Something in Our Bloodline - August 8th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 8
Title: Something in Our Bloodline
Author:hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith gets all official.
Notes: Part 8 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 1
Word Count: 2470
“Well, that settles that,” Weir said, setting the tablet down on the conference room table. “With her qualifications completed, Faith Lehane is a full and recognized civilian member of the Atlantis Expedition reporting to Doctor Carson Beckett.” She looked around the table. “Any objections?”
Carson and John shook their heads. Teyla just smiled. McKay was bored, he hated these meetings. Radek was halfway back to his work, looking at his own tablet as he tried to figure out an electrical problem they were having.
“Yes,” Bates said. “I object strenuously.”
“Noted,” Weir said, “but not enough to reconsider my decision. As of now she’s in rotation as a medic.” She stood. “We’re done here.”
They all took the dismissal. John and Teyla walked out discussing the briefing for the next mission.
“Major,” Bates said. “I feel your connection to Miss Lehane has made you bias in this decision.”
John came to a stop and spun around. “Are you questioning my integrity or Doctor Beckett’s in declaring her a trained medic?”
“She is a killer.”
“Sumner told you.”
“Yes sir, before we left Earth. He planned to create a cell for her and throw her in unless the scientists needed her for tests.”
John wondered if Sumner would have been able to actually manage that. “Be that as it may. I know more about the situation than you, she is not a threat to Atlantis.”
“Or this city’s allies,” Teyla agreed calmly, hoping to interject some much needed peace.
“I plan to file a report,” Bates told John.
“Go ahead, I’ll make sure to send it up the chain, assuming there is ever contact with Earth again,” John told him dismissively.
88888888
Faith braced for impact as the Jumper crashed. It was rough as they skid along the ground before coming to a stop.
“Nice landing, sir,” Aiden snarked from the front seat.
“Thank you,” John said as he took stock of himself.
“What happened?” Teyla asked.
“He took us too close to the energy field,” McKay accused.
“Whose idea was that?” John shot back.
“Look, you’ve made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes,” McKay said. “Let’s not get caught up in the blame game.”
“Okay… can you fix this ship or not?”
“None of my diagnostic equipment is working.”
“The sun is still high in the sky,” Teyla noted.
“What does that mean?”
“We can make it back to the Stargate before nightfall,” Faith said.
“You okay?” John asked.
“Dislocated shoulder, no big deal,” she said as she fixed it was a sickening crack.
“Oh my god,” McKay said in disgust.
Faith ignored him and checked her fingers were working. She grabbed her small bag and exited the Jumper, the team right behind her.
“Check it out, sir,” Aiden said. “I think my compass has gone wonky.”
Faith reached into her bag and pulled a compass out as well. “Mine too,” she reported.
“The disturbance is electromagnetic,” Rodney said. “That probably explains why all our equipment’s out.”
“Which direction is the gate?” John asked.
“You’re the one flying. Shouldn’t you know?”
Teyla and Faith pointed in the same direction.
88888888
Kids came out from around the ruins McKay - and Aiden’s compass - had led them to. The kids ranging from six or seven to sixteen were pointing bows and arrows at the team.
Aiden raised his weapon.
“They’re kids, Ford,” John hissed.
“Yeah, with weapons pointed at us.”
“I’m with Aiden,” Faith said. “Properly trained kids are as deadly as adults.”
“Lower your weapons,” John ordered. Then he smiled at the kids. “Hey…kids.”
“We are not here to harm you in any way,” Teyla promised with a soothing voice.
“That’s right, what she said. We’re just - we’re friends. Okay?”
“We arrived through the Stargate. We were only trying to return home.”
“I don’t think they understand,” Aiden said nervously.
“Why are they still pointing arrows at us?” John wondered.
“Maybe we spook them?”
“You’re a full-grown,” one of the kids said. “You need to see the elders.”
“Elders, that sounds good,” John said. “Lead the way.”
They followed the kids - who still had their bows pointed at them - into a heavily wooded area. There were rough structures and raised bridges connecting structures in the trees.
“Major,” Teyla said softly. She pointed to a skeleton. A Wraith skeleton bleached white by time.
“Wraith bones,” one of the kids said.
“Yeah, we know,” John told him.
“Its death bird fell out of the sky years ago. We keep it here to remind us of how life used to be.”
