(no subject)
Title: Men
Author(s): writerrising and world_of_blade(May she forgive me for all the changes I made)
Rating: PG
Beta:angelqueen04
Summary: John and Ronon arrive in town.
“Land sakes alive, we're being invaded!”
Elizabeth Weir, the local mercantile owner, looked up as the voice of the town gossip rang down the street, but nobody else did. Simply referred to by the locals as, “the old lady,” she viewed just about anything, including the arrival of the weekly train, as an “invasion.”
Usually, Elizabeth would have ignored her as well, but a strange premonition gripped her heart. The cloth she'd been showing a young mother lay forgotten as she moved towards the door. Laura Cadman quickly excused herself and followed her employer out onto the wooden walkway. She reached the taller woman's side just as another shout went up.
“It's the Wraith!”
Laura's heart stopped. Time seemed to slow. A vision of Billy lying lifeless in a pool of his own blood danced before her eyes. “No God, please, not again,” fell from her lips, echoing strangely in her ears.
For one heart-pounding minute Elizabeth had allowed her own fears to overtake her, but Laura's voice brought her back to reality. Laura Cadman was usually afraid of nothing, but she'd lost her fiancé in a Wraith attack.
“It's not them.” She laid a comforting hand on the younger woman's shoulder as she squinted to see the dust cloud on the horizon. “It can't be more than three riders, and the Wraith never attack with less than a dozen.”
But by then it was too late to tell anybody anything. The cry of Wraith had sent the town into a panic. Mothers screamed for their children, children screamed for their mothers. The men armed themselves, business owners pointing rifles out their windows, and those on the street drew pistols from who knew where.
Elizabeth picked up her skirt and dashed towards the Sheriff's office, determined to find somebody who could talk sense into the townspeople before there was accidental bloodshed. She reached him just as he stepped into the street, armed, and giving directions to his deputies.
“Put some men on top of the hotel. Tell them to keep low and wait for my signal.”
“Sheriff Caldwell,” she called, slightly out of breath, and slightly intimidated by all the eyes on her.
He waved his men off, then turned his attention to her.
“Go back to your store and barricade yourself inside, Ms. Weir.”
Before she even had a chance to reply he turned away.
“It's not the Wraith,” she frowned, unhappy at being dismissed so casually. When he didn't respond she grabbed him by the elbow in an uncharacteristic show of anger.
“Is this how we greet strangers now?” she demanded, “With guns drawn?”
“My job is to keep this city safe Ms. Weir.” He glared down at her. “Maybe if I'd been in charge before, this town wouldn't have lost so many of its women and children. Now go back to your store and stay out of the way!”
Taking advantage of her momentary loss for words, he jogged down to the edge of town. Elizabeth knew she must have looked like a fish out of water, mouth opening and closing in rage. How dare he talk down to her like she was a naïve, ignorant child! How dare he question Jacob's devotion to his people?
It could have been hours before she felt a hand at her elbow and heard Carson Becketts's calm Scottish bur.
“Come away, lass. There's nothing you can do here.”
She turned to see Janet Fraiser, the local midwife; Sam Carter, the retired sheriff’s daughter; and Laura all standing outside Beckett's office. A hush had fallen over the town, broken only by the wind as it blew through the streets.
It wasn't long before the outline of the riders could be seen. There were two horses, one with its rider upright in the saddle, and the other with its rider slumped over the horn.
The man who was still upright pulled up sharply on the reigns when Caldwell stepped into the middle of the street, rifle drawn, and demanded to know what their business was.
“He…needs…help,” the man rasped as he slipped from his horse and attempted to reach his injured comrade. It was then that Elizabeth recognized them as the same men who'd been in town just a few days before, asking questions. The man slumped over, bleeding, had called himself Ronon Dex. The other man, whose once handsome face was now a mess of cuts and bruises, had introduced himself as John Sheppard.
“Hold on son!” Carson called, “We're comin'!”
“Now wait just a minute,” the Sheriff attempted to hold the Scottish doctor back.
“Those men need help and I'm going to help them,” he stared up defiantly at Caldwell.
“We're going to help them,” Janet corrected in a calm, determined voice as she came to stand beside Carson.
“Fine, get yourselves killed! See what I care!“
Caldwell threw up his hands in defeat, but contrary to his words stayed where he was, prepared to defend the town and people he‘d been entrusted with.
“Laura, Elizabeth,” Beckett called over his shoulder in the crisp, clipped tone that meant business, “We'll need-”
“Got it Dr. Beckett,” Laura interrupted. Carson sent her a grateful smile and Elizabeth noted that she blushed a little before she clapped her hands together. “You heard him, ladies. Let's get to work.”
