Title: Don't Mind Me
Summary: It's hard being a hero. It's even harder trying to do it in another person's body. After a bizarre accident, Sheppard is comatose and McKay has more problems then he bargained for. And that's just the beginning…(Team fic!)
Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing of the wonderful thing that is Stargate Atlantis, its characters, places or ideas. But, I do own the few races and planets created for this fic in general, but, that's about it.
A/N: Woohoo! My second large-scale fic. Just something I was cooking up for a bit now, came to me whilst I was in the shower oddly enough, for some reason I have more productive brainstorming there. Go fig. Anyway, hope you guys like this one, I'm pretty excited about it, but, as always, it's all for you guys. Twists a'plenty, enjoy!
Chapter One: Tempers Flare in the Temple 'o' Doom
"It's going to take me, at utmost an hour, if that." Dr. Rodney McKay's tone grew harsher, his voice echoing throughout the vastness that was the temple. At any other time, he would have felt a bit embarrassed, even silly, to cause a scene fearing to disturbed the strange almost, sanctity of the ancient ruin. Now, in his current state of mind he was two seconds away from introducing Major John Sheppard's face to his fist, then running away for his life before the Major regained his senses.
Sheppard, his brows drawn downward, taking on a most annoyed scowl was in just about the same frame of mind at the moment, bickering between himself and the physicist was one thing, amusing even, but when it came down to how a mission was run, those friendly, cutesy, tiffs turned into all out feuds. "Which you've said consecutively, for three hours now!" He snarled, holding up one hand with three fingers raised as if Rodney didn't know just how many that really was.
Inhaling deeply, his own frown increasing before speaking both sarcastically and informingly, McKay took a step forward, bridging the small gap between the two men, trying to drive his point home. "Uh, might I remind you, that----"He pointed behind him to the object in question. "-----is a highly delicate piece of alien technology. It's not just going to examine itself! Proper analysis takes time Major." This statement didn't seem to work as well as the physicist planned for as John stepped forward himself, practically getting into Rodney's face.
"Which I've given you, Doctor." Sheppard calmed himself. He hated losing his cool, andon account of Rodney McKayof all people just ticked him off more. "Our mission here is to check this planet out, see if there are any nice folks to trade with, possibly find a power source to get our asses back home, and not get ourselves killed in the process. You've already negated three out of thosefour objectives, don't push it!" John jammed a finger into McKay's chest, emphasizing his last words with each jab before turning away, signaling that he was completely done with this discussion.
"I don't think your comprehension of this is all that clear Shappard." McKay began, drawing the Major right back in, this fight was far from over in his opinion. Tensions had been tight between the two it seemed all morning since they arrived on the planet and what had started out as a, routine, boring mission as McKay would consider it;had turned out to be far more fruitful then he could have imagined. And now as soon as he found something worth wild, John wanted to leave. He always wanted to leave!
Turning back, John narrowed his eyes atRodney, speaking slowly and as evenly as he could, growingmore heatedas the words spilled out. He was sick and tired of the physicist trying to run the show as soon as he felt, there was nothing more, a, as McKay would put it; 'gun-toting, no-braingrunt' like John could do after the possibilities of hostiles was gone. So, he always ended up sitting back, letting the genius do his job while he twiddled his thumbs. And, what he hated the most, was more then likely, McKay would get them into a load of trouble that Sheppard inevitably had to pull them out of. It happened every damn time they found something, when Rodney screwed with something, and John had just about enough.
"Oh I do understand McKay. Every time we find one of these ancient doo-hickies, you spend a million years looking and testing and end up in the same place you started, with your thumb up your ass. Now, this planet is getting real uncomfortable, and who knows what it's going to be like as soon as those suns go down, and I'm not too eager to find out. Did you even notice how quiet it is? You know what that mean's McKay? No animals, no damn birds means something's pretty wrong with this place. It doesn't take a goddamn astrophysicist to figure that out."