“Maybe it fell out of the sky like us?” Faith suggested quietly.
“The elders are ready,” another kid announced.
They were directed to a ladder and one of the treehouses.
Faith unloaded her P-90 and shoved it into her tiny messenger bag. Then she effortlessly climbed the rope ladder to the top and pulled herself inside. She took stock of the surroundings. It was cozy and just large enough for the group of young people at the other end of the room and John’s team as they came in.
John was the last to pull himself into the treehouse.
“Hi,” he greeted to the elders looking at him in fear. “Nice to meet you.”
One of them approached. “I’m Keras, one of the village elders.”
“I’m Sheppard. This is Rodney, Ford, Teyla, and - Did you say you’re one of the elders?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“And that makes you an elder?”
“How did you get here, Sheppard?” Keras asked.
“We used the Stargate to travel from our world to visit yours.”
“You do know of the Stargate?” Teyla asked. “The Ancestral Ring?”
“It’s a big, round…thing,” Sheppard tried to explain.
“No one has come through the Well for nearly… five hundred years.”
“Yeah, well, here’s the things…Um, we’re a little lost.”
“And you are all older than twenty-four?” Keras asked.
“Ford, how old are you?”
“Twenty-five, sir.”
“Then I guess only Faith is under twenty-four. Is that a problem?”
Keras removed his headdress. “Please, sit.”
The other kid approached. “They are trespassers, Keras. We don’t have to explain ourselves.”
“I apologize,” Keras said. “Aries is protective of our way of life.”
They sat and he turned his attention to Faith, seemingly more comfortable with talking to her, since she was not a full-grown.
“You are familiar with the Wraith?”
“Yes,” Teyla answered.
“Well, we’re not friends or anything like that,” John assured him.
“The Wraith used to farm our planet, as we used to farm livestock and beasts of burden. Only, we were their herd,” Keras explained.
“It happens on many planets,” Faith told him.
“Our ancestors fought them, but our weapons were not strong enough. Our people tried to hide from them, but they were always found. None died peacefully. None could enter into the eternal rest.”
“Eternal rest?” Rodney asked.
“To die at the hands of the Wraith, to breathe your last breath amongst such…hatred and evil. There’s no way to move peacefully into the next world when that is your fate. My ancestors decided that to beat the Wraith, we must learn to think as they thing. We ensured we would never provide the Wraith with a crop worth picking.”
“By…” John pressed.
“None of us passes the age of twenty-four.”
“How do you manage that?” McKay asked.
“On the eve of our twenty-fifth year, we make the sacrifice for both our people and for our own safe passage into the eternal rest.”
“Ritual suicide,” Faith said.
Keras looked at her. “Yes.”
88888888
Back on the ground, separate from the pint-sized villagers, the team stood looking around them.
“Never in my life have I ever felt so…old,” Aiden complained.
“This is without a doubt the most screwed-up way of life I can imagine,” John said.
“Then you lack imagination,” Faith told him.
“You seem upset,” Teyla noted.
“Slayers generally don’t get to my age,” she said. “We’re normally killed within a year of being Called. Slayers are rarely eighteen, much less twenty…”
They all looked at her in surprise.
“I think most of us would have preferred this quaint little village life to fighting to the death every night until one day we don’t make it ‘til morning.”
Teyla cleared her throat. “They seem to accept their way of life.”
“They’re kids. What the hell do they know?” John argued.
“Kids that don’t want to keep us around,” Aiden pointed out.
“Because they believe our presence may bring back the Wraith,” Teyla explained.
“They can’t be right, can they? Would the Wraith just ignore them because they are all young?”
“Wraith don’t come anymore because when their darts fly too close to the villages, the electromagnetic field takes them out, much like what happened with the Puddle Jumper,” McKay pointed out.
“What if it’s their own form of population control?” Faith asked. “Like, to keep the Wraith from noticing them. A small group of a few hundred isn’t enough to cull and still have a sustainable population to let grow.”
McKay nodded. “And their relatively primitive way of living - they would be no threat to the Wraith.”
“They’re sacrificing themselves for no reason,” Teyla said. “We must tell them.”
“And say w-?” McKay cut himself off as the elders approached.
“We’ve talked it over,” Keras said. “You can stay until you’ve fixed up your ship, but you must work quickly.”