Caldwell ground his teeth in frustration as he watched the doctor, midwife, and various other townspeople rush toward the injured men. He wasn’t sure why he was relieved when he saw that Elizabeth had gone into the doctor’s office instead of further out in the street, but he pushed the thought aside and went to collect the men’s panicked horses that were fast becoming a danger to the growing crowd.
***
“Easy,” Elizabeth said softly as she pushed John Sheppard back down on the bed, her bed.
It had been decided that the doctor's office was the first place anybody would look for two injured men who'd escaped them, and the jail would be the next. So, Elizabeth had offered the rooms above her store. Not only was it an unlikely place for the two men to be hiding, it wouldn't look unusual for people to be going in and out of a mercantile all day.
“You've been badly injured. If you keep moving you'll pull your stitches.”
She added an exasperated again in her own mind. For the last several days he'd been delirious and had required a twenty-four hour guard. His fever had finally broken late last night, much to the relief of the exhausted Janet and Carson.
“Ronon?” he rasped, closing his eyes against the faint early morning light that peaked through the curtains.
“Your friend is fine,” she assured him.
The other man, Ronon, was in fact, doing better than his partner. Although Ronon had been shot perilously close to his spine, he hadn‘t developed an infection, as John unfortunately had.
Taking a clean washcloth from a drawer, Elizabeth dipped it into a pitcher of water before letting it rest against John's chapped lips. Janet had warned her that too much water, too soon, would be a shock to his system. Carson had grudgingly confirmed Janet's expertise.
Although Carson was more skilled in technical subjects, such as surgery, he and Janet were equal in many ways. Janet's father had been a doctor in a mining town, and, in place of the sons he didn't have, he'd taught her everything he had known. She’d learned herbs and natural remedies from an old Indian woman who had lived on the outskirts of her childhood home. Once a respected medicine woman, before most of her tribe had been killed or scattered to the four winds, she’d been almost desperate for somebody to pass her knowledge onto. In many ways she’d been the mother Janet never had.
“I want to see him,” John told Elizabeth when she'd taken the washcloth away. “Where is he?”
“You've got some questions to answer first son,” a masculine voice replied in place of Elizabeth's. She turned in surprise toward the newcomer, and so didn't see John's hand drift towards his hip, reaching for a gun that wasn't there.
“You must be the Sheriff,” he said in a voice that clearly indicated he held no respect for the position. At Caldwell's nod, he smirked and laid his head back down on the pillow. “Ronon's not talkin' huh?”
Caldwell didn't get a chance to answer because several irate voices in the next room interrupted.
“I swear to God I'll sedate ye, if ye don't get back into bed!” Carson's voice was the easiest to identify.
“Ronon!” John's voice suddenly snapped out, causing Elizabeth to jump and Caldwell to reach for his gun.
“Sheppard?” The scuffling stopped in the next room, although Carson could still be heard mumbling under his breath
“Do what the doc says,” John instructed.
“That an order?”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the question. The giant of a man in the next room took orders?
“Yes, Ronon,” John replied, rolling his eyes, “That's an order.”
“You're military?” Caldwell frowned. Had he really been out of the service that long?
“Not anymore,” John's expression became closed again. “You said you had some questions?”
“Questions that can wait.” Everyone looked up to see Jack O'Neill come through the door. He took a quick survey of the people in the room, nodding at John and Elizabeth before he turned his attention to Caldwell.
“There's been a Wraith sighting,” he informed him. “Hammond wants to talk with you.”
“With all due respect Deputy Mayor O'Neill, these men could very well be a part of the Wraith gang. I can't do my job unless you all leave me to do it.”
“These men aren't any more a Wraith than I am.” Carson suddenly bustled into the room. “Now out, all of you.”
“Doctor…” Caldwell started to object, but Jack interrupted him.
“Are you a member of the Wraith Gang?” he asked John. His question was met with hard silence, and then John gave a faint shake of his head.
“See,” he smiled at Caldwell in a futile attempt to lighten the mood, “Nobody's part of anything.”
“We're not done here,” Caldwell assured, pinning John with the glare he'd once used on wayward recruits.
“See ya around, Sheriff,” John replied with mock civility that almost sounded like a threat. Caldwell glared at Sheppard, but finally followed O'Neill out the door. Carson gave John a quick look over, grumbling to himself all the while, then headed back to help Janet with Ronon.
“You did that on purpose.” Elizabeth accused after Carson had left. She tried to look severe but couldn’t help the small smile that escaped.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” John shot his best innocent look at the pretty woman.