Rolling his eyes, McKay tried to sound reasonable without really pleading, something he would never do, especially to John. He felt the man didn't respect him in the least already, why make it worse by begging? "I'm only asking for a little more time, just a few----" But he was quickly cut off, Sheppard nearly shouting once again in his face, making Rodney wince.
"What?! Minutes? Hours? We've got a scheduled check-in soon, and you've given me no reason to stay here a second, longer then that. So, let's just cut our losses short and call it a day."
"What part of sophisticated technology don't you understand here? You know, maybe if you'd stop being so pigheaded for one minute, you'd see the pure significance of a find like this. Which is something I wouldn't recommend, rushing!" McKay snapped back, looking like he was about to shove John half way across the room. He'd never been this agitated before about a fight between them. Maybe, it was the heat, the sweltering heat that felt as if it was sucking the air from his lungs; perhaps it was driving them all off the deep end. "I'm telling you I'm almost on to something here if you'd just stop pestering me every five seconds, to tell me to hurry up. I might actually be able to get something done for you Major!"
John let out a brisk and forced laugh, rolling his eyes with a disagreeing head shake before he drew in close, pointing at McKay, speaking so softly and lightly venomous that it at first, caught the physicist off guard. "First off, I don't pester, I harass productively." To which McKay regained his composure and smiled back disdainfully before frowning again. "Secondly, who the hell do you think's in charge here McKay? I tell you when we stay and when we go, you got that? Now unless that thing magically decides to make itself useful, we're leaving as soon as it's checkout time."
Ford, who'd been standing there for the past threehours, watching the tossed jabs from each man turn into a gloves-off cat fight in about 10.4 seconds couldn't stand to see it any longer. He spoke up then, raising a waving hand in both surrender and a half hearted farewell. "I'm gonna go see what Teyla's doing, she's been gone awhile."
"Fine!" Said both men in unison, McKay shouting it at Sheppard, John turning slightly to wave Aiden off, before turning his attention back to Rodney, growling. "Now look what you've done, you made me snap at Ford." Neither noticed that the Lieutenant slipped away, heading for a large, opened arched doorway across the temple.
McKay rested his hands on his hips as Sheppard turned and walked a few paces back, trying to cool down. The physicist sighed, shaking his head as he looked towards the ground, his next words were softer, indeed more pleading then he wanted them to sound, but this was ridiculous. If they were going to act like this every single time they went on a mission, how were they supposed to get anything done! "Please, John. Just give me a little more time, run some exploratory scans and then we can go, I promise. I'm just as fond of leaving here as you are, in five words or less this place gives me the bona-fide creeps but that might be a very, might I stress, immensely important piece of technology. Something that could mean a whole lot to us in the future and it's going to take some deliberation on my part. Just, let me do what I need to do, and just, relax."
John laughed lightly, that brief one that annoyed McKay to the bone, the one that said right back at him, without saying anything 'yeah, right, who the hell are you to tell me, what to do?' What he said instead was this. "I would if you couldn't cook an egg on a rock out there, and it's not even mid afternoon yet. But I'm sure you'll figure something out in the next thirty minutes." John turned back, crossing his arms over his chest, his tone final and unyielding.
Watching him carefully, Rodney paused a moment, a touch confused at the statement. "Why, what happens in thirty minutes?"
Sheppard smiled thoughtfully, taking a seat on top of a broken pillar, fully intent on watching McKay like a hawk, spiraling over its prey. He replied then charismatically. "I pull the plug on your deliberations."
Despite the increasing temperature and humidity of the planet, Ford found the place very beautiful. Lush green jungle as far as the eye could see when they flew over it in the Jumper. The exit gate itself was built into the very side of a shear cliff, opening up over the jungle top. They had skimmed the treetops, scanning for any life signs or high energy readings and followed a trace McKay suggested might be something worth checking out. They nearly missed the abandoned stone temple because it was so overgrown with foliage from years of being unused. Aiden himself had spotted the building, noticing a break in the constant rush of green, to see a small splattering of stone deep within the jungle.
