends," Sheppard said, leaning forward. "In these days, we all need as many friends we can get, don't you agree?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Lorne saw Teyla nod. McKay was too engrossed in his drink still, but Ronon, he thought, didn't look quite as earnest. Ronon's negotiating techniques, Lorne was pretty sure, were quite different from those of the Atlantis expedition. In fact, he very well could have imagined the other man sitting at this table, sharpening one of his knives, raising an eyebrow higher, every time Elspeth spoke.
"I do," Elspeth said. Then: "What would you offer us, John Sheppard, friend of Nic'las Lorne's?"
The first time Lorne had been to this planet, it had taken him a good three hours to get to this part of the conversation. Which was about twice as long as the Colonel and his team had been on the planet before Sheppard had gone back to the Stargate, calling for Lorne. He'd blamed it on McKay, of course, but Lorne suddenly wondered if the Colonel hadn't fetched Lorne in an attempt to speed the process up some, too.
Indeed, Lorne almost saw it as confirmation of his suspicions when Sheppard said, "We thought you'd never ask." And with that, he reached for a bag, which had been leaning up against the wall behind him. It was a military knapsack, with a tightly-pulled drawstring on the top, but through the small hole in the top, Lorne could see brightly colored fabric peeking out. Sheppard loosened the string, then pulled out a large square of the fleece cloth, a bright red plaid.
"Our Major said that you were a fan of this here fabric," the Colonel said.
"Yes," Teyla said, shooting the Colonel a *look* across Lorne's body. "He mentioned that you were quite pleased with it the last time we were here?"
It was the truth. Dr. Weir had given his team a bolt of the fleece imported from Earth to take along on the last trading mission, along with medicines and samples of some foods that the botanists had managed to cultivate in the labs. The fabric had been by *far* the most popular. Elspeth had called out for her daughters to feel this, *feel* this, and then, before Lorne's eyes, the bolt of fabric had been passed around the room, so that everyone could touch it, their eyes opening wide with something resembling wonder and awe.
He'd recommended that if they conducted business with the people of this planet again, they take along more of the fabric, and apparently Dr. Weir had taken him at his word, because the next thing out of Sheppard's mouth was, "We have more like this in the Jumper."
Lorne watched Elspeth's eyes go wide, watched as everyone in the room stared at the fabric like they were scientists in the labs, staring at some new piece of Ancient Tech. Yes, Lorne thought, this was probably going to end up being a fair trade.
"And we have many colors this time," Teyla said. "Many patterns."
Off to the side of the room, Lorne heard someone whisper, "The things that we could make--"
Sheppard heard it too, because he raised his eyebrow and said, "Well?"
Elspeth was no longer looking awed, though, a fact that didn't surprise Lorne. There was a reason that she was the designated bargainer of her people, after all, and it wasn't because she let her want show through when face to face with the people that she was making deals with.
"You come with more?" she asked, and Sheppard nodded. Teyla nodded. McKay nodded *enthusiastically*. Ronon just leaned back in his chair. "Show me," she finished, and with that, everyone got up from the table and began to head outdoors.
She and Sheppard took the lead, with Teyla, Ronon, and McKay following closely behind. Lorne let himself hang back, because this was Sheppard's deal, after all, and Lorne was really just there for moral support, no matter what Elspeth thought. He followed at the back of the cluster of people as they made their way out to the Jumper, heard the murmur of the gathered crowd as it became visible again. Then another murmur as the Olines were greeted with three more bags and ten more bolts of fabric.
He made his way up to Sheppard and the rest of the team as Elspeth named a number of bushels of the imitation coffee plant. It sounded more than fair, Lorne thought, but he also knew that she wouldn't think she was getting a fair bargain if there wasn't *some* haggling. She'd think she'd been had if they agreed too quickly, so he frowned at Sheppard.
The Colonel named a price sixty bushels higher, Elspeth said ten, Sheppard said forty, Elspeth said thirty, and Sheppard agreed. Immediately there was the sound of clapping, and Elspeth wrapped one hand around Sheppard's elbow, the other around Lorne's, and the next thing he knew they were being led back into the meeting house.
*
The Oline's winter festival was still a few days away, Lorne knew, but he really couldn't imagine it topping the celebration that they were putting together right now, in the Atlantean's honor. Outside, visible through the windows, several members of the village were cooking meat and vegetables over a large fire. As Lorne watched, relaxed at a table with Sheppard, a succession of families brought plates and bowls of food into the meeting house, filling the large tables that had been set up. In one corner of the room, a group of four musicians were piecing together their instruments, and already some of the young people were dancing together in front of the fireplace.
The room was warm, filled with talk and laughter, a lazy sort of energy, and Lorne was on his third cup of the cinnamon flavored drink when Sheppard leaned over to him and said, "Now this is the sort of native celebration I'm happy to take part in. No secret underground military organizations who just want us for our explosives."
Lorne nodded, because it was nice. Granted, his team didn't seem to have nearly the sort of luck that Sheppard's team did out in the field. No getting captured and held ransom for C4, that sort of thing--something, for which Lorne was extremely grateful--but they had had their own close encounter with a group of natives who'd thought that the only way to greet strangers was by throwing spears.
"It's a nice change of pace," he said, and this time Sheppard nodded. Taking another sip, of his drink, Lorne looked around the room. Teyla was at one of the serving tables, helping the still-arriving families find room for their dishes. McKay, of course, was stalking the pots of coffee, and Ronon was outside, helping to roast the--whatever it was that they were roasting. They all, Lorne thought, looked happy. *Everyone* looked happy.
Except for one woman, standing by one of the far windows of the meeting house, off in the corner, surrounded by seemingly the only shadow in the room. Her head was down and she seemed to be oblivious to the commotion around her, her eyes never leaving the street outside.
Lorne watched her for a few moments--minutes, maybe--sipping his drink, and the next time Elspeth bustled by his and Sheppard's table, he reached out a hand and said, "Excuse me, ma'am."
She stopped immediately, turning her wide smile on him, then said, "Yes, Nic'las? Yes, what may I help you with?"
He heard Sheppard give a small huff of laughter behind him, was sure that there was a smirk on his commander's face, but he studiously ignored him and said, "It's not-- I just saw that one of your women over there--Is something wrong? Is something going on? Anything we can help you with?" Anything we should know about, he didn't say. Watching the play of thoughts over Elspeth's face, he almost felt like he should clarify more, but it sounded so course, he thought, to say 'that woman looks sad. Why?' Especially since it really wasn't any of his business.
Luckily, he didn't have to say anything else, because Elspeth knew who he was talking about: either she'd seen him looking, or maybe she realized that there was only one woman in the room who was acting as if something was wrong. She nodded, but it was more a nod of acknowledgement of Lorne's words, not that something *was* wrong. Because she smiled, too, after a moment and said, "I am sure that it is nothing. Marta's husband left two days ago for a neighboring village, to bring back items for our winter celebration, and he has not yet returned. But it is not the time to worry yet: he may have stayed over an extra night; he may have taken extra time to get to the village." She looked back over her shoulder at the woman, Marta, and then returned her gaze to Lorne, repeating, "It is not yet time to worry."
Lorne nodded, but after Elspeth was gone again, he looked back at Marta. Watched as she sat there, staring out at the slowly setting sun.