They sat in comfortable silence until they heard another commotion coming from Ronon's room. John sighed, and then made a move to get out of the bed. Elizabeth's gentle hand pushed against his chest once again. He winced when she hit a bruise, but although she gave him an apologetic look as she removed her hand, her voice was still firm.
“You're not going anywhere until Carson says you can.”
“Ronon needs…”
“I’ll see what’s going on with Ronon. You stay put!” Elizabeth’s green eyes twinkled as she looked back over her shoulder. “Those are my orders.”
John gave her the best boyish grin he could with a split lip, and would have given a jaunty salute if his arm didn’t feel like it was going to fall off.
“Yes ma'm.”
***
Elizabeth almost collided with Carson as she stepped into the hall. In the next room, she could hear Janet still arguing with Ronon.
“You stop acting like a stubborn child or I‘ll take you over my knee and treat you like one!"
“Poor bloke,” Carson whispered to Elizabeth a tired smile, “He doesn‘t realize she‘ll actually try and do it.”
Elizabeth returned his smile, equally tired, and patted him on the shoulder. She knew that the Scottish man had faced off against Janet more than once. If anyone knew what the midwife was capable of, it was Carson Beckett.
Janet came out shooting one last glare over her shoulder. “You stay!”
Elizabeth caught a quick look at Ronon before his door shut. She was amused by his look of bewilderment at being told what to do by a woman who was barely half his size; she was also intrigued by the hint of admiration she saw behind it. Little did she know she’d need that little tidbit of information in the soon-to-come war of Janet teasing her about John Sheppard.
Janet shut the door and let out a weary sigh. The two women shared a look that was universal to women of every time, race and upbringing, a look that simply translated to “men.” Little did they know it was only the beginning.
***
As he followed Jack O’Neill to Mayor Hammond’s office, Caldwell glanced up at second story of the mercantile. He could make out a faint shadow in the early morning. It could have been any number of people who were there looking after the two men, but he knew it was Elizabeth Weir. Pushing back a faint feeling of jealously, Caldwell forced his mind onto the real issue: protecting Atlantis. He didn't like John Sheppard, and sure as hell didn't trust him. There was something the younger man was hiding, something Steven Caldwell was going to make damn sure didn’t threaten Atlantis or it’s people.
Author(s): writerrising and world_of_blade(May she forgive me for all the changes I made)
Rating: PG
Beta:angelqueen04
Summary: John and Ronon arrive in town.
“Land sakes alive, we're being invaded!”
Elizabeth Weir, the local mercantile owner, looked up as the voice of the town gossip rang down the street, but nobody else did. Simply referred to by the locals as, “the old lady,” she viewed just about anything, including the arrival of the weekly train, as an “invasion.”
Usually, Elizabeth would have ignored her as well, but a strange premonition gripped her heart. The cloth she'd been showing a young mother lay forgotten as she moved towards the door. Laura Cadman quickly excused herself and followed her employer out onto the wooden walkway. She reached the taller woman's side just as another shout went up.
“It's the Wraith!”
Laura's heart stopped. Time seemed to slow. A vision of Billy lying lifeless in a pool of his own blood danced before her eyes. “No God, please, not again,” fell from her lips, echoing strangely in her ears.
For one heart-pounding minute Elizabeth had allowed her own fears to overtake her, but Laura's voice brought her back to reality. Laura Cadman was usually afraid of nothing, but she'd lost her fiancé in a Wraith attack.
“It's not them.” She laid a comforting hand on the younger woman's shoulder as she squinted to see the dust cloud on the horizon. “It can't be more than three riders, and the Wraith never attack with less than a dozen.”
But by then it was too late to tell anybody anything. The cry of Wraith had sent the town into a panic. Mothers screamed for their children, children screamed for their mothers. The men armed themselves, business owners pointing rifles out their windows, and those on the street drew pistols from who knew where.
Elizabeth picked up her skirt and dashed towards the Sheriff's office, determined to find somebody who could talk sense into the townspeople before there was accidental bloodshed. She reached him just as he stepped into the street, armed, and giving directions to his deputies.
“Put some men on top of the hotel. Tell them to keep low and wait for my signal.”
“Sheriff Caldwell,” she called, slightly out of breath, and slightly intimidated by all the eyes on her.
He waved his men off, then turned his attention to her.
“Go back to your store and barricade yourself inside, Ms. Weir.”
Before she even had a chance to reply he turned away.
“It's not the Wraith,” she frowned, unhappy at being dismissed so casually. When he didn't respond she grabbed him by the elbow in an uncharacteristic show of anger.
