The Alliance Bride

Stargate Atlantis

By: SNBRADY

Summary: Sgt. Bates gets more than he bargined for during a trade aggrement

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters. I do own Mili, Jordan and Stevens.

Pairings: Bates/OC

The Importance of Fine Print

AG-2 walked through the rippling puddle that made up the surface of the active wormhole in the gate room of Atlantis; the four members consist of Sgt. Christopher Bates, Lt. Samuel Jordan, Dr. Michael Corrigan and Dr. William Stevens. They are quickly followed by a young woman in her early twenties, she is rather beautiful, with long dark wavy brown hair and deep almost midnight blue eyes.

As the team reaches the bottom of the steps they are greeted by Dr. Elizabeth Weir, "welcome back… who is this?"

Dr. Corrigan the teams archeologist is the first to speak up, "we had sort of a cultural mishap, this is Princess Mili…apparently she is Sgt. Bates… wife."

Elizabeth's mouth falls open in shock, turning her attention to Sgt. Bates, "she's your what!"

Bates eyes close in frustration, before he looks Dr. Weir in the eye, "well apparently someone," glancing annoyedly over at Corrigan, "didn't read the trade agreement correctly and part of the finalization process for trade agreements is that a marriage happens between the two parties."

Dr. Weir just simply blinks for a few moments, "how did you miss a wedding?"

Dr. Corrigan speaks up again, "they don't have weddings in the sense we do, their marriages are made normally for political reasons rather than for love, once the agreement was signed they were married."

Dr. Weir looks at the young woman standing behind the men, she looks really scared and nervous, and obviously in a bit of shock Dr. Weir can't help but feel sorry for her, "Lt. Jordan would you and Dr. Stevens please escort our guest to the infirmary to be looked over by Dr. Beckett," the two men simply nod and show the princess out of the gate room, after they are gone Elizabeth turns back to the two men still standing on the steps, "now would someone like to explain exactly how this happened?"

Mili felt completely out of place in the city of the ancestors, the huge buildings and wide corridors it was unlike anything she had ever seen in her entire life. Dr. Stevens and Lt. Jordan had yet to say anything to her except for the simple directions that lead them to a set of transparent doors. Mili watched with fascination as Dr. Stevens moved his hand over a panel next to the door and they whooshed open right in front of her. The two men seemed amused by her expression since they smiled as they pulled her into the room only to have the doors close all by themselves after they were inside she couldn't help but say, "that is amazing," Mili turned to Dr. Stevens who seemed to know much about this technology, "how do they work?"

Stevens smiles at her curiosity, "it's complicated I'll explain later."

Just then a man with dark brown hair and blue eyes approaches them, "Lt. Jordan and Dr. Stevens good to see you back and in one piece," he says with an accent different from the others and then turns his attention to Mili and asks with a smile, "and who would this lovely lass be then?"

Mili feels an uneasy smile come to her lips, "I'm Mili," she answers holding her head up high trying to show that she is brave, even if she isn't really feeling so brave.

The man's smile grows even bigger, "well then it's nice to meet you then Mili… I'm Dr. Beckett."

Mili felt some of her uneasiness settle at the kindness that everyone was showing her, remembering her manners, "it is an honor to meet you Dr. Beckett."

Dr. Stevens places a hand on Mili's shoulder and says, "Mili if you could go and have a seat on that bed, we need to speak to Dr. Beckett for a few minutes."

Mili turns giving Dr. Stevens a slight smile, "of course," she made her way to the bed as Dr. Stevens, Lt. Jordan and Dr. Beckett retreat into a room off of the main room with all of the beds.

Mili could hear a muffled conversation coming from the room but she couldn't make out what they were saying but then again she didn't have to she knew they were talking about her and the situation of her marriage to Sgt. Bates. The marriage seemed to have everyone completely taken by surprise from the little that Dr. Corrigan, or Mike as he had asked her to call him, had said arranged marriages among their people was almost unheard of so they were sort of taken aback by the custom. It seemed that no one was more surprised by the situation than her own husband, when he found out about their marriage he had become very angry, he even threatened to kill Dr. Corrigan for not realizing that part of the trade agreement was that he marry her.

The first time Mili had seen Sgt. Bates she had almost felt relived, some of her sisters had been married as alliance brides to men who were more than twice their age and were fat and ugly, but this Sgt. Bates was young and handsome. Unfortunately the feeling of relief had been fleeting when at their initial meeting he had barely looked at her much less spoken to her, in fact he seemed cold and distant, and when they left to come to Atlantis he seemed annoyed and angry with her, it was at that moment that she wished she had been given to someone who was kind and gentle even if he was not the most young or handsome. Although when she thought about it she guessed it was better than a man who was both ugly and mean, as she had seen some of her sisters married to for the sake of one of her father's alliances. Mili had already resolved herself to the fact that as an alliance bride she would live a life of loneliness, but she had at least expected her husband to acknowledge her existence.