*
After dinner, when everyone had eaten their share of the food, the musicians in the corner started playing a lively jig. Teyla was the first to be drawn into a dance, but as Lorne saw two young women making their way towards the table that he was sharing with Colonel Sheppard, he stood up, excusing himself. He'd only needed one dance in high school, after all--the first one of his freshman year, actually--to learn that he and dancing were not meant to coexist in the same reality.
First, he got a refill on his drink, then he looked around the room at the dancing, laughing people, and then, finally, he let his gaze travel far enough and saw that Marta was still staring out the window, a plate of food untouched beside her. After a moment of debate--and accompanied by a knowing (although he was *wrong*) smirk from Sheppard--Lorne walked over to her. It seemed, after all, like the right thing to do. He wasn't trying to be quiet, but she didn't turn to face him as he approached. Didn't even appear to hear him coming at all, actually, because when he said, "Excuse me, ma'am," she jerked, sliding forward on her stool.
After a moment, she turned to face him, and Lorne saw that her eyes were wide and dark, shadowed by bruised-looking circles. Her bottom lip was dry, the skin a dark rough red where she'd been biting at it.
She stared up at him, blinking uncomprehendingly, until he said, "I understand that you're waiting for your husband?"
The woman nodded, then looked back out the window. "He is gone," she said. There was a tremor of something in her voice--certainty, perhaps; a knowledge that the rest of them did not possess. Outside, Lorne saw, snow was beginning to fall in soft flurries, the white of it bright against the gradually darkening sky. Already it was sticking to the sill of the window Marta was sitting at.
"You don't believe that he just decided to spend an extra day in the other village, do you," he said.
She shook her head, a tight, sharp motion, which Lorne would have thought was just a twitch, if he hadn't been watching for it.
"Jakob," she said, "he wouldn't do that. My Jakob, he does what he says. He may not be the most punctual of men, it is true, but he said that he would be back yesterday night, and he was not. There is still time, they tell me. Time before we worry, before we search, but--"
"But you think something's happened," Lorne said.
This time, she nodded. She said, "I am rarely wrong."
She took a moment to glance up at him, for him to see the honest fear in her eyes, and that, Lorne thought, was unacceptable. His father hadn't brought him up to be the sort of man who could just sit by and let a woman look like that, not when he had the power to actually do something about it, so, he turned to look at Sheppard. The Colonel was already one step ahead of him, though; he was standing up and zipping up his jacket, and as Lorne looked around the room he saw that Teyla and Ronon were returning to the table, too.
The only one who wasn't was Dr. McKay, and he was--
"Rodney," Sheppard said. "Come on, get your things. We're going to see if we can help these lovely people find one of their wayward citizens, who may or may not have disappeared between this village and the next."
McKay looked at them, back and forth between the Colonel and Lorne and Marta and the man who was brewing the coffee. He said, "You can't possibly need me for this. You're going to, what? Go fly the Jumper over a few miles of trees? Run some scans? There's absolutely no need for me to--"
For a moment, Lorne was tempted to say that McKay was right, that they probably didn't need him. To say that he could run the scanners competently enough. But the Colonel didn't agree, obviously, because he growled, "*McKay*," and Lorne watched as the scientist truly turned to stare at them, a look of complete and utter disbelief on his face, that he was apparently being asked to choose between doing what he wanted to do and what he was told.
"Sheppard," McKay said, but it was more half-hearted than his previous statement had been, and all it took was another long look from the Colonel--a look that Lorne was going to have to remember, he thought, and perfect--before he continued, saying, "Okay, yes. Fine. I'll just go get my pack--" But Ronon was already handing it to him, so he stopped again, sighed heavily, giving one last longing look to the coffee pot, and then started across the room to where Lorne and Sheppard were standing. Then, with the well wishes of the village folk, they headed out the door.
Lorne, of course, had been expecting to feel the shock of the cold air as they stepped outside again, but there was a marked difference between knowledge and reality, especially when his breath was suddenly visible before his face, and flakes of snow were already catching in his eyelashes.
From behind him, as they trudged towards the Jumper, he thought that he heard McKay say softly to the Colonel, "You don't have to *encourage* his Kirk-ish tendencies, you know." Then, more loudly: "So what's the plan exactly? We're going to, what, fly to this other village, ask if they've seen Marta's husband, and then when he's sitting there by their own nice fire, we're going to say, 'Hi, you remember Major Lorne, don't you? Your friendly neighborhood visitor through the Stargate? Well, apparently your wife was a little worried that you hadn't made it back yet, so she sent us to check up on you. Care for a lift?'"
"Something like that," Sheppard said.
Then they were at the Jumper, climbing inside, and Colonel Sheppard motioned for Lorne to take the front passenger seat. McKay took the one behind Lorne, Teyla the one behind the Colonel, and Ronon crouched down in between their two seats. Lorne watched them as they settled in, and it was comfortable, something they were obviously used to doing, and this was the first time, Lorne thought, that he'd really had the opportunity to watch them like this.
Sheppard put his hands on the Jumper controls and then the ship hummed to life around them, lifted off the ground slightly, but before they went anywhere, before they started flying, the Colonel looked over at Lorne and said, "Okay, so this other village? You know the way?"
Lorne pointed in the direction that Elspeth had indicated as they'd left the meeting house and said, "About a day's walk that way. I don't know how many miles or clicks that would be."
"Well, we'll just keep going until we find it. And if we miss it somehow, I'm sure that McKay'll be able to find a village full of people with our scanners. Won't you, Rodney?"
From behind Lorne there was a "What, what? Oh, of course I will. Nothing could be simpler, Colonel," to which the Colonel responded, "That's what I thought."
So, they started on their way, Sheppard flying close to the trees, low enough so that Lorne could see snow-coated birds nests on some of the thickly entwined branches. Low enough to see the shadowed, rocky ground down below. They flew in the direction that Lorne had pointed in, until suddenly the forest fell away into plains, the village they were searching for *right there*, down below.
They were going fast enough that they were already beyond the town by the time they had a chance to stop, but the Colonel slowed the Jumper down and turned it around, and then they were coming to rest just a few feet away from the houses on the outskirts. Even as the Jumper powered down, Lorne could see the townsfolk peering out of their houses, eyeing them curiously.
After a moment, Sheppard turned to Lorne and said, "You didn't happen to make any friends in this village too, did you?"
Lorne shook his head. "No, Sir," he said. "We didn't come this far in. Remember, we came on foot last time?"
Sheppard nodded, looked out the window at the people who were now stepping outside their houses, supposedly to greet them. He sighed, just a bit, then turned to the rest of his team and said, "Well, the sooner we get outside, the sooner we can hope to get back inside again." That was the cue for all of them to stand up and head on out.
*
Fifteen minutes later, they were back in the Jumper again, but although Lorne knew that the cabin was as warm as it had been during the flight here, he couldn't help but shiver. What the villagers had said was true: Jakob should have made it back home sometime the day before. They shouldn't have even needed to make this trip, because Jakob would have been there to celebrate their successful trade with them.
This time, McKay took the front seat and he wasn't looking all that calm for it. His hands were curved around the armrests, his heel tapping an uneven rhythm on the floor.
"Okay, McKay," Sheppard said. "We're going to go slow and easy this time. You do what you need to do. And I want to know if you see *anything*, anything at all."