Upon landing, they had discovered that beneath the immense canopy, laid an enormous stone structure, built in a style that reminded Ford of something he'd seen out of a Roman period movie. Large, thick stone pillars, holding up a coliseum like building, now mostly collapsed, the roof caved in at certain points and thefeeling that no one had been in the place in many, many years.
The silence of theplanet was immense, everything still save for when the hot air blew through the trees, picking up stone dust and sweeping dead leaves across the buildings decrepit steps. Upon entering, there seemed to be but one main room to the place, spanning out in a rectangle and up fifty feet or so to the gabled roof, sunlight poring through, cutting the dusty air in warm yellow beams. Ford thought it was, magnificent, Sheppard remarked that it seemed real 'cheery' and McKay mumbled something about it looking like some sort of temple. Scattered round the main room were two rows of broken statues, running along the left and right walls towards the back of the structure. Right in the very middle of the room, a large stone, crypt looking box, its heavy stone slab top must have been destroyed years ago for it lay opened.
That's was when all the trouble began. Inside that box was some sort of rusted old machine, made out of materials Ford himself had never seen before. He could just see the spark of intrigue ignite in McKay's eyes, and he knew then, they'd be staying there awhile. Sheppard knew it too, and as the day wore on, as the air grew hotter, heavier, the mission had gone to hell. Teyla left after an hour of waiting as Rodney did his first wave of scanning and studying. She slipped out a side door that lead to what looked like a long open walkway, overgrown with vines and shattered in some places by large fallen trees.
Ford found himself walking down that walkway himself now. Climbing over a cracked trunk of a tree that had died and collapsed sometime ago. Stepping through the snaking vines on the ground, pushing them and bushy, leaf cluttered branches out of his way as he saw the corridor lead on, growing dark before there was a small light at the end of it, leading out.
Finding himself now at the end of the walkway, Aiden slipped under an almost curtain of a massed ive-like plants, though the leaves were much bigger. He found Teyla there, coming up behind her.
She turned suddenly as his foot snapped a branch below, she seemed for a moment startled before her features relaxed and the Athosian gave him a warm smile, nodding to him in silent greeting.
"Sorry, didn't mean to spook ya." Ford smiled back, pulling his cap off as he whipped his brown on his forearm, feeling as if just being in a t-shirt, his jacket left in the main part of the temple, just wasn't enough to keep cool around here.
Teyla's smile widened as she turned towards the open area she had discovered. "You did not frighten me Lieutenant, I was simply reflecting." She herself was adorned in a light blue tank-top and darker grey fatigues, her things resting on a nearby fallen hunk of stone.
Ford looked around, finding that the temple must have been much larger then it had seemed from the front of it, though this particular area,buried within thejunglehad been damaged beyond noticeable recognition who knew how long ago. For the roof of the room was gone, all that was left to even suggest that it had been a room once were the scattered remains of walls, broken like jagged waves here and there. Leaving behind what reminded Aiden now, of an atrium.
They stood upon a landing that lead downwards, long thin stone steps towards a vast stretch of area, where the marbled floor was covered in dirt and vines, snaking towards an enormous tree that had decided to root itself in the center of the place. Though most strikingly, in rows and rows across the ground, where what looked to Aiden like, headstones. "Nice place to reflect." He said softly, not wanting to offend her, but still a bit disturbed by what he was seeing.
"Are, are those graves?" Ford asked finally, walking down a few steps, Teyla still behind him up on the landing.
She nodded to herself. "For what I have seen, yes, they are. Many in fact here and even more scattered behind that tree." Teyla pointed passed the large tree of an indescribable species, must have been something alien because Ford couldn't place it with anything he'd seen on Earth. He let his eyes skip from one thin stone slab to another; some standing up right, though many had been toppled and shattered from the massive tree's roots breaking through the ground.
"Looks like enough to populate a small city." He said quietly to himself, beginning to feel most uneasy now about the place then he had before. Maybe this once serene temple wasn't so tranquil after all. The wind picked up, swaying the branches of the tree, the sky above shined bright and blue beyond the scattered clouds. Ford found it too quiet now, too peaceful. Something; something was wrong.
