A Little Thing Called Christmas
So... another Christmas story... sorry... but I've had half this story in the bag for a while. At least one Christmas before now. But finishing it was... hard. Mostly because I had to decide for myself what Christmas really is. I mean, really. But here we go, finished this last night, I hope you enjoy it. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas... and if you don't celebrate Christmas, even if this is just a normal day for you, go out there, be kind, and be generous, and loving... and man, I'm going sappy. But whoever you are, whatever you believe, have a magnificent day!
Surprisingly it was Sheppard who cleared everything up for him.
Not that it should have, he guessed, but once he actually knew what the whole deal was about, he couldn't help the feeling that this whole Christmas spirit thing did not really suit his usually stoic commander.
Or maybe it was him entirely.
When the decorations started going up, he turned to Teyla. It was just natural. For starters, she had been standing beside him when he saw the tinsel, and the bright lights that flickered on and off, and fake snow on green strings of fake leaves and pine needles. For seconds, he was still new, and like him, she was an outsider. She was one he could trust.
But she just shook her head. "They did it this time last year as well," she told him. "They call it Christmas. Apparently it is a religious celebration. The birth of some… man, or something. I don't know, I never really understood it."
They had religious celebrations on Sateda. He had even celebrated some of them since coming to Atlantis, sharing them with Teyla, and Sheppard, and even McKay, eventually. But none of them involved brightness, and… whatever this was.
He looked down at her. "Christmas?"
She nodded. "They… put all this up, and then, on a single day, they exchange gifts, eat a lot of food and hold a service of some kind." She shrugged again. "Last year they offered me to join, but I declined. It is one of those strange Earth things."
And she moved on, both in the conversation and physically, walking onwards, away from the scientists on their ladders, bedecking the halls in boughs of holly, and pine, and even the odd cluster of mistletoe. All things he recognised, but none of which had any special meaning for him.
Dr Weir's office was not a room he usually visited. Not if he could help it. As commander of Atlantis, she had that same air of confidence as some of the leaders of Sateda. The ones who deserved his respect, in any case.
But seeing her with bells in her ears, and some of that tinsel in her hair, as well as a goofy grin on her face as she watched Major Lorne and one of the marines on their own ladders, with their own flashing lights… well, that eased some of that sense of uneasiness, of having done something wrong when he hadn't.
"Ronon, what can I do for you?" she asked when she saw him. Lorne and the captain turned around as well, grinning at Ronon's cautious glance over the decorations.
He gestured at the tinsel. "What's all this?"
Weir grinned. "This? This is Christmas."
"Yeah, but what is it?" He was curious now. "What's it about?"
"Family," Lorne said immediately, sobering somewhat.
The captain grinned. "Presents."
Ronon's glance turned to confusion. Weir glanced at the two marines and then back at the Satedan, sitting down on the side of her desk. "Christmas is those things," she admitted. "Families getting together and exchanging gifts. Others have a huge dinner. But in popular culture it started as a celebration of the birth of the son of God."
"You mean in your religion?" Ronon demanded, crossing his arms.
"In one of our religions," Weir told him. "It's a Christian celebration, yes. But it started as a pagan festival..." Her voice took on a lecturing tone, and Ronon felt his eyes begin to glaze. The rest he eventually blocked from his mind.
"Christmas?" McKay demanded when Ronon got around to asking him. Honestly he never really thought to ask the scientist, but when he came across the man in his search for Zelenka, McKay offered an explanation in any case.
"Me personally, I like the lunch." He sat back on his stool, crossing his arms as well, while Ronon tried to inconspicuously search for an exit. McKay could be annoying in the best of moods. And now, wearing a green and red t-shirt with a decorated tree on it, was in no way the best of moods.
"Now some," McKay continued, "go for the cold lunch. Cold meat, salad, that kind of thing. Others go traditional. My family goes the roast. Lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, ham. Roast potatoes, roast carrots, peas, corn, parsnip. And gravy. Can't go past the gravy."