"Of course, Colonel," McKay said, in that tone that said, *what do you think I am, stupid?*
"Even if it ends up being a rabbit," Sheppard said, "I want to know about it."
"*Yes*, Colonel. I'm quite familiar with the concept of *scanning for life signs*, thank you very much."
"Rabbits, McKay," Sheppard repeated, and Lorne could practically hear McKay rolling his eyes, even if he couldn't actually see him doing it.
True to his word, the Colonel kept the Jumper moving slowly--so slowly, in fact, that Lorne could see individual leaves on the trees below them waving in the wind. He wasn't quite sure how they were staying afloat, but somehow they were, and at this point, that was all that mattered.
The front windshield was taken up by the ship's sensors, a grid of the land stretched out in front of them across the dark night sky, and Lorne kept his eyes darting back and forth across it, even as McKay watched. It was filled with nothing but trees and mountains, gray and dead, and then all of a sudden, for one split second, Lorne saw a flash of red. He might have thought that he'd imagined it if McKay hadn't spotted it at the same time, or possibly just a split second before, because he was saying, "Colonel. To the left," before Lorne even managed to get his mouth open.
Immediately, the Jumper banked left, but the red dot didn't return. Before McKay could encourage the Colonel to go back the way they'd come, just a bit, Sheppard did just that, and then it was back again, a solid red, directly in their line of sight, stronger than before.
They all stared for a few moments, but then the Colonel said, "Where *is* that?"
"In the mountain, obviously," McKay answered. "These scanners don't take into account something so trivial as solid rock, you know."
"So, what?" Sheppard asked. "He got lost? He decided to take a detour into the mountains?"
"We don't even know if this is the husband," McKay said. "For all we know, Colonel, it could be a *bear*. Or this planet's equivalent of a bear, anyway."
"Then we'll go find ourselves a bear, I guess," Sheppard said, and already he was looking around for a place to land the Jumper.
Unfortunately, as Lorne well knew from his own experiences, you couldn't just park a Jumper *anywhere*. Like, say, in the trees, or by standing it on its end, so that it would fit into a particularly small grove. The forest was pretty dense, too, and while the nearest grove was only a few seconds flight away, Lorne knew it was going to be a good ten to fifteen minute walk. Already, even as they came to rest, he was starting to feel twitchy, because with every minute that passed the world was becoming whiter, the snow slightly thicker, and the air outside even colder.
If this was the second night that Marta's husband had spent out in this weather, well... Lorne really didn't want to think about that.
Again, Lorne tried to prepare himself for the sudden chill when Ronon opened the hatch, but again he was unsuccessful. He pulled his jacket more tightly around him, heard McKay mumbling something about dying from hypothermia, blizzards and whiteouts.
"It's not a blizzard yet," Sheppard said.
"*Yet* being the operative word," McKay said.
"Which is why we should get started now," the Colonel said, and then he was out the hatch and walking through the already accumulating snow.
Indeed, it was only a ten-minute walk to the mountains--Lorne knew it, although it felt longer, like they were lost in a quiet, empty world. They walked in a relatively straight line, McKay with his life signs detector held out in front of him, moving it this way and that, until he said, "Ah ha!"
At that, they all stopped and gathered around the scanner, staring at the pale, flashing dot that was now visible at the very edge of the screen. Sheppard turned to look over his shoulder at the mountains, then said, "Okay. Let's go find out if this is him. Let's hope that it is."
Lorne nodded, as did Teyla and Ronon. Stopping, even for this short amount of time, was already making the cold seem more oppressive, making him not want to talk, conserve what heat he could.
"Let's go," the Colonel repeated, and started forward again.
When they reached the mountain, though, and they came to the spot where the blinking dot should have been, they found themselves faced with a wall of solid rock. It took another five minutes of searching to find the entrance to the cave, then another three or four to work their way through the stone maze inside. The path was uneven, the sound of their boots crunching over loose gravel loud in Lorne's ears, as was McKay's constant litany of words, complaints.
Another turn, another, and suddenly Lorne saw orange reflected off of stone. He recognized firelight when he saw it, and his first instinct was to speed up, to see if this was their man, but he made himself slow, even before Sheppard raised a hand in the universal signal for stop. Then, motioning for Lorne to join him in the lead, they started forward again, quietly, weapons at the ready.
A final turn, and they were looking into the cave, at the small fire and the man huddled beside it. He had a rucksack beside him, a jacket pulled tightly around his shoulders, and he was looking up at them with wide, dark eyes that glinted in the firelight. He blinked once, twice, and then his brow furrowed.
"Nic'las Lorne?" he asked, sounding confused. His voice was weak, thin and tight, and his face was pale and drawn.
"Jakob?" Sheppard asked, and when the other man nodded, Lorne stepped forward, lowering his weapon. He looked the man up and down and saw a thick bandage had been wrapped around his ankle.
"You're hurt," he said.
Jakob nodded. "Yesterday," he said, his voice cracking. "I tripped. The distance was too great to make it back to my village, or to return to the other village. I knew of this cave from my younger years, I thought to wait out the storm. Wait for the others to find me, but I had not thought today--I had thought tomorrow, possibly."
"Your wife," Sheppard said. "She's very worried about you."
"She was sure something was wrong," Lorne said, watched as Jakob nodded, and Lorne thought he looked a little bit warmer at the thought.
"My Marta," Jakob said. "She has good senses."
"That she does," Sheppard said. "Now, how about we get you out of here, get you back to your very worried wife."
Again, Jakob nodded, and started struggling to get up. Sheppard put out a hand, though, halting him, them motioned Ronon forward, and together they helped the man stand. Lorne picked up the pack, while Teyla put out the fire. McKay, he saw, was hovering around Sheppard and Ronon, looking, almost, as if he wanted to help, but not knowing what to do, how to ask.
Sheppard seemed to sense the same thing, because he said, "McKay, you're in charge of getting us back to our Jumper, okay?"
"Okay," McKay said, looking grateful, and Lorne watched as he pulled out his scanner again. "Okay, I can do that. That's what I'm here for, isn't it? To navigate." Then, as they started forward again, Jakob wincing with ever step that he took, McKay said, "This is a scanner, see. It's what we used to find you."
"Uh huh," Jakob said, as they made the first turn.
Watching them go, Lorne hefted the pack onto his shoulders, then turned to Teyla, waiting as she stamped out the last of the embers. He raised an eyebrow, a silent, ready to go? and she nodded, yes. McKay's voice was echoing off of the tunnel in front of them, a constant stream of chatter. He couldn't help rolling his eyes, just a little bit, before looking over at Teyla to see if she agreed.
She was smiling in the direction that the others had gone, though. "Dr. McKay," she said, "can drive anyone to distraction." Then she started forward, too, and Lorne thought, huh.
He thought, for a moment, that maybe Sheppard really had known what he was doing, insisting McKay come along, too.
*
The lights in the meeting house were still burning when Lorne and company returned; indeed, the whole town seemed to still be there, up and about, and most of them were pouring out the door when the Jumper landed. Lorne wasn't paying attention to Elspeth, though, who was hurrying forward, or to any of the young people that were crowding around them. His eyes went to the window in the corner of the building, where the lone woman sat. She was no longer looking depressed, though. No, now she was looking shocked. Standing slowly, a hand at her breast, another one coming up to touch at her lips.
