Out of the Wild

By: Anjirika and Anuna (2TreeHuggers)

1. First Steps

The university campus was bustling with activity. Students were walking from class to class or spread out on the lawns doing the last minute cramming. It was the last week before final exams and there was a palatable buzz in the air.

For the first year students, their first excursion into university was almost over and for the graduating students, another phase of their lives was coming to a close - for the rest, it was just the same old; a time to buckle down and get through the remaining classes before taking a much needed break before coming back the following year.

The professors on the other hand were excited for the term to end as well. But there was probably no one excited as Doctor Elizabeth Weir was on that day. As she walked from her second - last class of the day to her office she was celebrating inside. No more classrooms for a whole semester or even more. Today was the day that she would be meeting the members of her new team. Her field research team. It was every biologist's dream come true, and Elizabeth considered self lucky.

She had just gotten offered the leading position on a new expedition by GARA; the Global Animal Research and Rescue Association to do some research on the jaguars in small region of South America.

"Dr. Weir?" Asked a tentative voice and Elizabeth looked up to see the face of her assistant Peter Grodin, a former transfer student from South Africa peaking around her doorframe.

"Yes what is it Peter?" Elizabeth asked brightly.

"Dr. Simon Wallace on line one for you..." Peter stated tentatively. Oh that's why he didn't make a sound when I came in, thought Elizabeth, wondering how many calls from her fiancée she missed. "...he says it's urgent, something about South America?" added Peter, his eyes pleading to get lost as soon as possible.

"Yes," Elizabeth sighed, picking up the receiver of the phone. Closing her eyes she reminded herself to keep her calm, knowing exactly what this conversation would be like. "Thank you Peter..." Once her assistant was safely out of ear-shot Elizabeth clicked line one and was greeted immediately by Simon's voice.

"What's the meaning of this Elizabeth?" he demanded, badly covering the frustration in his. Oh, she knew she had it coming, but she didn't feel like discussing this with him with only two weeks to go before she left.

"Listen Simon," Elizabeth began, although her apology was futile. "I was going to tell you about South America, but the time never seemed right..."

"...the time has never been right for a lot of things, Elizabeth." Simon argued, his anger becoming palatable through the phone. "I mean how many times have we pushed back our wedding? Five?"

"Four…." Elizabeth corrected with a wince as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in a vain attempt to stem the growing headache. "But Simon, you know that Australia and Taiwan and India and New Zealand were all important missions and-"

"…and the wolves?" he was near to explode. He would never get over that one. Sadly that was the field study she was most proud of.

"The wolves were something special." Elizabeth stated firmly. "A chance to-"

"And what about-" he was ready to start an argument, but she decided to end it.

"Simon," Elizabeth interrupted, her patience wearing thin. "It's my job to-"

"But what about your job to me?" Simon asked furiously. She hated the way he spoke about this, but nevertheless he always used the same formulation – 'your job to me.' "You agreed to be my wife, yet you seem more concerned with saving animals then you do our relationship."

"Simon," she gritted her teeth. "You know that I love you-"

"And I love you," Simon interrupted, but it didn't really come out right. It sounded a lot more like 'I would love you more if you quit that silly job of yours'. "This is why I am asking you not to go to South America."

She closed her eyes, failing to understand how a request can like that be a declaration of love. Somebody would call it blackmail, but she decided not to go there.

"Simon, you know that I can't turn down a job like this. "

"You did once before; he pointed out, thinking back to the time that he had been hurt.

"You were in a serious motorcycle accident, Simon," Elizabeth elaborated, thinking back to that day when she had been in the forests of China tracking down Giant Panda's when she had gotten the call saying that Simon, her boyfriend at the time had been seriously hurt. "Of course I was going to turn down a job to be with you-"

"So be with me now…" Simon switched so fast from demanding to pleading, his voice sounding desperate over the phone, and there was something about his ability to do that, that Elizabeth didn't like at all.

"Not right now Simon," Elizabeth stated firmly looking at her watch, realizing that she was going to be late for her meeting. "I have a me- class to get too, I need to go."

"You're going to meet the members of your new precious team, aren't you?" Simon asked, seeing right through the lie, and changing right back to his previous tone. "Again, no time for us."

"Yes Simon," Elizabeth confessed with a sigh, frustrated to the point of screaming. "I am going to meet two of the members of my team-

"You really are a piece of work." Simon muttered, causing Elizabeth to be taken aback for a moment.