Sitting quietly was usually his forte. He'd sit, watch, take in all there was to be taken in. He was a natural born listener, unless there was something he felt, needed to be said. He didn't make a habit to comment on everything, it was again, natural. He couldn't help it and even now, and John was in the mood to complain. It was hot, he was tired, a bit hungry and if Rodney could do it all the damn time, so could he.
And after a long stretch of silence, Sheppard spoke up, talking to himself mostly as he picked at his fingernails.
"Why, exactly, do we always get picked to go to the planets with the crummy locals. I mean, why not a nice place covered with ice? I just got use to the cold, it be nice for a change. We could be eaten by Yetis instead of Wraiths." Slapping his hands on top of his thighs he stood, scuffing his feet on the crunchydebris laden floor as he shuffled up behind Rodney, standing a few feet from him. "Man, why is this planet so hot?" John asked softly, stretching out his back, arms raised shoulder high as he pulled them backwards, pleased with the audiblepopping soundsof his spine.
McKay, who was currently kneeling, so consumed on how much his knees were killing him, not to mention the fact that the edge of the stone box was digging into his chest, nearly missed the Major's comment. Finding the interruption a perfect opportunity to say something brainy and smug. "Well there are first three suns to contend with, which the planet is on a direct orbital path around not to mention this area appears to be on the equator of this particular plan…."
"Rhetorical McKay, Rhe—tor—ical." John frowned distastefully, interrupting the physicist before he could say another intellectual word. He didn't need the man's snarky crap at the moment. He had more important things to worry about, like; where everyone else was. He was bored, and Ford wasn't here, so John was getting desperate.
"Teyla's sure been gone for a while." He said, mirroring Ford's very wordsas McKay turned back to his examinations, a small notebook by his side, laid open with a pen sitting in its center binding. He'd jotted down a few notes here and there, mostly harsh ones considering the device itself was so impossibly hard to examine. It was far too heavy to lift from out of the stone box, and seemed to be secured down by means Rodney couldn't see, causing him to have to look the thing over half in the box with it.
"I'm sure she's fine. Besides, Ford's with her." McKay mumbled, punching a few buttons on the scanner screen, more then likely setting new calibrations as he began to scan the alien technology over again. Something wasn't right about it. He kept picking up traces of an energy signal, but it kept coming and going, almost in pulses, he couldn't seem to find any pattern to it, nor catch it just at the right moment for a proper reading. The signal had turned into this White Whale, and he was ditermined to find it.This on top of the thousands of different positions he had to take to study the stupid thing didn't help. None of them was exactly comfortable for too long, and he kept having to get up and move around, which made him hot, which made him aggravated.
"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about." Sheppard said after a moment, causing Rodney to stop mid-scan and turn around, his knees grinding the dirt into the stone below. His expression was more then puzzled.
"You're not actually suggesting something's going on between Teyla and Ford?" This, he simply couldn't believe the Major was implying.
John swung round on the tips of his toes, enjoying the gravel sound under his boots at the moment, the only thing it seemed that was entertaining him in his time of need. He smiled at the physicist quaintly, teasing lightly. "Though the simple subtleties of flirting are a foreign tactic to you McKay, I've noticed quite a bit of goo-goo eyes going on between those two for some time now."
Rodney shook his head. He didn't see it. Well, then again he didn't really notice a lot of things that happened outside his chosen range of caring. Why worry about everyone else's business when he had too much of his own. But, he noticed then the slight hurt expression on John's face, one that Rodney thought the man might not even know he was giving. It was enough to incite a playful crack right back.
"Jealous?"
Sheppard jerked where he stood, narrowing his dark eyes in justification. "What? No!" He straightened himself, looking far taller then McKay had ever seen him, then again, everything looked taller from where he was kneeling. John continued quickly, defiantly calm. "Teyla's a member of my team, it's strictly business. I have to be professional." He added plainly, with a dry smirk.