Lorne watched as she left her spot, watched through the windowpanes as she made her way to the door, as she stood there for several long moments, illuminated by firelight.
He watched as Ronon helped Jakob to her, McKay hovering on his other side and talking about Ancient technologies still, as he had been for the last half hour. He watched as Marta stared at her husband, let him come about halfway to her, and then she dashed forward, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his neck.
There were cheers from the crowd, and Lorne found himself surrounded by well-wishers, people saying thank you, Elspeth patting his arm and saying, "You are a good boy, Nic'las Lorne. You are a *good* boy," even when Lorne tried to say that it wasn't him, really. It was Sheppard, the rest of his team, all of them.
Then, what felt like only a few minutes later, they were all back in the Jumper, several bushels of imitation coffee plant richer (a thank you gift from the people of the village, one which Elspeth would not let them refuse) and on their way back to Atlantis.
Dr. Weir came to greet them in the Jumper Bay, smiling and nodding at them as they disembarked. She said, "I'm going to assume that since I haven't heard otherwise, the trip went well after Major Lorne joined you?"
"Well, we got what we went there for," Sheppard said, raising a bag of the imitation coffee plant for all assembled personnel to see. "So yes, I'd say that the mission was a success."
Dr. Weir looked at Lorne as the Colonel spoke, perhaps looking for confirmation that things had really been that easy. Lorne nodded--the full tale of their trip could wait until the debriefing--but as McKay came down the ramp to join them on the floor, he said, "Oh, don't be modest. It doesn't become either one of you."
Now Dr. Weir raised an eyebrow, an *is there something I should know about?* look.
"What Rodney's trying to say," Sheppard said, "is that I think we can officially label the Olines our allies. We were able to help them out of a little jamb while we were there."
McKay said, "We rescued one of their people from certain death, Colonel. I'd say that that's more than a 'little jamb.'" Then, looking back at Dr. Weir, he continued: "They gave us twenty more bushels of the plant as a thank you."
"I see," Dr. Weir said slowly. "Well, I'll look forward to hearing all about it. Shall we say in one hour?"
Sheppard nodded, agreeing for all of them, and then the personnel began to disburse again. Lorne watched as McKay headed off to join the rest of the scientists, already telling tales of the daring rescue, the blizzard-like conditions, all of the new ways to prepare the coffee plant that he'd been shown. He watched as soldiers began unloading the back of the Jumper, lugging the bags in the direction of the kitchen; as Ronon and Teyla gathered their belongings and headed back towards the main part of the city.
He turned to the Colonel, but before he could say anything, Sheppard said, "You did good out there today, Major."
"We, Sir," Lorne said. "You really were the ones--"
Sheppard shrugged, interrupting him. "I don't know about that. You were the one to notice that something was wrong in the first place and that's certainly half the battle. Plus, the Olines have taken a liking to you, and between this visit and your last one, I think we can safely say that they consider you a true friend." He paused for a moment. "And we all know that that doesn't happen too often in this galaxy, but when it does, it's a relationship we want to cultivate. Today it's imitation coffee, but tomorrow, who knows? It could be a ZPM, an extra set of hands in fighting the Wraith, or a safe planet when we need it. You never know."
Lorne nodded.
"I think, Major, that when we debrief with Dr. Weir, I'm going to recommend that you be the designated liaison to the Olines. We don't have so many allies now that we don't want to keep those that we do have happy and dealing with you definitely seems to make them happy. Would that suit you?"
Lorne looked over his shoulder at the Jumper, at the soldiers who were still unloading the bags and bushels, and said, "Yes, Sir."
End.
Author: tigs
Characters: Lorne, Team (gen)
Rating: PG
Recipient: kareswen
Spoilers: General Season 2
Summary: "So, Major," Sheppard said as Lorne stepped through the Stargate and onto the surface of M4X-372, "it seems that you made some friends the last time you were here."
The Long Way Home
"So, Major," Sheppard said as Lorne stepped through the Stargate and onto the surface of M4X-372, "it seems that you made some friends the last time you were here," and he looked as amused as he actually sounded, leaning back against the DHD, and that, Lorne thought, was a relief.
Colonel Caldwell, Lorne was pretty sure, would not have found it amusing.
General O'Neill, back on Earth, Lorne thought, might have, although it would have been masked under sarcasm so deep Lorne wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
Colonel Sheppard was smiling one of those lazy smiles of his, though, the friendly sort, not the dangerous sort, and that was the reason that Lorne started to let himself feel just a little bit flattered. It wasn't *every* day that the people on a planet with a pretty darn good coffee substitute asked for *him* to be the one to come through and help with the negotiating, after all.
"Yes, Sir," Lorne said as he reached Sheppard. "It would appear that I did."
Colonel Caldwell, Lorne was pretty sure, would have humphed at that and maybe would have leveled him with a steady look that wasn't quite a glare.
If he'd been back on Earth, joining SG-1's mission in this capacity, Lorne was pretty sure that General O'Neill would have said, again with that sarcastic edge of his, 'Good of you to come to our rescue, Major.'
Sheppard just clapped him on the shoulder, though, and together they started walking in the direction of the village, about a mile from the Stargate.
The last time Lorne had been to this planet, about three months ago, it had been summer, the weather warm and golden, but it was winter now. The grass of the field in which the Gate was located had previously been up to his knees, green and yellow and bright, but now it was dry and brittle, cracking to dust beneath his boots. The air was now bitter tasting, chilled and biting, making Lorne glad that Sheppard had thought to tell him to bring one of their winter jackets. He could see spots of snow on the ground, still white in the shadows, covering the mountains, the tops of the trees of the forest. There were heavy gray clouds on the horizon, too, and he wouldn't be surprised if they led to more snow soon.
"It wasn't that they *wouldn't* do business with us," Sheppard continued as they walked. "It was just that Elspeth--you remember her?--kept asking how that 'sweet young Major who came through the Gate last time' was, kept wondering why you hadn't been able to make the trip this time. I told her that we'd wanted to meet with them face to face, important allies that they're turning out to be, but--"
"But you decided to come get me anyway, Sir?"
"It was actually McKay," Sheppard said. "He's been salivating over the coffee plant since we got here and I think he's clueing them in to the fact that for us, this plant is a necessary staple and not just a luxury item. He's going to drive the price up if he keeps going on and on about how wonderful it is, so I decided it was time to employ desperate measures. Bring you back, try to even up the playing field again. I mean, having you here can only help us, right?"
"It'll be my pleasure, Sir," Lorne said, smirking too, and they walked in silence until they reached the first of the small houses on the outskirts of the village. Sheppard guided Lorne to the meeting house, located at the very center of the town, and as they were preparing to go in, said, "Okay, Major. Go in there and work your magic."
"Yes, Sir," Lorne said, and then he stepped inside.
*
The last time Lorne had been in the meeting house, the windows had been open, letting in too-warm evening air, the smells of hot earth and baked grasses. Elspeth had given them glasses of cool punch, flavored with fruits and flower petals and Parrish had spent the full two hours of their negotiations trying to (surreptitiously) fish them out of his glass when no one was looking so that he could stick them in his pocket and take them back to Atlantis.
The Olines had laughed when they'd realized what he was doing, and had given him a box full of ingredients at the end of the evening. Parrish had spent the whole of the next week in his lab after that, doing his Botanist thing, and really, Lorne had rarely seen him look so happy.