“Is this how we greet strangers now?” she demanded, “With guns drawn?”
“My job is to keep this city safe Ms. Weir.” He glared down at her. “Maybe if I'd been in charge before, this town wouldn't have lost so many of its women and children. Now go back to your store and stay out of the way!”
Taking advantage of her momentary loss for words, he jogged down to the edge of town. Elizabeth knew she must have looked like a fish out of water, mouth opening and closing in rage. How dare he talk down to her like she was a naïve, ignorant child! How dare he question Jacob's devotion to his people?
It could have been hours before she felt a hand at her elbow and heard Carson Becketts's calm Scottish bur.
“Come away, lass. There's nothing you can do here.”
She turned to see Janet Fraiser, the local midwife; Sam Carter, the retired sheriff’s daughter; and Laura all standing outside Beckett's office. A hush had fallen over the town, broken only by the wind as it blew through the streets.
It wasn't long before the outline of the riders could be seen. There were two horses, one with its rider upright in the saddle, and the other with its rider slumped over the horn.
The man who was still upright pulled up sharply on the reigns when Caldwell stepped into the middle of the street, rifle drawn, and demanded to know what their business was.
“He…needs…help,” the man rasped as he slipped from his horse and attempted to reach his injured comrade. It was then that Elizabeth recognized them as the same men who'd been in town just a few days before, asking questions. The man slumped over, bleeding, had called himself Ronon Dex. The other man, whose once handsome face was now a mess of cuts and bruises, had introduced himself as John Sheppard.
“Hold on son!” Carson called, “We're comin'!”
“Now wait just a minute,” the Sheriff attempted to hold the Scottish doctor back.
“Those men need help and I'm going to help them,” he stared up defiantly at Caldwell.
“We're going to help them,” Janet corrected in a calm, determined voice as she came to stand beside Carson.
“Fine, get yourselves killed! See what I care!“
Caldwell threw up his hands in defeat, but contrary to his words stayed where he was, prepared to defend the town and people he‘d been entrusted with.
“Laura, Elizabeth,” Beckett called over his shoulder in the crisp, clipped tone that meant business, “We'll need-”
“Got it Dr. Beckett,” Laura interrupted. Carson sent her a grateful smile and Elizabeth noted that she blushed a little before she clapped her hands together. “You heard him, ladies. Let's get to work.”
Caldwell ground his teeth in frustration as he watched the doctor, midwife, and various other townspeople rush toward the injured men. He wasn’t sure why he was relieved when he saw that Elizabeth had gone into the doctor’s office instead of further out in the street, but he pushed the thought aside and went to collect the men’s panicked horses that were fast becoming a danger to the growing crowd.
***
“Easy,” Elizabeth said softly as she pushed John Sheppard back down on the bed, her bed.
It had been decided that the doctor's office was the first place anybody would look for two injured men who'd escaped them, and the jail would be the next. So, Elizabeth had offered the rooms above her store. Not only was it an unlikely place for the two men to be hiding, it wouldn't look unusual for people to be going in and out of a mercantile all day.
“You've been badly injured. If you keep moving you'll pull your stitches.”
She added an exasperated again in her own mind. For the last several days he'd been delirious and had required a twenty-four hour guard. His fever had finally broken late last night, much to the relief of the exhausted Janet and Carson.
“Ronon?” he rasped, closing his eyes against the faint early morning light that peaked through the curtains.
“Your friend is fine,” she assured him.
The other man, Ronon, was in fact, doing better than his partner. Although Ronon had been shot perilously close to his spine, he hadn‘t developed an infection, as John unfortunately had.
Taking a clean washcloth from a drawer, Elizabeth dipped it into a pitcher of water before letting it rest against John's chapped lips. Janet had warned her that too much water, too soon, would be a shock to his system. Carson had grudgingly confirmed Janet's expertise.
Although Carson was more skilled in technical subjects, such as surgery, he and Janet were equal in many ways. Janet's father had been a doctor in a mining town, and, in place of the sons he didn't have, he'd taught her everything he had known. She’d learned herbs and natural remedies from an old Indian woman who had lived on the outskirts of her childhood home. Once a respected medicine woman, before most of her tribe had been killed or scattered to the four winds, she’d been almost desperate for somebody to pass her knowledge onto. In many ways she’d been the mother Janet never had.
“I want to see him,” John told Elizabeth when she'd taken the washcloth away. “Where is he?”
“You've got some questions to answer first son,” a masculine voice replied in place of Elizabeth's. She turned in surprise toward the newcomer, and so didn't see John's hand drift towards his hip, reaching for a gun that wasn't there.