Faith looked around, scanning the tree line. She could see dozens of grubby faces. McKay had been given leave to look at the ruins, under the watchful eyes of two eight year olds.
“You may remain,” Keras told Faith. “As you are not a full-grown, you do not…unsettle the others.”
“Thank you.”
“Faith?” John asked.
“I’ll stay. If there really are kids giving birth to kids…medical help may be needed more.”
He nodded. “Be careful.”
Faith started through the village slowly, she looked over each child and teen. However, she saw no anomalies or even disease. This was similar to her old life, working with kids who should have been more worried about makeup and boys but were given the ‘Chosen’ speech and taught about vampires and demons and their own power. These kids lived with a similar death warrant hanging over their heads.
She found a small cottage-like house at the base of a tree. She let herself in.
Eight young women, all younger than her, sat around the room. Two of them were holding babies. The other six were in various late stages of pregnancy.
“Hi,” she said.
“You are one of the full-growns,” one of them said.
“I came with a group of full-growns. I’m twenty-three.”
Several of them relaxed.
“I’m Merra,” a blonde with a newborn said, waving her to an empty stool.
“I’m Faith.”
“You travel with full-growns,” one of the most pregnant said. “What is it like?”
Faith shrugged. “I’m one of the youngest in our village.”
Several of their eyes widened in surprise.
“I help as a medic.”
“What does this mean?”
“I help those who are hurt or injured until we can get them to our village healer.”
“Do you help in the birthing?” someone asked.
“There are no children in my village.”
“How can a village have no children?”
“Mostly it is full of fighters, builders, and explorers, they have put aside having that kind of life to go through the Well.”
“Your people must be very brave,” one of them whispered.
“How are fighters, builders, and explorers chosen in your village?” someone asked. “Are they bound by bloodline?”
Faith frowned. “Bloodline?”
“I am a weapons maker, so too will my child be,” Merra explained.
“Oh. No. It is a choice. Each person in our village makes it. Some of them are more than one thing.”
“What are you?”
“A fighter,” she answered without hesitation. “Then again, so is my brother, so maybe it is something in our bloodline.”
They frowned at her. “What is ‘brother?’”
“A male sibling.”
Merra shook her head. “This word does not make sense to us.”
“Okay. We share a bloodline through our father. In our village this is siblings. He is my brother and I am his sister.”
Several of the women nodded. “We do not allow that here. Younglings are placed in different villages to ensure bloodlines do not tangle.”
“Ah,” she hummed. That explained why they were still genetically healthy. They avoided inbreeding by tracing bloodlines and keeping them separate.
“You seem sad,” Merra said.
“Being among your people has reminded me what my life had been until a few months ago.” She smiled. “I was surrounded by people my own age and young girls. And there was only one elder who was a full-grown.”
“Why did you leave?” one of the girls asked as she shifted her body trying to get comfortable.
“I did not have a choice,” she admitted. “To protect the people and the girls, I had to go.”
“But you miss them.”
Faith frowned as she considered. Did she miss Willow’s attempts to act like nothing was wrong? Did she miss Xander’s distance, caused by his grief at the loss of Anya? Did she miss butting heads with Buffy? A slight turn of her lips said she did miss arguing with Buffy. Because no one else understood living when you felt you should not be. No one else understood why training all the mini-Slayers was hard. No one else understood the depth of what they had done by activating little girls all over the world.
“I do,” she admitted. “They may not have been my best friends…but I knew what to expect with them.”
“You do not with the full-growns?”
Faith shrugged. John tried, and Aiden too, even though she did not know how to respond to it. Teyla liked her ability to fight and McKay just appreciated her saving his ass. But there existed a fear she did not speak of. Karma. She was waiting for the universe to visit on her what she had dished out over the years. Betrayal and death. Her scorecard was nowhere close to even. That was why she kept her distance, afraid that if she gave them the chance, they would hurt her.
The exception was Carson and Radek. Not that she thought them was unable to hurt her. It was more that Carson’s acceptance of who and what she was had been complete. And he had turned around and offered to teach her medicine so that she could be a field medic and go out with the teams. He gave her something to offer other than her skills with a blade.
“We did not mean to upset you,” Merra said.
“You didn’t,” Faith said. “I hadn’t thought about some things since this started.”
“It is sometimes easier to just go on,” one of them said.