Today, though, the windows were closed, and there was a large fire in the hearth at the far end of the room, casting the white walls with a deep orange glow. He didn't see any glasses of the cool punch, but he did see steaming mugs of something that smelled warm and thick and just a bit like cinnamon. At least he assumed that that was where the smell was coming from; it very well could have been from the wood on the fire, too.
He stamped his feet as Sheppard let the door close behind them, rubbed his hands together, basking in the sudden heat, letting his body absorb it. Then, he saw a woman drawing closer to him, a large smile on her wide, wrinkled face, and she said, "Nic'las Lorne, you have *come*."
"I *told* you that I'd see what I could do," Sheppard said from behind him, and Lorne could hear the smile in his voice. "I told you that I'd see if I could find him."
And Elspeth, at all of five-foot-two, reached up to pat the Colonel on the cheek, and said, "Yes, you are a good boy, too." Then, she grabbed Lorne by the elbow and led him to the side of the table that the rest of Sheppard's team was sitting on, indicating that he should sit down in the only empty chair--the one which had been Sheppard's, and thus, was in the middle--then motioned for the rest of them to make room for the Colonel, too.
"We will get you drink," Elspeth continued, and even as she spoke, one of her girls came hurrying over, steaming mug in hand, and Lorne gratefully lifted it to his lips, letting the--yes, it was the drink--cinnamon smell tickle at his nose. Then he took a sip, closing his eyes, because it was just as good as the punch had been.
When he opened them again, licking his lips, he found all of Sheppard's team looking at him: Sheppard, still looking amused, Ronon and Teyla also, and Dr. McKay looking something resembling smug.
"It's good," Lorne said, after a moment, blushing slightly and ducking his head, and McKay said, "Well, of course it is. It's made with the imitation coffee plant. Apparently if you add in some--"
"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard said. "We know. You can tell the Major all about the wonders of the plant when we get back to Atlantis, alright?" Then, to Lorne's *own* amusement, he raised his hand and gestured the nearest cup-bearer, one of Elspeth's sons, closer and pointed him at McKay.
Amazingly enough, that stopped McKay's protest before it had even really begun, and that, Lorne thought, was something that he was going to have to remember, in case *he* was ever in the position of being the one that needed to distract the scientist.
"You have come at a good time," Elspeth said, taking her place across the table from them again. She was speaking to Lorne now, as if he was in charge of this mission as he'd been in charge of the last, and for a moment, Lorne felt another flicker of uncertainty. Because just as Colonel Caldwell wouldn't have been amused at asking Lorne to come through the Gate to help with negotiations, he wouldn't have put up with the people they were trading with addressing anyone but him. Lorne was again reminded that Sheppard wasn't Caldwell, though, when he looked over at Sheppard for permission to speak, and Sheppard again gave him a grin, a lazy nod, a go ahead.
He turned back to Elspeth and nodded. "Yes ma'am," he said.
"We are preparing for our winter celebration this coming week, and we look forward to what you may provide for us in exchange for our--what is it that your doctor friend calls it? Our imitation coffee plant?"
"Nearly as good as the real thing," McKay said, raising his mug a few inches off the table, and he was listening intently to Lorne now--more intently than Lorne had ever seen him listen to anything before, actually, which was a little scary, now that Lorne thought about it.
"Well, we hope we'll be able to work out a deal that's satisfactory for both of us," Sheppard said.
"Yes, we trust that you will give us a fair offer," Elspeth said, to Lorne again.
"We will," Teyla said. "And we all, along with Major Lorne, wish to work out an offer that will meet everyone's needs, yes? We hope that you will be as pleased with what we offer today as you were with what Major Lorne offered the last time he was here."
"I'm sure you will be, ma'am," Lorne said. "We try to be as fair as we can in all of our deals."
"And we consider you our friends," Sheppard said, leaning forward. "In these days, we all need as many friends we can get, don't you agree?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Lorne saw Teyla nod. McKay was too engrossed in his drink still, but Ronon, he thought, didn't look quite as earnest. Ronon's negotiating techniques, Lorne was pretty sure, were quite different from those of the Atlantis expedition. In fact, he very well could have imagined the other man sitting at this table, sharpening one of his knives, raising an eyebrow higher, every time Elspeth spoke.
"I do," Elspeth said. Then: "What would you offer us, John Sheppard, friend of Nic'las Lorne's?"
The first time Lorne had been to this planet, it had taken him a good three hours to get to this part of the conversation. Which was about twice as long as the Colonel and his team had been on the planet before Sheppard had gone back to the Stargate, calling for Lorne. He'd blamed it on McKay, of course, but Lorne suddenly wondered if the Colonel hadn't fetched Lorne in an attempt to speed the process up some, too.
Indeed, Lorne almost saw it as confirmation of his suspicions when Sheppard said, "We thought you'd never ask." And with that, he reached for a bag, which had been leaning up against the wall behind him. It was a military knapsack, with a tightly-pulled drawstring on the top, but through the small hole in the top, Lorne could see brightly colored fabric peeking out. Sheppard loosened the string, then pulled out a large square of the fleece cloth, a bright red plaid.
"Our Major said that you were a fan of this here fabric," the Colonel said.
"Yes," Teyla said, shooting the Colonel a *look* across Lorne's body. "He mentioned that you were quite pleased with it the last time we were here?"
It was the truth. Dr. Weir had given his team a bolt of the fleece imported from Earth to take along on the last trading mission, along with medicines and samples of some foods that the botanists had managed to cultivate in the labs. The fabric had been by *far* the most popular. Elspeth had called out for her daughters to feel this, *feel* this, and then, before Lorne's eyes, the bolt of fabric had been passed around the room, so that everyone could touch it, their eyes opening wide with something resembling wonder and awe.
He'd recommended that if they conducted business with the people of this planet again, they take along more of the fabric, and apparently Dr. Weir had taken him at his word, because the next thing out of Sheppard's mouth was, "We have more like this in the Jumper."
Lorne watched Elspeth's eyes go wide, watched as everyone in the room stared at the fabric like they were scientists in the labs, staring at some new piece of Ancient Tech. Yes, Lorne thought, this was probably going to end up being a fair trade.
"And we have many colors this time," Teyla said. "Many patterns."
Off to the side of the room, Lorne heard someone whisper, "The things that we could make--"
Sheppard heard it too, because he raised his eyebrow and said, "Well?"
Elspeth was no longer looking awed, though, a fact that didn't surprise Lorne. There was a reason that she was the designated bargainer of her people, after all, and it wasn't because she let her want show through when face to face with the people that she was making deals with.
"You come with more?" she asked, and Sheppard nodded. Teyla nodded. McKay nodded *enthusiastically*. Ronon just leaned back in his chair. "Show me," she finished, and with that, everyone got up from the table and began to head outdoors.
She and Sheppard took the lead, with Teyla, Ronon, and McKay following closely behind. Lorne let himself hang back, because this was Sheppard's deal, after all, and Lorne was really just there for moral support, no matter what Elspeth thought. He followed at the back of the cluster of people as they made their way out to the Jumper, heard the murmur of the gathered crowd as it became visible again. Then another murmur as the Olines were greeted with three more bags and ten more bolts of fabric.
