1Eleven A Secret That Will Never Be Told

Disclaimers: I own nothing in the Stargate Universe.

Spoilers: None that I can think of. Set in Season 2.

Rating: I always opt for mature, even if I don't reach it. So R/T?

Summary: It's October now and Halloween grows closer. It has got me thinking, what would All Hallow's Eve be like in the Pegasus Galaxy? "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary..". If you don't already know the quote, then you've never had to read American Lit., or watch any Vincent Price movies.

Eleven A Secret That Will Never Be Told

All Hallow's Eve, an anniversary of sorts. And here she was on her first away mission in a galaxy far far away. Maybe it didn't feel right because it was her first mission, or maybe because it was the first time that she wouldn't be there on this day. She did wonder if the dead could reach this far? She gradually lagged behind, her mind roaming away in space and time.

Colonel Sheppard, as usual, was bickering with Rodney in lead. He didn't notice how she gradually fell further and further behind. Or how unusually quiet she was either. Teyla and Ronon noticed, and even Bates noticed. He was itching to say something about her lagging, but felt he couldn't before the Colonel noticed. So he bit his tongue and glared back and forth between the back of the Colonel's head, willing him to notice, and Jesse's vacant stare. Jesse ignored him easily as she continued to watch the sky with distant eyes.

Teyla dropped back to walk where Jesse lagged. She asked quietly, "Is there something a miss Jesse? Are you uncertain about your first mission? It would not be an unusual occurrence."

Jesse smiled and tried to shrug it off. "Oh, I don't know Teyla. I think it's just one of those days when things feel off."

Puzzled, Teyla tilted her head and asked, "Feel off?"

Jesse frowned and tugged on her ear, as she struggled to find the right words. "One of those days when you wake up, and you're out of sync with everyone and everything around you. You're either ahead, or behind, or off to the side, but never with. Does that make any sense?"

Since Teyla had made the first move, Ronon felt by this time, he could also drop back to where they lagged. He snorted as he heard her explanation and said roughly, "We're on an away mission where there is always possible danger. Your mind needs to be here, and not in a dream somewhere. People's lives could depend on you."

She stopped dead and glared up at him, and tried to think of some retort that would contradict his words. Unfortunately, she knew he was right. He stared down at her with his no expression face and she backed down. "Understood."

"Okay, what's the matter?" Ronon asked dryly. Jesse was like Dr. McKay in that she was never without something smart to say.

"What? You were right. I should be focusing on the here and now, not wander forgotten corridors. I am sometimes mature enough to know when I'm wrong. So let's get to stepping…" She jerked her head around as an explosion of large black birds broke from a tree line. Her face paled as she frantically asked, "Quick, how many did ya'll see?"

Teyla and Ronon exchanged puzzled glances before giving the birds closer looks. They could see no reason for them to upset Jesse so.

"You're scared of birds?" Ronon demanded in disbelief.

"Why do you need to know the number?" Teyla asked instead.

Jesse's eyes having gone far away again, merely quoted sing-song; "One for sadness, Two for mirth; Three for marriage, Four for birth; Five for laughing, Six for crying: Seven for sickness, Eight for dying; Nine for silver, Ten for gold; Eleven a secret that will never be told."

Ronon and Teyla glanced at the sky to try and glimpse the number again. The Colonel had finally noticed that the three were standing still. Well, what he had actually noticed was that Teyla wasn't near him. Amazing how he always knew where she was in any given area.

As he and Rodney walked back to them, he was trying to decide what Jesse had done this time. Turning to look at the tree line as they were, he asked alertly "Something wrong here guys?"

Ronon had his gun out; unsure if he was going to need it to shoot something, and Teyla was looking around, straining to sense if something was 'off'. "Nothing as of yet Colonel, but Jesse read an augury though."

Colonel Sheppard frowned and said, "What the hell is that? And is right for a soldier to have?"

Teyla looked at him with her serious and intense eyes and started to repeat, "One for sorrow…"

Rodney snapped his fingers and broke in, "Yes, yes. My grandmother used to tell that to me when I was little. One for Sorrow, Two for Mirth; Three for a wedding, Four for a Birth; Five for Silver, Six for Gold; Seven for a Secret not to be told. Eight for Heaven, Nine for Hell; Ten for the Devil's own Soul."

Ronon was even more unnerved by the Doctor's repeating of Jesse's rhyme. He couldn't figure out what it said of either one, that they actually knew the same superstition. The Colonel looked amazed that one, Rodney knew what an augury was, and that two, he could rattle it off the top of his head. Teyla had on one of her slight smiles, and Jesse had schooled her features into unreadability. Bates still didn't have a clue what anyone was talking about. His frowning visage indicated that whatever an augury was, a soldier didn't need to read it.