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
Title: Something in Our Bloodline
Author:hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith gets all official.
Notes: Part 8 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 1
Word Count: 2470
“Well, that settles that,” Weir said, setting the tablet down on the conference room table. “With her qualifications completed, Faith Lehane is a full and recognized civilian member of the Atlantis Expedition reporting to Doctor Carson Beckett.” She looked around the table. “Any objections?”
Carson and John shook their heads. Teyla just smiled. McKay was bored, he hated these meetings. Radek was halfway back to his work, looking at his own tablet as he tried to figure out an electrical problem they were having.
“Yes,” Bates said. “I object strenuously.”
“Noted,” Weir said, “but not enough to reconsider my decision. As of now she’s in rotation as a medic.” She stood. “We’re done here.”
They all took the dismissal. John and Teyla walked out discussing the briefing for the next mission.
“Major,” Bates said. “I feel your connection to Miss Lehane has made you bias in this decision.”
John came to a stop and spun around. “Are you questioning my integrity or Doctor Beckett’s in declaring her a trained medic?”
“She is a killer.”
“Sumner told you.”
“Yes sir, before we left Earth. He planned to create a cell for her and throw her in unless the scientists needed her for tests.”
John wondered if Sumner would have been able to actually manage that. “Be that as it may. I know more about the situation than you, she is not a threat to Atlantis.”
“Or this city’s allies,” Teyla agreed calmly, hoping to interject some much needed peace.
“I plan to file a report,” Bates told John.
“Go ahead, I’ll make sure to send it up the chain, assuming there is ever contact with Earth again,” John told him dismissively.
88888888
Faith braced for impact as the Jumper crashed. It was rough as they skid along the ground before coming to a stop.
“Nice landing, sir,” Aiden snarked from the front seat.
“Thank you,” John said as he took stock of himself.
“What happened?” Teyla asked.
“He took us too close to the energy field,” McKay accused.
“Whose idea was that?” John shot back.
“Look, you’ve made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes,” McKay said. “Let’s not get caught up in the blame game.”
“Okay… can you fix this ship or not?”
“None of my diagnostic equipment is working.”
“The sun is still high in the sky,” Teyla noted.
“What does that mean?”
“We can make it back to the Stargate before nightfall,” Faith said.
“You okay?” John asked.
“Dislocated shoulder, no big deal,” she said as she fixed it was a sickening crack.
“Oh my god,” McKay said in disgust.
Faith ignored him and checked her fingers were working. She grabbed her small bag and exited the Jumper, the team right behind her.
“Check it out, sir,” Aiden said. “I think my compass has gone wonky.”
Faith reached into her bag and pulled a compass out as well. “Mine too,” she reported.
“The disturbance is electromagnetic,” Rodney said. “That probably explains why all our equipment’s out.”
“Which direction is the gate?” John asked.
“You’re the one flying. Shouldn’t you know?”
Teyla and Faith pointed in the same direction.
88888888
Kids came out from around the ruins McKay - and Aiden’s compass - had led them to. The kids ranging from six or seven to sixteen were pointing bows and arrows at the team.
Aiden raised his weapon.
“They’re kids, Ford,” John hissed.
“Yeah, with weapons pointed at us.”
“I’m with Aiden,” Faith said. “Properly trained kids are as deadly as adults.”
“Lower your weapons,” John ordered. Then he smiled at the kids. “Hey…kids.”
“We are not here to harm you in any way,” Teyla promised with a soothing voice.
“That’s right, what she said. We’re just - we’re friends. Okay?”
“We arrived through the Stargate. We were only trying to return home.”
“I don’t think they understand,” Aiden said nervously.
“Why are they still pointing arrows at us?” John wondered.
“Maybe we spook them?”
“You’re a full-grown,” one of the kids said. “You need to see the elders.”
“Elders, that sounds good,” John said. “Lead the way.”
They followed the kids - who still had their bows pointed at them - into a heavily wooded area. There were rough structures and raised bridges connecting structures in the trees.
“Major,” Teyla said softly. She pointed to a skeleton. A Wraith skeleton bleached white by time.
“Wraith bones,” one of the kids said.
“Yeah, we know,” John told him.
“Its death bird fell out of the sky years ago. We keep it here to remind us of how life used to be.”