“You must be the Sheriff,” he said in a voice that clearly indicated he held no respect for the position. At Caldwell's nod, he smirked and laid his head back down on the pillow. “Ronon's not talkin' huh?”
Caldwell didn't get a chance to answer because several irate voices in the next room interrupted.
“I swear to God I'll sedate ye, if ye don't get back into bed!” Carson's voice was the easiest to identify.
“Ronon!” John's voice suddenly snapped out, causing Elizabeth to jump and Caldwell to reach for his gun.
“Sheppard?” The scuffling stopped in the next room, although Carson could still be heard mumbling under his breath
“Do what the doc says,” John instructed.
“That an order?”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the question. The giant of a man in the next room took orders?
“Yes, Ronon,” John replied, rolling his eyes, “That's an order.”
“You're military?” Caldwell frowned. Had he really been out of the service that long?
“Not anymore,” John's expression became closed again. “You said you had some questions?”
“Questions that can wait.” Everyone looked up to see Jack O'Neill come through the door. He took a quick survey of the people in the room, nodding at John and Elizabeth before he turned his attention to Caldwell.
“There's been a Wraith sighting,” he informed him. “Hammond wants to talk with you.”
“With all due respect Deputy Mayor O'Neill, these men could very well be a part of the Wraith gang. I can't do my job unless you all leave me to do it.”
“These men aren't any more a Wraith than I am.” Carson suddenly bustled into the room. “Now out, all of you.”
“Doctor…” Caldwell started to object, but Jack interrupted him.
“Are you a member of the Wraith Gang?” he asked John. His question was met with hard silence, and then John gave a faint shake of his head.
“See,” he smiled at Caldwell in a futile attempt to lighten the mood, “Nobody's part of anything.”
“We're not done here,” Caldwell assured, pinning John with the glare he'd once used on wayward recruits.
“See ya around, Sheriff,” John replied with mock civility that almost sounded like a threat. Caldwell glared at Sheppard, but finally followed O'Neill out the door. Carson gave John a quick look over, grumbling to himself all the while, then headed back to help Janet with Ronon.
“You did that on purpose.” Elizabeth accused after Carson had left. She tried to look severe but couldn’t help the small smile that escaped.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” John shot his best innocent look at the pretty woman.
They sat in comfortable silence until they heard another commotion coming from Ronon's room. John sighed, and then made a move to get out of the bed. Elizabeth's gentle hand pushed against his chest once again. He winced when she hit a bruise, but although she gave him an apologetic look as she removed her hand, her voice was still firm.
“You're not going anywhere until Carson says you can.”
“Ronon needs…”
“I’ll see what’s going on with Ronon. You stay put!” Elizabeth’s green eyes twinkled as she looked back over her shoulder. “Those are my orders.”
John gave her the best boyish grin he could with a split lip, and would have given a jaunty salute if his arm didn’t feel like it was going to fall off.
“Yes ma'm.”
***
Elizabeth almost collided with Carson as she stepped into the hall. In the next room, she could hear Janet still arguing with Ronon.
“You stop acting like a stubborn child or I‘ll take you over my knee and treat you like one!"
“Poor bloke,” Carson whispered to Elizabeth a tired smile, “He doesn‘t realize she‘ll actually try and do it.”
Elizabeth returned his smile, equally tired, and patted him on the shoulder. She knew that the Scottish man had faced off against Janet more than once. If anyone knew what the midwife was capable of, it was Carson Beckett.
Janet came out shooting one last glare over her shoulder. “You stay!”
Elizabeth caught a quick look at Ronon before his door shut. She was amused by his look of bewilderment at being told what to do by a woman who was barely half his size; she was also intrigued by the hint of admiration she saw behind it. Little did she know she’d need that little tidbit of information in the soon-to-come war of Janet teasing her about John Sheppard.
Janet shut the door and let out a weary sigh. The two women shared a look that was universal to women of every time, race and upbringing, a look that simply translated to “men.” Little did they know it was only the beginning.
***
As he followed Jack O’Neill to Mayor Hammond’s office, Caldwell glanced up at second story of the mercantile. He could make out a faint shadow in the early morning. It could have been any number of people who were there looking after the two men, but he knew it was Elizabeth Weir. Pushing back a faint feeling of jealously, Caldwell forced his mind onto the real issue: protecting Atlantis. He didn't like John Sheppard, and sure as hell didn't trust him. There was something the younger man was hiding, something Steven Caldwell was going to make damn sure didn’t threaten Atlantis or it’s people.