When he left the lab, he did so with the sneaking suspicion that Earth was not so great as it was just advanced. Presents, a huge lunch, family. Given, family was important, but the rest just seemed too little to explain the excitement and joy filling the corridors of Atlantis day by day.
The day after he talked to McKay they had a mission, the last before this strange celebration of Christmas. The gate was a fair walk from the closest life sign, and the world was covered in trees, so they ended up on foot, with a long journey ahead of them.
He explained his conundrum to Sheppard on the way, but at the time, the man had little to offer in way of explanation.
"It's Christmas," the man told him cynically. "It's mostly a chance for people to eat, drink and give each other presents. A chance to forget about problems, to worship God for a day." He paused and then shrugged. "Though I will admit that the presents in my house were usually pretty good."
Which seemed to fit with Ronon's own apprehensive thoughts on this strange celebration. He let it drop, and turned his attention to the mission at hand. Although his attention didn't seem to help much when the mission, as it so often did, went pear-shaped.
They reached the village just after lunch, and immediately the kids ran to them, excited and shouting. It wasn't that strangers were an unusual occurrence on this planet; but they did tend to bring lollies with them.
Sheppard laughed as he saw all the kids, his face brightening, and he slipped his pack off his back, reaching in to grab out the bag of confectionary. The kids clambered around him, eyes shining in expectation. Within seconds they were all holding handfuls of sugar, and then they were running off, Sheppard laughing as he watched them disappear. The village elders were marching out to meet them, their own faces full of joy.
And of course, that was when the pear-shaped happened.
Their radios exploded into life, the frantic voice of a marine at the gate shouting in their ears. "Colonel Sheppard, darts, coming through the gate! And heading your way!"
Sheppard swore, but he acted instantly, racing towards the elders while handing out orders over the radio. "Sergeant, get undercover, and stay there until you can get through the gates. If you haven't heard from us after an hour, bring reinforcements!" He clicked off as he reached the elders, not even waiting for a response from the sergeant. "Elder Keram, there are Wraith coming. Is there somewhere we can hide?"
They all ran, a horn sounding the alarm from somewhere inside the village at the arm waving of one of the other elders. A few people screamed, but they were used to this. All of them, screamers or not, turned and ran for the nearby hills.
But Ronon knew they weren't going to be fast enough, and sure enough halfway to the hills, he heard the screaming of the darts as they pierced the air. He looked over his shoulder, catching the ships, two of them, glinting in the sun. And on the ground, barely keeping up, Sheppard, with two kids in his arms.
He wasn't the only one close to being scooped up by the darts, but he was the closest. Ronon gave an annoyed growl, and stopped, spun and lifted his blaster, shooting uselessly at the darts. He might hit but even his powerful weapon, alone, wasn't enough to bring them down.
Except he wasn't alone. Two bursts of P90 fire joined him, and he knew Teyla and McKay had stopped to shoot with him, giving the villagers enough time to reach the hills, and the mines where safety waited.
If they could get the darts off their backs.
A lucky shot from one of them sent one of the darts spiralling, but by then Sheppard, and the other dart, had caught up to them. And they had to run, Ronon taking one of the kids off his commander and sprinting for the mines. At least there they would be safe from the beams of the ships.
They dived under the entrance, and pushed the kids further down the shaft, sending them running to waiting parents. And then Sheppard turned, back to the blue sky, his face set grimly.
And he opened fire on the dart coming back at them, circling for a second run.
Standing together, they all aimed at the dart, three P90s, one blaster and one dart competing.
It started smoking, and then a second lucky shot hit something vital, because fire spurted out of an engine, and it stopped whistling and really started screaming, dropping from the sky, and picking up velocity.
And that was when the more pear-shaped happened, because it was heading straight for them.
They seemed to realise at the same time, because they all turned to run further down the shaft at the same time, screaming for people to get back at the same time.