“Maybe it fell out of the sky like us?” Faith suggested quietly.
“The elders are ready,” another kid announced.
They were directed to a ladder and one of the treehouses.
Faith unloaded her P-90 and shoved it into her tiny messenger bag. Then she effortlessly climbed the rope ladder to the top and pulled herself inside. She took stock of the surroundings. It was cozy and just large enough for the group of young people at the other end of the room and John’s team as they came in.
John was the last to pull himself into the treehouse.
“Hi,” he greeted to the elders looking at him in fear. “Nice to meet you.”
One of them approached. “I’m Keras, one of the village elders.”
“I’m Sheppard. This is Rodney, Ford, Teyla, and - Did you say you’re one of the elders?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
“And that makes you an elder?”
“How did you get here, Sheppard?” Keras asked.
“We used the Stargate to travel from our world to visit yours.”
“You do know of the Stargate?” Teyla asked. “The Ancestral Ring?”
“It’s a big, round…thing,” Sheppard tried to explain.
“No one has come through the Well for nearly… five hundred years.”
“Yeah, well, here’s the things…Um, we’re a little lost.”
“And you are all older than twenty-four?” Keras asked.
“Ford, how old are you?”
“Twenty-five, sir.”
“Then I guess only Faith is under twenty-four. Is that a problem?”
Keras removed his headdress. “Please, sit.”
The other kid approached. “They are trespassers, Keras. We don’t have to explain ourselves.”
“I apologize,” Keras said. “Aries is protective of our way of life.”
They sat and he turned his attention to Faith, seemingly more comfortable with talking to her, since she was not a full-grown.
“You are familiar with the Wraith?”
“Yes,” Teyla answered.
“Well, we’re not friends or anything like that,” John assured him.
“The Wraith used to farm our planet, as we used to farm livestock and beasts of burden. Only, we were their herd,” Keras explained.
“It happens on many planets,” Faith told him.
“Our ancestors fought them, but our weapons were not strong enough. Our people tried to hide from them, but they were always found. None died peacefully. None could enter into the eternal rest.”
“Eternal rest?” Rodney asked.
“To die at the hands of the Wraith, to breathe your last breath amongst such…hatred and evil. There’s no way to move peacefully into the next world when that is your fate. My ancestors decided that to beat the Wraith, we must learn to think as they thing. We ensured we would never provide the Wraith with a crop worth picking.”
“By…” John pressed.
“None of us passes the age of twenty-four.”
“How do you manage that?” McKay asked.
“On the eve of our twenty-fifth year, we make the sacrifice for both our people and for our own safe passage into the eternal rest.”
“Ritual suicide,” Faith said.
Keras looked at her. “Yes.”
88888888
Back on the ground, separate from the pint-sized villagers, the team stood looking around them.
“Never in my life have I ever felt so…old,” Aiden complained.
“This is without a doubt the most screwed-up way of life I can imagine,” John said.
“Then you lack imagination,” Faith told him.
“You seem upset,” Teyla noted.
“Slayers generally don’t get to my age,” she said. “We’re normally killed within a year of being Called. Slayers are rarely eighteen, much less twenty…”
They all looked at her in surprise.
“I think most of us would have preferred this quaint little village life to fighting to the death every night until one day we don’t make it ‘til morning.”
Teyla cleared her throat. “They seem to accept their way of life.”
“They’re kids. What the hell do they know?” John argued.
“Kids that don’t want to keep us around,” Aiden pointed out.
“Because they believe our presence may bring back the Wraith,” Teyla explained.
“They can’t be right, can they? Would the Wraith just ignore them because they are all young?”
“Wraith don’t come anymore because when their darts fly too close to the villages, the electromagnetic field takes them out, much like what happened with the Puddle Jumper,” McKay pointed out.
“What if it’s their own form of population control?” Faith asked. “Like, to keep the Wraith from noticing them. A small group of a few hundred isn’t enough to cull and still have a sustainable population to let grow.”
McKay nodded. “And their relatively primitive way of living - they would be no threat to the Wraith.”
“They’re sacrificing themselves for no reason,” Teyla said. “We must tell them.”
“And say w-?” McKay cut himself off as the elders approached.
“We’ve talked it over,” Keras said. “You can stay until you’ve fixed up your ship, but you must work quickly.”