"You sound disappointed." McKay couldn't help but grin coyly, enjoying the small and subtle way he could catch the man who was deemed impossible to catch off guard, actually off guard.
"I'm not a very professional person." Sheppard shrugged, frowning slightly as he looked towards the center of the room, looking through it instead of actually at something.
"I've noticed." Rodney mused sarcastically, finding this all too interesting. He and the Major had no sort of strong relationship, sadly, McKay saw it as that they weren't really even that good of friends what with them living completely different lifestyles, different hobbies and interests. He found himself becoming more and more jealous of Ford with each passing day. The two soldiers seemed to be able to talk about everything, even the stupidest of things; in Rodney's most humble opinion, could strike up an hour long conversation between the two. Why couldn't he seem to do that with John, granted, he didn't really understand why he should, but, it would have been nicer instead of fighting all the time. Wasn't he entitled to friend too? He'd hang out briefly with Beckett from time to time, but, the Doctor never came with them on these sorts of missions so, what did McKay have left but just himself. And that was only fun to a point. It just seemed he and John never got the opportunity, nor, were unstubborn enough to let it happen.
Sheppard arched a brow, questioningly, when Rodney realized he'd been staring at him all this time without a response, he snapped back to reality in that second, fumbling with the scanner and dropping it into the stone box with a loud, echoing thud. He quickly stuttered out something, inaudible, and reached into retrieve it, catching his finger on something sharp. "OW!-----damn it!" McKay yanked his hand back, shaking the sudden stinging pain out of his hand. The physicist stopped for a moment looking at his index finger as it grew red. Absentmindedly he continued with what he was, going to say in reply to Sheppard.
"Besides---" Jamming the aggravated finger into his mouth, finding the best medicine for a cut on the go was spit and mouth-heat. Rodney knew Carson would have a fit at such a notion, but, it was the cleanest place right now and the warmth was soothing the sting away as Rodney sucked on his fingertip lightly, screwing up his face in return.
"You alright? Ya stroked the machine wrong didn't you?" Sheppard ignored the conversation for a moment and couldn't help but make a joke, though he was, generally concerned, even just a little bit as he watched the physicist pull his finger out of his mouth, rub it over, wince then jam it back into his mouth before rolling off his knees onto his rear to sit.
"Mmmm---Besides." Rodney pulled his finger out again, with a small sucking sound before staring at it intently, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, more or less to himself. "You boys wrote the rules on civilian-military relationships a long time ago, I'd think Ford would know better." A small bead of blood formed on the man's finger, growing before it became too heavy and began to trickle downwards. "Damn it." McKay hissed.
Rolling his eyes, Sheppard sighed. "Leave it to you to bust a vein." He walked over to the packs that were all piled beside each other, leaning up against the pedestal of a statute of a woman, carved from light grey stone, much like the rest of the architecture in the temple. This statue in particular had long ago lost her head, crumbled to bits on the floor, though the rest of her still remained, bent over, holding a water pitcher looking as if she was pouring it onto the ground. The pitcher itself was hollow, the inside deep and black.
Taking a small glance to the stone woman's cleavage, lightly peeking from the folds of her stony robes, John smirked, gave her a wink and squatted down in front of his pack, pinching the buckles and drawing it open. He rummaged around lightly, McKay watching him intently as he rested against the tomb. He watched as John pulled a large black carry bag, and unzippered it laying the bag, which happened to be a med-kit, openon the floor.
Rodney pushed himself on his feet with a grunt and walked over, John looked up as McKay bent over, easily spotting the bandages and snatching one up with his good hand. Making the Major think the physicist had done this once too often to find them so quickly. Rodney fumbled with the wrapper, cursing lightly as John stood up in front of him, watching the struggle with a slight amusement.
"Would you give me that!" Sheppard snapped nonchalantly, pulling the half-opened bandage out of Rodney's grasp who had, at the moment, been trying to open up with his middle finger and thumb to no avail, trying to keep his finger pointed upwards and not bleeding on anything but himself.