Rodney looked around at the small group and snapped, "What I can't have a grandmother to tell me stories?" To draw attention away from him, he turned to Jesse to say antagonistically, "I wouldn't have thought of you as superstitious Jesse. You're showing surprising signs of stupidity. Or is it a trick to try and get off the away teams? If it is, it's not going to work. If I have to interrupt my busy schedule for this, then you get to be miserable also!" Glancing around the sky, he continued, "Besides, there aren't any crows in the Pegasus galaxy. Sooo, it wasn't crows was it?"

Jesse for once didn't take the bait for an argument, and merely said, "I'm from a family of sailors, and all sailors are a superstitious lot."

The Colonel rolled his eyes and asked acerbically, "What are you two going on about? Jesse, do you have an identifiable problem? Heavy emphasis on identifiable."

She shrugged uneasily and said, "Maybe it's just the day that makes it feel off sir."

"The day?" The Colonel's raised eyebrows demanded further explanation as he glanced at the others. Their looks indicated that her words held no meaning for them either.

"All Hallow's Eve sir." She mumbled unhappily.

Dr. McKay rolled his eyes and started walking off at that, while Bates snickered and said, "WHOO-whoo. Scared of ghosts Braddock?"

She threw him a dirty look as Ronon asked, "What is special about this 'All Hallow's Eve' day?"

She looked up at him unhappily and answered, "It's a day when the spirits of the dead are supposed to walk the Earth, and can interact with the Living Ro'."

"Well, this isn't Earth." Ronon replied trying to be comforting as he ignored her new name for him.

"I don't think the dead are constrained by the whole time-space continuum." She answered wryly.

Ronon looked non-pulsed and at a loss at how to counter that.

"Is it not a blessing to talk to the spirits of the departed?" Teyla asked innocently, as she looked at Jesse intently.

Jesse gave her a haunted look before saying wearily, "Sometimes we don't always separate easily with the dead."

Bates laughed evilly and said, "I can't wait to tell everyone in the barracks that you're scared of ghosts."

Jesse kicked dirt at him angrily, as Dr. McKay called back to them, "Are we even going to try and get there before the day is halfway over?"

Colonel Sheppard threw a harassed look after him before saying exasperatedly to Jesse, " Yes, well, you did bring it on yourself Braddock. Now let's get moving before the day is through. I really don't want to spent a night off planet in what may or may not be an abandoned Ancient outpost."

"Colonel Sheppard, is it not possible that spirits are around us today? And what about the, what did Jesse and Dr. McKay call them, 'crows'. Is that not significant?" Teyla asked seriously as they hurried to catch up with Dr. McKay.

The Colonel answered her soothingly, "Relax, the spirits of the dead aren't walking today. It's just a holiday where kids dress up in costumes and go around saying "Trick-Or-Treat' to get butt loads of candy. The only bad thing that happens is that you get a bunch of kids hopped up on sugar for weeks on end."

"Dress up in costumes? What do they dress up as?"

The Colonel kind of winced as he answered evasively, "Oh, just what ever they want, or can afford. Cowboys, Indians, Princesses, Monsters, Ghouls."

"Ghouls? Are not ghouls the same as ghosts?"

"Yes, well.." Colonel Sheppard adjusted the strap of his gun over his shoulder as he tried to think of someway to distract Teyla. Ronon smirked at the obvious ploy.

Jesse broke in, "Halloween, with it's trick or treating, is the sanitized version of All Hallow's Eve, just as All Saint's Day is the sanitized version of Day of the Dead."

Now it was the Colonel who was throwing dirty looks as Rodney muttered superiorly, "Superstitious plebeians."

Of course, Jesse heard that, and kicked dirt after him also, glaring at his back. When Bates snickered, she glared and stuck her tongue out at him from her heavy metal/devil worshipper expression. He refused to acknowledge it as he gave her a superior look and walked off. She glared at the back of the group impotently before yelling at the back of the group, "Fine, but if we run into a Raven that quotes 'Nevermore', you're all on your own."

Ronon looked at Sheppard and asked seriously, "Is a talking bird more ominous than these 'crows'?"

The Colonel looked at him exasperatedly and said, "I've got nothing more to say."

Rodney snorted and asked, "Is that a lame attempt at being funny?"

"As if you could come up with anything better."

"Well, if I even halfway applied myself, I could." Rodney said smugly. Before he could come up with something though, Ronon broke in rudely to say, "We're here."

Rodney looked up at him, and said, "What? No we can't be not yet. It was a good kilometer away…" His voice trailed off as he noticed the overgrown Ancient buildings sitting in the bottom of a small valley, or rather a small indention in the otherwise flat and wooded landscape.

Everyone looked silently at the buildings that seemed to be darker than their surroundings, even in the mid-day light. Colonel Sheppard broke the silence by saying, "Well people, let's get down there and see if there is at least something salvageable and get back for dinner."

TBC