He made his way up to Sheppard and the rest of the team as Elspeth named a number of bushels of the imitation coffee plant. It sounded more than fair, Lorne thought, but he also knew that she wouldn't think she was getting a fair bargain if there wasn't *some* haggling. She'd think she'd been had if they agreed too quickly, so he frowned at Sheppard.
The Colonel named a price sixty bushels higher, Elspeth said ten, Sheppard said forty, Elspeth said thirty, and Sheppard agreed. Immediately there was the sound of clapping, and Elspeth wrapped one hand around Sheppard's elbow, the other around Lorne's, and the next thing he knew they were being led back into the meeting house.
*
The Oline's winter festival was still a few days away, Lorne knew, but he really couldn't imagine it topping the celebration that they were putting together right now, in the Atlantean's honor. Outside, visible through the windows, several members of the village were cooking meat and vegetables over a large fire. As Lorne watched, relaxed at a table with Sheppard, a succession of families brought plates and bowls of food into the meeting house, filling the large tables that had been set up. In one corner of the room, a group of four musicians were piecing together their instruments, and already some of the young people were dancing together in front of the fireplace.
The room was warm, filled with talk and laughter, a lazy sort of energy, and Lorne was on his third cup of the cinnamon flavored drink when Sheppard leaned over to him and said, "Now this is the sort of native celebration I'm happy to take part in. No secret underground military organizations who just want us for our explosives."
Lorne nodded, because it was nice. Granted, his team didn't seem to have nearly the sort of luck that Sheppard's team did out in the field. No getting captured and held ransom for C4, that sort of thing--something, for which Lorne was extremely grateful--but they had had their own close encounter with a group of natives who'd thought that the only way to greet strangers was by throwing spears.
"It's a nice change of pace," he said, and this time Sheppard nodded. Taking another sip, of his drink, Lorne looked around the room. Teyla was at one of the serving tables, helping the still-arriving families find room for their dishes. McKay, of course, was stalking the pots of coffee, and Ronon was outside, helping to roast the--whatever it was that they were roasting. They all, Lorne thought, looked happy. *Everyone* looked happy.
Except for one woman, standing by one of the far windows of the meeting house, off in the corner, surrounded by seemingly the only shadow in the room. Her head was down and she seemed to be oblivious to the commotion around her, her eyes never leaving the street outside.
Lorne watched her for a few moments--minutes, maybe--sipping his drink, and the next time Elspeth bustled by his and Sheppard's table, he reached out a hand and said, "Excuse me, ma'am."
She stopped immediately, turning her wide smile on him, then said, "Yes, Nic'las? Yes, what may I help you with?"
He heard Sheppard give a small huff of laughter behind him, was sure that there was a smirk on his commander's face, but he studiously ignored him and said, "It's not-- I just saw that one of your women over there--Is something wrong? Is something going on? Anything we can help you with?" Anything we should know about, he didn't say. Watching the play of thoughts over Elspeth's face, he almost felt like he should clarify more, but it sounded so course, he thought, to say 'that woman looks sad. Why?' Especially since it really wasn't any of his business.
Luckily, he didn't have to say anything else, because Elspeth knew who he was talking about: either she'd seen him looking, or maybe she realized that there was only one woman in the room who was acting as if something was wrong. She nodded, but it was more a nod of acknowledgement of Lorne's words, not that something *was* wrong. Because she smiled, too, after a moment and said, "I am sure that it is nothing. Marta's husband left two days ago for a neighboring village, to bring back items for our winter celebration, and he has not yet returned. But it is not the time to worry yet: he may have stayed over an extra night; he may have taken extra time to get to the village." She looked back over her shoulder at the woman, Marta, and then returned her gaze to Lorne, repeating, "It is not yet time to worry."
Lorne nodded, but after Elspeth was gone again, he looked back at Marta. Watched as she sat there, staring out at the slowly setting sun.
*
After dinner, when everyone had eaten their share of the food, the musicians in the corner started playing a lively jig. Teyla was the first to be drawn into a dance, but as Lorne saw two young women making their way towards the table that he was sharing with Colonel Sheppard, he stood up, excusing himself. He'd only needed one dance in high school, after all--the first one of his freshman year, actually--to learn that he and dancing were not meant to coexist in the same reality.
First, he got a refill on his drink, then he looked around the room at the dancing, laughing people, and then, finally, he let his gaze travel far enough and saw that Marta was still staring out the window, a plate of food untouched beside her. After a moment of debate--and accompanied by a knowing (although he was *wrong*) smirk from Sheppard--Lorne walked over to her. It seemed, after all, like the right thing to do. He wasn't trying to be quiet, but she didn't turn to face him as he approached. Didn't even appear to hear him coming at all, actually, because when he said, "Excuse me, ma'am," she jerked, sliding forward on her stool.
After a moment, she turned to face him, and Lorne saw that her eyes were wide and dark, shadowed by bruised-looking circles. Her bottom lip was dry, the skin a dark rough red where she'd been biting at it.
She stared up at him, blinking uncomprehendingly, until he said, "I understand that you're waiting for your husband?"
The woman nodded, then looked back out the window. "He is gone," she said. There was a tremor of something in her voice--certainty, perhaps; a knowledge that the rest of them did not possess. Outside, Lorne saw, snow was beginning to fall in soft flurries, the white of it bright against the gradually darkening sky. Already it was sticking to the sill of the window Marta was sitting at.
"You don't believe that he just decided to spend an extra day in the other village, do you," he said.
She shook her head, a tight, sharp motion, which Lorne would have thought was just a twitch, if he hadn't been watching for it.
"Jakob," she said, "he wouldn't do that. My Jakob, he does what he says. He may not be the most punctual of men, it is true, but he said that he would be back yesterday night, and he was not. There is still time, they tell me. Time before we worry, before we search, but--"
"But you think something's happened," Lorne said.
This time, she nodded. She said, "I am rarely wrong."
She took a moment to glance up at him, for him to see the honest fear in her eyes, and that, Lorne thought, was unacceptable. His father hadn't brought him up to be the sort of man who could just sit by and let a woman look like that, not when he had the power to actually do something about it, so, he turned to look at Sheppard. The Colonel was already one step ahead of him, though; he was standing up and zipping up his jacket, and as Lorne looked around the room he saw that Teyla and Ronon were returning to the table, too.
The only one who wasn't was Dr. McKay, and he was--
"Rodney," Sheppard said. "Come on, get your things. We're going to see if we can help these lovely people find one of their wayward citizens, who may or may not have disappeared between this village and the next."
McKay looked at them, back and forth between the Colonel and Lorne and Marta and the man who was brewing the coffee. He said, "You can't possibly need me for this. You're going to, what? Go fly the Jumper over a few miles of trees? Run some scans? There's absolutely no need for me to--"
For a moment, Lorne was tempted to say that McKay was right, that they probably didn't need him. To say that he could run the scanners competently enough. But the Colonel didn't agree, obviously, because he growled, "*McKay*," and Lorne watched as the scientist truly turned to stare at them, a look of complete and utter disbelief on his face, that he was apparently being asked to choose between doing what he wanted to do and what he was told.
"Sheppard," McKay said, but it was more half-hearted than his previous statement had been, and all it took was another long look from the Colonel--a look that Lorne was going to have to remember, he thought, and perfect--before he continued, saying, "Okay, yes. Fine. I'll just go get my pack--" But Ronon was already handing it to him, so he stopped again, sighed heavily, giving one last longing look to the coffee pot, and then started across the room to where Lorne and Sheppard were standing. Then, with the well wishes of the village folk, they headed out the door.