"I'll talk to you when I get home alright?" Elizabeth stated after a brief uncomfortable moment of silence.

"I don't plan to spend the evening at the house," Simon stated coldly. "So you should probably stay at your University apartment, and..."

"Fine." Elizabeth muttered angrily and cut him off before hanging up with Simon without even a' Goodbye' or 'Love you'. She stared at the books on the edge of her desk and shook her head. This was getting old.

"Trouble with dear Simon?" Asked a familiar and mildly sarcastic voice from the doorway and Elizabeth looked up to see her long time friend Dr. Daniel Jackson. He was an archeologist from University of Colorado who was a frequent guest teacher over here, and often he joined GARA's missions if they stumbled across some interesting ruins.

"Daniel!" Elizabeth exclaimed with surprise, trying to push back all the frustration and rising from the chair to greet her friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you're getting along away from your precious field work." Daniel admitted with a smile, his eyes shining behind his glasses as Elizabeth hugged him. "But I hear that you'll be heading out soon."

"Yes." Elizabeth confirmed with a nod as she ushered Daniel out of her office and down the hallway. "I was actually just on my way to meet the members of my new team, and... that was not the question. I asked what you are doing here." She slapped him on the sleeve of his jacket and he laughed.

"Well," Daniel gave her a knowing smile. "You sure you want to hear about my new project? Oh, I didn't think so. About your team... Some of them aren't all that new... in fact one of them you've dealt with before. Or so I heard"

"Well," Elizabeth began slowly running over her mental list of the people that she had worked with over the past several years. "I know that Colonel Marshall Sumner and his marines will be joining me, but this is the first time that I've gotten to pick the members of my team myself. I wonder-" she was cut off by a voice practically echoing through the corridor and she just had to grimace slightly at the person to whom the voice belonged to.

"Carson!" the annoying voice a familiar scientist roused her ears. "Get back here..."

"Rodney McKay" Elizabeth groaned, gesturing with a hand in Rodney's direction. "Daniel you could have warned me…"

"Now where would the fun be in that?" Daniel asked with a playful smirk. He knew full well that while Elizabeth considered Rodney to be a little brother, she often wanted to strangle him into good behaviour.

"Carson!" Rodney called walking towards Elizabeth and Daniel as well but Carson was already in the elevator going down... "I swear," Rodney began turning to Elizabeth. "That man has serious issues."

"I heard that he was never out of the country before." Daniel pointed out with a smirk as he placed his hands in his pockets. "The prospect of going to South America is kind of daunting even to me," he added, prompting a frown from loud scientist.

"Oh right. Oh how smart," Rodney scoffed, walking back inside the conference room and taking a seat, giving Daniel an ugly look. Daniel laughed. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She had both of them in the field once. She hoped she'd never have to put up with that again.

"You 'Mr. I like to dig in the dirt perusing a science that is more of a child-hood fantasy' thinks that going to," he was about to start a verbal wrestling match with Daniel, and Elizabeth already had a headache.

"Rodney." Elizabeth interrupted walking towards the conference table, "That will be quite enough."

"Hey." Rodney protested as Elizabeth took her seat at the head of the table. "I'm not one of your students..."

"No." Carson agreed, stepping back into the room. "But if you're coming on this little journey like I am Rodney, then you are going to have to listen to her."

"Carson." Elizabeth welcomed fondly, offering the doctor a place at her left-hand side. "I'm glad to see that Rodney hasn't scared you away."

"Oh I'm mighty scared lass." Carson agreed as he took a seat. "But more so of the panther's and jaguars and other beasties that we'll be meeting than his hot-headed buffoon to your right."

"Hey!" Rodney exclaimed in protest as Daniel interrupted him with a laugh. Elizabeth covered her eyes with a hand, wondering if this could get any worse. Oh, she forgot about the soldiers and Colonel Sumner. This would be a great mission, she concluded.

"Well Elizabeth, looks like you have your hands full here." Daniel pointed out with a laugh. "I'll leave you too it then...," he turned on his heel and walked away, smirking.

"Goodbye Daniel!" Elizabeth called after him. Okay, one less kid to deal with, she thought.

"Now," Elizabeth interrupted causing both Rodney and Carson to look at her expectantly. "What the three of us need to do is to decide who else we're going to have for this mission. And we have to do it soon; I have a lecture in three hours."

"Well," Rodney began with a smirk. "I had some ideas about that…"