TITLE: Under Siege
AUTHOR: Kim (or AngelQueen, in most circles)
CATEGORY: Angst, Drabble Series, slight Romance
PAIRING: There are other Atlantis 'ships besides Shep/Weir? is shocked
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNING: None really. Aside from reading John and Elizabeth angst over one another.
SUMMARY: The Wraith have come. They know what must be done, one way or another.
SPOILERS: 'The Siege, Part 2'
DISCLAIMER: If I owned 'Atlantis', John and Elizabeth would have jumped one another long ago. But I don't. Besides, I'm just a poor, ickle college student who loves to play with them! No copyright infringement intended.
1.
"Elizabeth, wait."
When she turns to him, he says nothing else. He cannot say it aloud.
But then, she's a smart lady. He's known that from the start. She'll figure it out.
"You can't!"
Come on, Elizabeth, a part of him says. Be strong for me. It's the only way.
But he doesn't say what he's thinking. He says what she must hear. What she has to understand.
"I have to, and you know it!"
"John…"
Come on, be strong for me. One more time.
He hates the grief in her eyes, but he stands firm. She has to understand.
2.
"John…"
She wants to shout, to deny what he's saying. There has to be another way.
She wants to say no. She wants to curse the Wraith that have descended upon her new home, taking away her people, her friends.
She wants to kill them all. They want to take him from her. The one who is a friend and, in the depths of her heart, so much more.
But she stares into his eyes and she cannot deny the truth.
He's already gone. She must release him from her desperate grasp.
"Go."
He vanishes, and she wants to weep.
3.
"You let Sheppard fly that Jumper!"
The moment he says it, he regrets it. The grief, the self-hatred is visible on her face, even as she struggles to be strong for those who remain in their crumbling sanctuary.
Only now does he see how hard this really is for her. Only now does he understand that even if she is stoic now, she is crying on the inside.
Only now does he see how much she truly cares. She loves the one she let fly to his death.
She didn't tell him, did she?
Fate really is a cruel thing.