She was now feeling a little scared of what her first night with her husband would be like, she had heard stories of some of her sisters being basically raped by their new husbands and that usually those husbands only regarded their wives as nothing more than a bed warmer and a barer of children rather than an equal. Fear was now pulling at her mind was Sgt. Bates like that would he even care that she was funny and intelligent or would he see her as nothing than a soft place to put his…, before she could continue her thought she heard Dr. Beckett approach the bed she was sitting on.

Dr. Beckett smiled at her with one of his kind smiles, "Mili are you feeling alright?"

She gives him a brave smile, "yes I am fine Dr. Beckett, thank you."

Dr. Stevens comes up to stand next to the bed and says, "Dr. Beckett is a… healer, he is going to check you over just to make sure that you are healthy, ok"

Mili gives a small smile at the men, "of course that will be fine," with that the physical began.

Meanwhile in the Atlantis briefing room Sgt. Bates and Dr. Corrigan are trying to explain what happened on Genar.

"Dr. Weir this is as much a surprise to me as it is to you," says Bates, "we sign the agreement thinking it's just a simple alliance then all of a sudden the king says that my… wife… would be waiting for me by the gate since we were leaving right away."

Elizabeth just blinks, "why didn't you just tell them that this is not our way?"

Dr. Corrigan speaks up this time, "apparently they won't make an alliance without a marriage."

Weir looks at Bates, "pardon me but Sergeant you don't seem like the kind of man who would agree to a marriage to someone you don't know just for the sake of an alliance, even if we were desperate."

Bates breaths out a frustrated sigh, "no ma'am I'm not but like I said before the agreement had already been signed when we found out about the little clause."

Weir looks really confused now, "then why not just tell them the deal was off, since you didn't want to be married against your will."

Bates closes his eyes, shaking his head for a moment, "apparently it doesn't work that way, if I were to refuse her after the agreement was signed, she would be shamed and banished from their village, forced to live all alone for the rest of her life… as much as I may dislike the situation I couldn't see my leaving her there like that… it would have been wrong."

Dr. Weir looks back to Dr. Corrigan, "what about this princess, what is she like?... how old is she even?"

Dr. Corrigan regards the question for a few moments, "she's twenty-three and she seems to be quite agreeable, also very intelligent. Something totally fascinating about her culture, apparently the royal family on Genar have kept the tradition of reading Ancient or the writings of the ancestors as she put it. Mili was a great help to me when I was inspecting the ruins on the planet, also, she could be an asset to us in the future on trading missions, since she told me she has a lot of diplomatic experience with other trading planets and she's related to many of their higher up officials through past alliances and on the upside they seem to be a relatively advanced culture, with a good size military. In my opinion there are a lot of advantages to allying ourselves with them."

Dr. Weir weighed what Dr. Corrigan had just told her about the young woman she had only just met, "so you think she would be a good addition to the linguistics department and as a diplomat on future missions."

Dr. Corrigan answered her promptly, "yes ma'am I do and I'd like to have permission to start compiling some gate addresses for different planets that she feels could supply different services for our current needs."

Weir nods, "I think that would be a good idea," Weir looks at Sgt. Bates who is currently lost in his own thoughts and then back to Corrigan, "Doctor why don't you head down to the infirmary and get checked over by Dr. Beckett and afterward I would like you and the princess to begin working on those addresses as soon as possible," Dr. Corrigan and Sgt. Bates stand to leave but Dr. Weir says, "Sergeant would you stay for a few minutes?"

Bates turns around to sit back down but Corrigan grabs him by the arm, "hey Bates it could be a lot worse, she could be ugly and stupid… don't worry everything will work out."

Bates gives him a half smile, "thanks Mike but I think I'm still in shock; marrying a woman I know nothing about is definitely not how I imagined it." Corrigan gives him an encouraging smile before making his way out the door.

Sgt. Bates sits back down at the table and looks at Dr. Weir who asks him, "well Sergeant what do you want to do about the young woman, since it would seem that as far as she is concerned she is your wife."

Bates nods, "I know this situation is unusual, Dr. Weir but I just didn't see any other choice but to bring her with us and like Dr. Corrigan said it looks like she will become an asset… but I think the first order of business is to get her settled into quarters." Weir arches an eyebrow at him, "not mine ma'am… I have no intention of taking advantage of that girl just because some piece of paper says we're married, she shouldn't be forced into anything she doesn't want out of some misplaced sense of obligation."

Dr. Weir regards him thoughtfully, she always knew that Sgt. Bates tried to be a gentleman but the sincerity he showed at this subject was refreshing. He didn't even really know this woman but he still had such respect for her as a person that he refused to put her in a position that would be awkward even though by all intents and purposes he had every right to her, "very well Sergeant find her some quarters and then the rest is up to you as to how you chose to proceed or not with any kind of relationship with her… you're dismissed and please stop by the infirmary to see Dr. Beckett when your done, thank you."

Dr. Weir watched as Bates left still carrying that worried look he almost always had on his face, 'I'm going to have to have a talk with the linguists about reading the fine print in the future' was all she could think.