The dart hit, the world shook, and Ronon's world went black.
When he woke it wasn't to crushing weight and excruciating pain, like he had expected. It was to light, and music, and the smells of something cooking.
He sat up, confused, pretty sure the world had collapsed around before he had been knocked out. Teyla was with him instantly, relieved, sporting a small gash on her forehead, but smiling.
"Easy, Ronon," she soothed. "Elder Keram says you took quite a blow."
Ronon was sure he had, but he felt okay. He checked his head, finding a big lump, but nothing more. A few bruises. Nothing. "So we're not dead?"
"Nope," Sheppard said, hobbling over. He had a bandage around one leg, but was still far too happy as well. "Far from it. We are trapped, but Atlantis should be here soon, and Elder Keram had the mines pretty well stocked. A few fun bits from our own packs, and we have quite a feast on the fires."
"We're trapped in the mine?" Ronon demanded, slowly getting to his feet.
Sheppard nodded. "Yep. But it's no problem. In fact, you woke up just in time for food. Hungry?"
That was a yes. Ronon decided he would trust his commander and walked over to where all the noise was coming from. Someone offered him a plate of meat and vegetables, and he smiled gratefully without a word, before moving to sit down next to McKay. Who was in just as good a mood as Sheppard and Teyla
"I don't get it," Ronon muttered to John as he sat down beside him. "We're trapped, we've all got bumps and bruises, and the Wraith might know we're here, but you're all smiling like it's an ordinary day."
"But it's an extraordinary day," Teyla answered, her foot tapping in time to the music.
"It's Christmas!" McKay chimed in, around a mouthful of food. Ronon stared at him with some disgust before turning back to Sheppard.
"I don't get it. 'It's Christmas?' From everything I've heard, Christmas is about presents, food and pretension."
Sheppard sobered a little, before putting his plate down. "Not quite," he sighed. "Not really. I was being a little cynical before. Christmas... it's not about presents, it's about giving with no thought of receiving, and being grateful for having what you do have." He spread his arm, gesturing to the laughing villagers around them. "We have food, and friends, and we have life. No one died, and that's a good thing."
He picked at his plate, and then continued. "It's not about food, it's about who you're sharing food with. Family, friends, people you barely know... it doesn't matter, because they're there, and you're having a good time, and they are, and for a moment you can forget petty arguments and just remember what you mean to each other."
Ronon stared at Sheppard: he had never seen him so deep in thought before, so philosophical. "And pretension?" he asked quietly, so Teyla and McKay couldn't hear.
"Not pretension. It's the one time of the year... it's hard to explain. It's the one time of the year when you remember how to be a child, when every single person who believes in Christmas has a chance to be innocent. It's the one time of the year when everything else except family and life, and love fall away. Or it should be. And it shouldn't be that it just happens on Christmas. It's something people should do every day, but they don't. I don't know why," he said before Ronon could ask the question. "But they don't. Every day, people should be thankful, and generous, but Christmas... Christmas gives them the excuse to do it. People spend hundreds of dollars... you know what, that doesn't matter." He looked up and smiled; not at Ronon but at the villagers. "These people have no idea what Christmas is but... Christmas is this."
Suddenly he frowned, and turned to the Satedan. "Am I making sense?" More sense, but Ronon nodded. John just chuckled. "I think I got hit harder than I thought, I'm turning all sappy. I think I need to eat some more."
Ronon laughed with him, but inside he couldn't help but remember McKay and Teyla standing with him to bring down that dart, them all standing together to save the villagers. Giving with no thought of receiving. He remembered Sheppard giving those kids those lollies, and that smile on his face. Pure joy, because he was giving something, with no thought that he would get anything but joy back.
And he understood.
So, what did you think? Hope I made sense... you try explaining why Christmas turns us all into little kids again! Actually, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it...
Here's to a great December 25th, whoever and wherever you are around the world