Faith looked around, scanning the tree line. She could see dozens of grubby faces. McKay had been given leave to look at the ruins, under the watchful eyes of two eight year olds.
“You may remain,” Keras told Faith. “As you are not a full-grown, you do not…unsettle the others.”
“Thank you.”
“Faith?” John asked.
“I’ll stay. If there really are kids giving birth to kids…medical help may be needed more.”
He nodded. “Be careful.”
Faith started through the village slowly, she looked over each child and teen. However, she saw no anomalies or even disease. This was similar to her old life, working with kids who should have been more worried about makeup and boys but were given the ‘Chosen’ speech and taught about vampires and demons and their own power. These kids lived with a similar death warrant hanging over their heads.
She found a small cottage-like house at the base of a tree. She let herself in.
Eight young women, all younger than her, sat around the room. Two of them were holding babies. The other six were in various late stages of pregnancy.
“Hi,” she said.
“You are one of the full-growns,” one of them said.
“I came with a group of full-growns. I’m twenty-three.”
Several of them relaxed.
“I’m Merra,” a blonde with a newborn said, waving her to an empty stool.
“I’m Faith.”
“You travel with full-growns,” one of the most pregnant said. “What is it like?”
Faith shrugged. “I’m one of the youngest in our village.”
Several of their eyes widened in surprise.
“I help as a medic.”
“What does this mean?”
“I help those who are hurt or injured until we can get them to our village healer.”
“Do you help in the birthing?” someone asked.
“There are no children in my village.”
“How can a village have no children?”
“Mostly it is full of fighters, builders, and explorers, they have put aside having that kind of life to go through the Well.”
“Your people must be very brave,” one of them whispered.
“How are fighters, builders, and explorers chosen in your village?” someone asked. “Are they bound by bloodline?”
Faith frowned. “Bloodline?”
“I am a weapons maker, so too will my child be,” Merra explained.
“Oh. No. It is a choice. Each person in our village makes it. Some of them are more than one thing.”
“What are you?”
“A fighter,” she answered without hesitation. “Then again, so is my brother, so maybe it is something in our bloodline.”
They frowned at her. “What is ‘brother?’”
“A male sibling.”
Merra shook her head. “This word does not make sense to us.”
“Okay. We share a bloodline through our father. In our village this is siblings. He is my brother and I am his sister.”
Several of the women nodded. “We do not allow that here. Younglings are placed in different villages to ensure bloodlines do not tangle.”
“Ah,” she hummed. That explained why they were still genetically healthy. They avoided inbreeding by tracing bloodlines and keeping them separate.
“You seem sad,” Merra said.
“Being among your people has reminded me what my life had been until a few months ago.” She smiled. “I was surrounded by people my own age and young girls. And there was only one elder who was a full-grown.”
“Why did you leave?” one of the girls asked as she shifted her body trying to get comfortable.
“I did not have a choice,” she admitted. “To protect the people and the girls, I had to go.”
“But you miss them.”
Faith frowned as she considered. Did she miss Willow’s attempts to act like nothing was wrong? Did she miss Xander’s distance, caused by his grief at the loss of Anya? Did she miss butting heads with Buffy? A slight turn of her lips said she did miss arguing with Buffy. Because no one else understood living when you felt you should not be. No one else understood why training all the mini-Slayers was hard. No one else understood the depth of what they had done by activating little girls all over the world.
“I do,” she admitted. “They may not have been my best friends…but I knew what to expect with them.”
“You do not with the full-growns?”
Faith shrugged. John tried, and Aiden too, even though she did not know how to respond to it. Teyla liked her ability to fight and McKay just appreciated her saving his ass. But there existed a fear she did not speak of. Karma. She was waiting for the universe to visit on her what she had dished out over the years. Betrayal and death. Her scorecard was nowhere close to even. That was why she kept her distance, afraid that if she gave them the chance, they would hurt her.
The exception was Carson and Radek. Not that she thought them was unable to hurt her. It was more that Carson’s acceptance of who and what she was had been complete. And he had turned around and offered to teach her medicine so that she could be a field medic and go out with the teams. He gave her something to offer other than her skills with a blade.
“We did not mean to upset you,” Merra said.
“You didn’t,” Faith said. “I hadn’t thought about some things since this started.”
“It is sometimes easier to just go on,” one of them said.
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”