Lorne, of course, had been expecting to feel the shock of the cold air as they stepped outside again, but there was a marked difference between knowledge and reality, especially when his breath was suddenly visible before his face, and flakes of snow were already catching in his eyelashes.
From behind him, as they trudged towards the Jumper, he thought that he heard McKay say softly to the Colonel, "You don't have to *encourage* his Kirk-ish tendencies, you know." Then, more loudly: "So what's the plan exactly? We're going to, what, fly to this other village, ask if they've seen Marta's husband, and then when he's sitting there by their own nice fire, we're going to say, 'Hi, you remember Major Lorne, don't you? Your friendly neighborhood visitor through the Stargate? Well, apparently your wife was a little worried that you hadn't made it back yet, so she sent us to check up on you. Care for a lift?'"
"Something like that," Sheppard said.
Then they were at the Jumper, climbing inside, and Colonel Sheppard motioned for Lorne to take the front passenger seat. McKay took the one behind Lorne, Teyla the one behind the Colonel, and Ronon crouched down in between their two seats. Lorne watched them as they settled in, and it was comfortable, something they were obviously used to doing, and this was the first time, Lorne thought, that he'd really had the opportunity to watch them like this.
Sheppard put his hands on the Jumper controls and then the ship hummed to life around them, lifted off the ground slightly, but before they went anywhere, before they started flying, the Colonel looked over at Lorne and said, "Okay, so this other village? You know the way?"
Lorne pointed in the direction that Elspeth had indicated as they'd left the meeting house and said, "About a day's walk that way. I don't know how many miles or clicks that would be."
"Well, we'll just keep going until we find it. And if we miss it somehow, I'm sure that McKay'll be able to find a village full of people with our scanners. Won't you, Rodney?"
From behind Lorne there was a "What, what? Oh, of course I will. Nothing could be simpler, Colonel," to which the Colonel responded, "That's what I thought."
So, they started on their way, Sheppard flying close to the trees, low enough so that Lorne could see snow-coated birds nests on some of the thickly entwined branches. Low enough to see the shadowed, rocky ground down below. They flew in the direction that Lorne had pointed in, until suddenly the forest fell away into plains, the village they were searching for *right there*, down below.
They were going fast enough that they were already beyond the town by the time they had a chance to stop, but the Colonel slowed the Jumper down and turned it around, and then they were coming to rest just a few feet away from the houses on the outskirts. Even as the Jumper powered down, Lorne could see the townsfolk peering out of their houses, eyeing them curiously.
After a moment, Sheppard turned to Lorne and said, "You didn't happen to make any friends in this village too, did you?"
Lorne shook his head. "No, Sir," he said. "We didn't come this far in. Remember, we came on foot last time?"
Sheppard nodded, looked out the window at the people who were now stepping outside their houses, supposedly to greet them. He sighed, just a bit, then turned to the rest of his team and said, "Well, the sooner we get outside, the sooner we can hope to get back inside again." That was the cue for all of them to stand up and head on out.
*
Fifteen minutes later, they were back in the Jumper again, but although Lorne knew that the cabin was as warm as it had been during the flight here, he couldn't help but shiver. What the villagers had said was true: Jakob should have made it back home sometime the day before. They shouldn't have even needed to make this trip, because Jakob would have been there to celebrate their successful trade with them.
This time, McKay took the front seat and he wasn't looking all that calm for it. His hands were curved around the armrests, his heel tapping an uneven rhythm on the floor.
"Okay, McKay," Sheppard said. "We're going to go slow and easy this time. You do what you need to do. And I want to know if you see *anything*, anything at all."
"Of course, Colonel," McKay said, in that tone that said, *what do you think I am, stupid?*
"Even if it ends up being a rabbit," Sheppard said, "I want to know about it."
"*Yes*, Colonel. I'm quite familiar with the concept of *scanning for life signs*, thank you very much."
"Rabbits, McKay," Sheppard repeated, and Lorne could practically hear McKay rolling his eyes, even if he couldn't actually see him doing it.
True to his word, the Colonel kept the Jumper moving slowly--so slowly, in fact, that Lorne could see individual leaves on the trees below them waving in the wind. He wasn't quite sure how they were staying afloat, but somehow they were, and at this point, that was all that mattered.
The front windshield was taken up by the ship's sensors, a grid of the land stretched out in front of them across the dark night sky, and Lorne kept his eyes darting back and forth across it, even as McKay watched. It was filled with nothing but trees and mountains, gray and dead, and then all of a sudden, for one split second, Lorne saw a flash of red. He might have thought that he'd imagined it if McKay hadn't spotted it at the same time, or possibly just a split second before, because he was saying, "Colonel. To the left," before Lorne even managed to get his mouth open.
Immediately, the Jumper banked left, but the red dot didn't return. Before McKay could encourage the Colonel to go back the way they'd come, just a bit, Sheppard did just that, and then it was back again, a solid red, directly in their line of sight, stronger than before.
They all stared for a few moments, but then the Colonel said, "Where *is* that?"
"In the mountain, obviously," McKay answered. "These scanners don't take into account something so trivial as solid rock, you know."
"So, what?" Sheppard asked. "He got lost? He decided to take a detour into the mountains?"
"We don't even know if this is the husband," McKay said. "For all we know, Colonel, it could be a *bear*. Or this planet's equivalent of a bear, anyway."
"Then we'll go find ourselves a bear, I guess," Sheppard said, and already he was looking around for a place to land the Jumper.
Unfortunately, as Lorne well knew from his own experiences, you couldn't just park a Jumper *anywhere*. Like, say, in the trees, or by standing it on its end, so that it would fit into a particularly small grove. The forest was pretty dense, too, and while the nearest grove was only a few seconds flight away, Lorne knew it was going to be a good ten to fifteen minute walk. Already, even as they came to rest, he was starting to feel twitchy, because with every minute that passed the world was becoming whiter, the snow slightly thicker, and the air outside even colder.
If this was the second night that Marta's husband had spent out in this weather, well... Lorne really didn't want to think about that.
Again, Lorne tried to prepare himself for the sudden chill when Ronon opened the hatch, but again he was unsuccessful. He pulled his jacket more tightly around him, heard McKay mumbling something about dying from hypothermia, blizzards and whiteouts.
"It's not a blizzard yet," Sheppard said.
"*Yet* being the operative word," McKay said.
"Which is why we should get started now," the Colonel said, and then he was out the hatch and walking through the already accumulating snow.
Indeed, it was only a ten-minute walk to the mountains--Lorne knew it, although it felt longer, like they were lost in a quiet, empty world. They walked in a relatively straight line, McKay with his life signs detector held out in front of him, moving it this way and that, until he said, "Ah ha!"
At that, they all stopped and gathered around the scanner, staring at the pale, flashing dot that was now visible at the very edge of the screen. Sheppard turned to look over his shoulder at the mountains, then said, "Okay. Let's go find out if this is him. Let's hope that it is."
Lorne nodded, as did Teyla and Ronon. Stopping, even for this short amount of time, was already making the cold seem more oppressive, making him not want to talk, conserve what heat he could.
