"So, what do you say?"
She couldn't say anything; she was speechless. She knew her eyes were wide, her eyes ringed with several sleepless nights she had spent huddled in a corner of her small little bunk with her laptop as another Russian snowstorm raged outside of her tiny window that was much too high to look out of. On a strange level she felt upset that she looked so unkempt when she was in the middle of being asked to participate on the most ambitious expedition ever conceived, it felt so absurdly mundane to be wearing an ugly fleece sweater and woollen socks as someone asked her if she wanted to find the lost city of Atlantis. The possibility of meeting the Ancients, of discovering more about the people who had created them... these people who had once been so powerful and lost so much in ambition and hubris. To be able to ask them the burning questions of all astrophysicists, engineers, and the like had in their brains whenever they managed to get their hands on Ancient technology that they managed to work. "I..." she started, but didn't know how to finish.
"Be advised that if you say no, I probably won't take it as an answer."
She sighed inwardly. She also wished that they would have gotten someone with more sensitivity and tact than a dead fish, but even so, his words couldn't shake the level of shock and undeniable excitement flowing through her. "But Simon... my family."
"You'll have to tell them something, of course," he said, a bit nonchalantly for her tastes. "Not the truth, obviously. Maybe they'll make an exception for you, brilliant Dr. Elizabeth Weir and all, but I wouldn't hold my breath."
She breathed. She closed her eyes. "Okay," she said at last, knowing he expected it.
He beamed, and though it was with a certain smugness, it the first genuine facial expression she's seen from him since he strode into her life with the universe on the tip of his tongue.
Rodney McKay held out his hand. "Welcome to the Atlantis expedition, Chief Science Advisor Weir."
***
She was stunned, on occasion, when Rodney McKay showed that he could be the diplomat his diplomas, title, and reputation stated that he could be. That he could stand up in front of hundreds of people and inspire something in them that wasn't a lynching of Rodney McKay. Almost everyone in the base had experienced the brunt of his brashness at least once by now, not to mention his general ability to be uncouth at frustrating times, but his constant state of burning impatience was somehow constantly levelled by his understanding of people. He pestered, put up a fight, pushed people beyond their means, pressed deadlines, but the missing of those deadlines tended to bring about extensions rather than termination. In the months now that they had been working together, stuck in this enormous but somehow cramped base, practically plastered on top of each other as expedition leader and chief scientist, she felt that she had managed to get a peek at the man he really was under the bravado of critical words and insults, though the moments were far and few between.
"Now, I know a lot of you are scared," he continued, his voice settling over them in the quiet of the gate room. "And trust me," he laughed nervously, "I am too. But we're here today for everyone we're leaving behind. Families, friends... cats. We're here to do what we as humans do best, and that is move forward and that doesn't make this just about us, it makes it also about them." His Adam's apple bobbed with a thick swallow. "I know what you have all sacrificed to be here, to commit yourself to this at all." Elizabeth looked down, flashes of Simon going through her eyes and her thoughts - questions as to whether they'd allowed him clearance. She brushed them away, unable to think about that now. "And I don't have the right to force any of you to take this step with me, when the world on the other side of that gate could be anything in the universe, including death. And if you don't, you will join our loved ones as the faces we will be happy to see when we return - and we will. So I'm giving all of you the time, right here, right now, to decide if you want this, and to remember that you don't have to."
The gate room rang in silence. Some of the personnel looked around at each other, all seeing if the other would leave.
After a long moment, he gave a quick nod, betraying nothing about his pride in his expedition in anything but the squareness of his shoulders. "Dial it up."
"Well, I'll be," muttered Jack to the whole room as the gate began to spin. "I think you all just might be able to handle him." He patted her heavily on the shoulder on his way out of the room.
She shuddered out a laugh in response, watching the mechanisms of the Stargate hiss steam as the chevrons twisted around. "Here we go!" she exclaimed as Rodney reentered the Control Room. "This is it." She cast around for something to grip her fingers to, to stabilize herself in her giddiness, but only ended up clasping her hands behind her back.
Rodney only looked past her, at the gate, his expression perfectly calm. She laughed at herself a bit self-consciously. "Please, doctor. You're embarrassing us."
He barely batted an eyelash as he coolly said, "I've never been this excited my entire life."
She smiled and turned to watch the MALP enter the gate.
***
"We have to go!" Rodney shouted at her, over the sound of the rumbling city and probably the water inevitably rushing in. He was right. She knew he was right. She had the proof right there in her hands, in the scroll of numbers telling her the city was falling apart, sequences frantically cascading down into complete failure, just like this expedition. It was only their first day - the first hours - they had already lost people. That was bad. But she couldn't stop. Not when they were so close. Not when they were standing within the walls of the Ancients themselves, surrounded by their genius. Surely they would have included a failsafe, with their unending wisdom. Why would they put up a shield without any backup?
"We can't just leave the city!" She smashed her fingers into her tablet, ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach. All this knowledge, all this technology. And they were abandoning it. "... I can't leave the city. There has to be a way!" There had to be a way. There had to be. She'd come so far, worked so hard for this.
"Elizabeth! You just told me that in minutes... maybe less... we will have ocean depths crashing into us. Now I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure if we don't drown, the pressure will get the rest of us. Now, even if there is a way, it's obvious to me that there's no time, and that's my call. Us leaving Atlantis will buy us that time - are you listening to me?"
She was. But she just couldn't stop. "Rodney... I can't. This is why we came here. After all this time, we found Atlantis. We found the city of the Ancients. Months... years of work... and now we're just going to leave it? I can't do this, Rodney, I can't."