"You're----wait." McKay spoke up, as John went about pulling the wrapper apart, drawing the bandage out and letting the paper fall to the ground, forgotten. He then started to pull off the backing to the adhesive ends finding it difficult. "You're not suppose to touch the sterile pad." The physicist whined, ready to take over.
"I wasn't planning to!" John glanced up with a edgy glare. Turning his attention to the bandage that was thus far, defeating him. "What the hell did they seal these with, superglue?!" He snarled, batting McKay's hand away several times when he tried to take it from him.
McKay gritted his teeth and huffed a breath through his nose, "Give----wait," He shot a hand in yanking the thing away before John did anymore damage to it. "just, I'll do it!" Letting out a long sigh, Rodney got the last backing off and placed his oozing finger on the white padding.
"Fine! Don't bleed to death in the process!" Sheppard growled, throwing a hand up in surrender. He thought that perhaps if he showed the man he was willing to help, show a bit of decency, they might get out of here a bit sooner, maybe even McKay might have considered letting him on a bit of the research to quicken the pace. But no, Rodney had to do everything.
"I'm sure you'd like that." McKay winced an arrogant smile as he wrapped the sticky ends around his finger, not finding the job he did satisfactory, he in fact thought he wrapped it too tight but, something was better then nothing. He moved away as Sheppard cleaned up the med-pack and shoved it forcefully back into his bag. Mumbling incoherently, but sounding much to Rodney like things, he probably didn't want to hear.McKay made his way back to the box and sat on its rim now, reaching carefully in for the scanner.
"No" Sheppard continued without pause, sounding down right aggravated. "Because then I'd have to drag your ass all the way back to the jumper, have Beckett yell at me for a good ten minutes about my responsibility to babysitting you and the rest of your scientific playmates."
With his face halfway into the box, his back to the Major, speaking as if he was talking to the device himself, McKay grumbled, angrily. "I hate him, you hear me? Hate in the purest sense of the word. Only perhaps modified on certain occasions to the level of loath." His fingers grazed over the scanner as he pulled it out, dusting the screen off. "The man is a thorn is my side." This said under his breath. A sudden movement caught his attention then as McKay gazed up, seeing John pass in front of him heading towards the left most row of statues across the temple.
"Wait, where are you going?" He asked, sounding a touched panicked. Afraid for a moment that perhaps John had heard what he said, finding it actually really rude come to think of it. He was about to apologize when Sheppard turned back, pointing a finger towards him.
"Just, none of your damn business, you concentrate on that thing so we can get the hell out of here sometime in the next century." The Major motioned to the device before continuing on his trek across the room.
McKay watched him, eyes slightly wide, mouth lightly agape "You're not, leaving are you?" And if Sheppard did, what did he care, right? He wasn't that afraid to be alone in this place, or was he? Or was it the fact that he thought Sheppard might have heard him, the awful thing he said. He hated guilt, it wasn't productive, and it ruined concentration. But, he wasn't a cold hearted guy either, he didn't intended to hurt anyone's feelings, especially John's.
Sheppard spun back pointing from McKay to the box. "Focus! You, thing, do!" He then raised a hand, trying to sound comforting, pausing to soften his tone. "I'm just going to be right over here." He added,nodding back towards the row of statues. "Admiring these fine stone babes."
McKay thought it over for a moment, wondering whether it was just an excuse or something else. All he could come up with was. "I've already done that." He had, in fact, taken a brief glance over the statues, finding it more the job for an archeologist. He had a good feeling if Jackson was here, he'd have a field day.
"Well hooray for you! Now get to work." John ordered briskly with a relaxed look, though inwardly he fumed; turning back as he stalked off to the statues. Rodney watched him for moment, realizing that it wasn't something deeper, it was and excuse to get away from him, to push him to get done. No more kidding around, said in the bluntest way possible. McKay's face, tightened, nodding to himself as he dug his tongue into the side of his cheek.