"Let's go," the Colonel repeated, and started forward again.
When they reached the mountain, though, and they came to the spot where the blinking dot should have been, they found themselves faced with a wall of solid rock. It took another five minutes of searching to find the entrance to the cave, then another three or four to work their way through the stone maze inside. The path was uneven, the sound of their boots crunching over loose gravel loud in Lorne's ears, as was McKay's constant litany of words, complaints.
Another turn, another, and suddenly Lorne saw orange reflected off of stone. He recognized firelight when he saw it, and his first instinct was to speed up, to see if this was their man, but he made himself slow, even before Sheppard raised a hand in the universal signal for stop. Then, motioning for Lorne to join him in the lead, they started forward again, quietly, weapons at the ready.
A final turn, and they were looking into the cave, at the small fire and the man huddled beside it. He had a rucksack beside him, a jacket pulled tightly around his shoulders, and he was looking up at them with wide, dark eyes that glinted in the firelight. He blinked once, twice, and then his brow furrowed.
"Nic'las Lorne?" he asked, sounding confused. His voice was weak, thin and tight, and his face was pale and drawn.
"Jakob?" Sheppard asked, and when the other man nodded, Lorne stepped forward, lowering his weapon. He looked the man up and down and saw a thick bandage had been wrapped around his ankle.
"You're hurt," he said.
Jakob nodded. "Yesterday," he said, his voice cracking. "I tripped. The distance was too great to make it back to my village, or to return to the other village. I knew of this cave from my younger years, I thought to wait out the storm. Wait for the others to find me, but I had not thought today--I had thought tomorrow, possibly."
"Your wife," Sheppard said. "She's very worried about you."
"She was sure something was wrong," Lorne said, watched as Jakob nodded, and Lorne thought he looked a little bit warmer at the thought.
"My Marta," Jakob said. "She has good senses."
"That she does," Sheppard said. "Now, how about we get you out of here, get you back to your very worried wife."
Again, Jakob nodded, and started struggling to get up. Sheppard put out a hand, though, halting him, them motioned Ronon forward, and together they helped the man stand. Lorne picked up the pack, while Teyla put out the fire. McKay, he saw, was hovering around Sheppard and Ronon, looking, almost, as if he wanted to help, but not knowing what to do, how to ask.
Sheppard seemed to sense the same thing, because he said, "McKay, you're in charge of getting us back to our Jumper, okay?"
"Okay," McKay said, looking grateful, and Lorne watched as he pulled out his scanner again. "Okay, I can do that. That's what I'm here for, isn't it? To navigate." Then, as they started forward again, Jakob wincing with ever step that he took, McKay said, "This is a scanner, see. It's what we used to find you."
"Uh huh," Jakob said, as they made the first turn.
Watching them go, Lorne hefted the pack onto his shoulders, then turned to Teyla, waiting as she stamped out the last of the embers. He raised an eyebrow, a silent, ready to go? and she nodded, yes. McKay's voice was echoing off of the tunnel in front of them, a constant stream of chatter. He couldn't help rolling his eyes, just a little bit, before looking over at Teyla to see if she agreed.
She was smiling in the direction that the others had gone, though. "Dr. McKay," she said, "can drive anyone to distraction." Then she started forward, too, and Lorne thought, huh.
He thought, for a moment, that maybe Sheppard really had known what he was doing, insisting McKay come along, too.
*
The lights in the meeting house were still burning when Lorne and company returned; indeed, the whole town seemed to still be there, up and about, and most of them were pouring out the door when the Jumper landed. Lorne wasn't paying attention to Elspeth, though, who was hurrying forward, or to any of the young people that were crowding around them. His eyes went to the window in the corner of the building, where the lone woman sat. She was no longer looking depressed, though. No, now she was looking shocked. Standing slowly, a hand at her breast, another one coming up to touch at her lips.
Lorne watched as she left her spot, watched through the windowpanes as she made her way to the door, as she stood there for several long moments, illuminated by firelight.
He watched as Ronon helped Jakob to her, McKay hovering on his other side and talking about Ancient technologies still, as he had been for the last half hour. He watched as Marta stared at her husband, let him come about halfway to her, and then she dashed forward, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his neck.
There were cheers from the crowd, and Lorne found himself surrounded by well-wishers, people saying thank you, Elspeth patting his arm and saying, "You are a good boy, Nic'las Lorne. You are a *good* boy," even when Lorne tried to say that it wasn't him, really. It was Sheppard, the rest of his team, all of them.
Then, what felt like only a few minutes later, they were all back in the Jumper, several bushels of imitation coffee plant richer (a thank you gift from the people of the village, one which Elspeth would not let them refuse) and on their way back to Atlantis.
Dr. Weir came to greet them in the Jumper Bay, smiling and nodding at them as they disembarked. She said, "I'm going to assume that since I haven't heard otherwise, the trip went well after Major Lorne joined you?"
"Well, we got what we went there for," Sheppard said, raising a bag of the imitation coffee plant for all assembled personnel to see. "So yes, I'd say that the mission was a success."
Dr. Weir looked at Lorne as the Colonel spoke, perhaps looking for confirmation that things had really been that easy. Lorne nodded--the full tale of their trip could wait until the debriefing--but as McKay came down the ramp to join them on the floor, he said, "Oh, don't be modest. It doesn't become either one of you."
Now Dr. Weir raised an eyebrow, an *is there something I should know about?* look.
"What Rodney's trying to say," Sheppard said, "is that I think we can officially label the Olines our allies. We were able to help them out of a little jamb while we were there."
McKay said, "We rescued one of their people from certain death, Colonel. I'd say that that's more than a 'little jamb.'" Then, looking back at Dr. Weir, he continued: "They gave us twenty more bushels of the plant as a thank you."
"I see," Dr. Weir said slowly. "Well, I'll look forward to hearing all about it. Shall we say in one hour?"
Sheppard nodded, agreeing for all of them, and then the personnel began to disburse again. Lorne watched as McKay headed off to join the rest of the scientists, already telling tales of the daring rescue, the blizzard-like conditions, all of the new ways to prepare the coffee plant that he'd been shown. He watched as soldiers began unloading the back of the Jumper, lugging the bags in the direction of the kitchen; as Ronon and Teyla gathered their belongings and headed back towards the main part of the city.
He turned to the Colonel, but before he could say anything, Sheppard said, "You did good out there today, Major."
"We, Sir," Lorne said. "You really were the ones--"
Sheppard shrugged, interrupting him. "I don't know about that. You were the one to notice that something was wrong in the first place and that's certainly half the battle. Plus, the Olines have taken a liking to you, and between this visit and your last one, I think we can safely say that they consider you a true friend." He paused for a moment. "And we all know that that doesn't happen too often in this galaxy, but when it does, it's a relationship we want to cultivate. Today it's imitation coffee, but tomorrow, who knows? It could be a ZPM, an extra set of hands in fighting the Wraith, or a safe planet when we need it. You never know."
Lorne nodded.
"I think, Major, that when we debrief with Dr. Weir, I'm going to recommend that you be the designated liaison to the Olines. We don't have so many allies now that we don't want to keep those that we do have happy and dealing with you definitely seems to make them happy. Would that suit you?"
Lorne looked over his shoulder at the Jumper, at the soldiers who were still unloading the bags and bushels, and said, "Yes, Sir."
End.