"Elizabeth." He strode over to her and gripped her arm, drawing her away from her tablet screen. "We didn't come here to die."
It was as though he sucked the fight out of her with his touch. The grim reason in his eyes laid it out for her in the way his words couldn't, and she felt herself grow limp in the realization of reality rushing in.
"Offworld activity!" Someone yelled at them, interrupting the moment. "It's Major Sheppard!"
"Let him through!" Rodney shouted back, running to the balcony. His finger jammed at his earpiece for two bursts of static. "All Stargate personnel prepare to evacuate the city!"
If only it could have been so easy. As it was, Rodney could only stare in stunned, quivering anger as he watched more people pour into their death trap. He dashed to the walkway, almost tripping in his hasty storm down the stairs. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Major?!"
"We were attacked. Sumner and a bunch of our men were taken. It was pretty bad back there."
"Oh, pretty bad, was it?" Rodney hissed sarcastically, stopping about a foot from the major's face, his teeth gritted together in seething fury. "Is it as bad as drowning with a couple of complete strangers?!"
Sheppard looked perplexed, taking the groaning and creaking city in. "The hell's going on?"
"We're evacuating the city, you fucking idiot!" The diplomat screeched, his face turning an unusual shade of red. "You've condemned these people to their deaths!" Elizabeth closed her eyes as several of them cried out at this news and cowered. It was hardly tactful, though she imaged that was the last of Rodney's worries right now. Kneeling down, she focused on the screen of her tablet, deciding to use the few extra minutes they had in case she found a revelation in their last few moments. Her reasonable half told her there was nothing. She wanted a different answer. One that would save everyone and Atlantis. There had to be one. She knew it. She could feel it. Somewhere.
"Going back there is a really bad idea!" she heard Sheppard defend helplessly.
"Well, I am all ears for other options!"
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the noises for a moment to concentrate.
"Jinto, do you know any other gate addresses?"
"Yes, I know many -"
Rodney's skepticism was palpable over the din. "Oh good, a kid. We're all s-"
And then the city began to move.
***
"Nice view," Rodney commented as he approached her on the balcony, decked in a civilian shirt that said 'I'm with genius". She wasn't entirely sure if she should mention how ridiculous he looked, chicken leg in one hand, an open bottle of champagne in the other. She didn't think it would make any difference. "Chicken's pretty nice too," he mumbled around the drumstick, "Though I'm worried about the glaze."
She snorted. "I'm sure you've made your allergies clear to anyone who'll listen-... which is everyone because they have to," she murmured with a soft, awkward chuckle, glancing up at him to see if he at all shared the humor. He didn't. She looked down and fiddled with her now empty mess kit cup, running her finger absently around the rim. Leaning over to check if her cup was empty, he tipped some of the champagne bottle contents into it. "Where'd you get that in the first place?" she asked for lack of anything else to say.
"General O'Neill. Wishes us luck, sends his regards, the usual."
Elizabeth nodded silently, unsure where to go with this conversation, and inadvertently let awkward silence to rush in between them. "How are the Athosians?"
"Nervous, scared. Hitting on Sheppard. I have this terrible feeling that that might become a habit, and I'm going to need you to promise me that what happened back there is not going to happen again."
Blinking, she reeled at the casual subject change. "I-..."
"You risked your life and the lives of everyone standing here today, so I'm going to need your word that that's not going to happen again."
Feeling her ire rise in defence of what she knew was wrong, she scowled at her cup. "I knew there was something-"
"Did you?" he interrupted harshly. "We all know you're smart, Elizabeth, that's why you're here, but I don't remember hearing that you can also see into the future. You had no idea! That wasn't a calculated risk, that was just a risk - a risk that didn't just put you in danger, but everyone else too. And that means if something like this happens again, I am not going to find you hanging back, trying to look for a solution that isn't there." Elizabeth exhaled a frustrated breath and didn't answer, though his pause clearly indicated that he was expecting one. "Right?" he prodded, his voice becoming firmer. "Because I'm more than happy to use my powers to make you stay on Atlantis for the foreseeable future. Or, god forbid, tell Carson that you've caught something terrible and need to stay in the infirmary for a really long time."
The dignified Dr. Elizabeth Weir Ph.D. did not roll her eyes, but she got pretty close to it. "Yes, god forbid." She angled her head pointedly away from him, looking out into the vast expanse of the ocean until it hit the sky. A cool breeze batted at her curls, and she closed her eyes for a deep breath of crisp, ocean air, leaning forward to press her hands into the railing. "I just couldn't let the city go. Not after all this time. I mean... look at this, Rodney. I never thought I'd..."
"And now I need you to look at it from my point of view. We've been... we've known each other for a while now. I know that you're practical - was there anything that implied that something like this would happen? Would this view have been worth the hundreds of people we - we brought here?"
She swallowed. "No," she said hoarsely. "You're right. I'm... I'm sorry. I just..."
"I know. But you're more important to this expedition than our mission goal. And you and I didn't pick these people to throw their lives away."
Guilt, guilt, guilt. She sometimes forgot how good Rodney was at guilt, particularly considering he rarely directed it at her. "Okay," she acquiesced finally, turning around to meet his eyes to confirm it. "I promise."
He let his lips twitch in a small smile before returning to his chicken. "It's not all bad. Trapped in another galaxy and waking up a vampire life-force-eating species that once defeated the Ancients."
She stared at him.
He shrugged. "We've got food."
She did roll her eyes then.