"Yep, attention ladies and gentlemen, we've just hit loath." He said shortly, his thoughts dark and spiteful, as he smacked the scanner which buzzed with static, punching in a few ordered combinations as he watched Sheppard's back maliciously before mumbling something mockingly to himself and set back to his examination, driving any hope of camaraderie with the Major from his mind.
Aiden had spent the last several minutes examining what he believed were tombstones more closely, finding a strange and most striking similarity to them. Glancing over the head-marker he crouched behind, he spotted Teyla now sitting upon the long stretch of steps into the cemetery, staring blankly into the atrium. "Hey, all these graves have two names on them!"
Her eyes slipped over the rows and rows of stone-carved plaques, like bared teeth to where Ford's head sprouted. Teyla gave a short nod, furrowing her brow. "I have also noticed that. It is a strange custom to me, my people usually consecrate our dead to fire." Which was true, the Athosians believed that after the several lengthy rites of passage from this life to the next, the ashes of the ones lost would be sent to the winds, to be carried away to a higher place, allowing their loved ones to watch over them always.
Aiden stood up, brushing the dirt off his knees and pulling off his cap, wiping his forehead on his arm before stuffing the hat into his back pocket, his skin gleaming lightly in the boiling rays of the three small suns above, though the shade beneath the large tree in the center of the area, kept him a bit more cooler. "Well, back on earth, sometimes families had plots, where they could all be buried into the ground next to each other. But, all these names are strange, and the dates are even weirder."
"How so?" She asked then, getting up herself and coming down the last few steps to join him three or four rows in. There Ford pointed to the grave before them.
"This one, has two men buried together."
Teyla looked over the names, seeing that they were both in fact, male. "Perhaps a father and his son." She replied plainly, not finding the significance in it. Though, she could not ignore the troubled look on the young Lieutenant's face.
Ford shook his head, motioning to the grave once more. "No, the ah, the last names are different." He moved passed her then, walking a few graves down, Teyla followed him behind intently. Aiden squatted down in front of this one, pulling back the overgrown vines and wiping off much of the grime from the chiseled writing. "See and this one has a woman dying on the same day this second name, maybe a kid, was born. And there's no date of death for the kid either." He looked up her, finding the Athosian still staring at the grave.
"And yet their names are there?" Teyla said after a moment of reflection, still not understanding exactly what it all meant, but nonetheless, feeling and overwhelming sense of dread. As if something loomed in the air, that this place seemed, marred by great sadness. The temple itself seeming to be lost, abandoned in hastelike a child screaming by a riverbed, their mother nowhere in sight. She looked about then as the wind picked up, swaying the thick branches of the tree just behind them, though it's limbs hovered above, seeming to beclawing down at them. She felt a strong shiver slip up her spine as if someone touched her back, when suddenly Teyla realized it was Ford, but his hand though was on her arm, tapping her to check something out.
"Every single one of these gravestones has no date of death for the second name. And all of the second names dates of birth are the death dates of the person noted before them." Ford mentioned, sitting back on his haunches, and stared, concentrating on a theory. In the end it really made no sense at all.
"Is that out of the ordinary?" Teyla asked, her voice sounding a touch more weaker then she had ever heard it before. She swallowed then, trying to push back her growing unease.
Ford glanced up to her, noting the foreboding look his teammate had at the moment, feeling just about the same himself. "Ah yeah, I'd say just a bit." He stood up then, placing one hand on his rifle as if to reassure himself that it was still there. His eyes roamed the graveyard, hot winds now tore through the atrium, shifting the stuffy air to no great relief. He had the distinct urge to get back to the Major and get the hell off the planet, but he knew John would want more information then that. Perhaps he should have a more in-depth look around. And yet, Ford couldn't get his legs to move, as if they knew better. Not that he was scared or anything, just, troubled-----very, troubled. Aiden asked softly, whether it was to Teyla or to the graveyard itself, he wasn't sure.
"What the hell happened here?"