Title: Maria
Rating: K+
Spoilers: None
Pairings: Lorne/McKay friendship. A hint of Lorne/Teyla at the end
Summary: Lorne and McKay are thrown in prison where they find a little girl
Disclaimer: I own none of the Stargate Characters but I do own Maria
Authors Notes: This is for the folks in the Lorne Thunk Thread in GateWorld after having the idea that Lorne loved kids and came from a large family.
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"Great just great, join the Atlantis project and see the inside of every prison cell in the Pegasus Galaxy" moaned Dr Rodney McKay. Major Marcus Lorne sat down, put his head in his hands and groaned, if McKay kept his whining up he'd end up dead before they'd get rescued, yeah he'd heard Leavenworth was nice this time of year.
"...and they took all our power bars, I'm starving, what will happen if I have a hypoglycaemic attack? Will these gorillas know what to do? I doubt it..." whinged Rodney.
"McKay" said Lorne with a sigh
"...and then there's all that equipment they took from us, the SGC's going to be pissed, these things don't grow on trees..." said Rodney
"McKay" Lorne remarked more forcibly.
"...and then I'm going to have some serious words with Ronon, he said this place was under peaceful occupation..."
"MCKAY!" yelled Lorne, Rodney turned to face him
"What!" he retorted.
"Shut up" Lorne said, Rodney opened his mouth to carry on "don't say another word and I won't hurt you" Rodney folded his arms and huffed. A rustling sound caught Lorne's ear, Rodney heard it too and put his feet on the bench he was sitting on
"Rats?" he asked. Lorne put his hand up and motioned him to be quiet "great now we have the Pegasus equivalent of rats in here with us, knowing my luck they will be giant, mutant, plague carriers..."
"McKay" Marc warned. He crouched down and saw a pair of scared green eyes peering out from under the bench and then he smiled at her
"Hey there, come on out, we're not going to hurt you" he said. His eyes adjusted to the gloom he saw a little girl crammed as far as she could into the corner, he lay on his stomach and reached out his hand "come on honey, you can't stay under there forever" he said, Rodney peered under the bench.
"What's going on? You trying to make a pet out of the rat?" he asked, Marc sighed
"There's a kid under here, a little girl, I'm trying to get her out," he whispered. McKay groaned
"Great, this day couldn't get any better if it tried, I hate kids more than I hate prison" he grouched. Lorne turned back to the little girl who had squeezed herself further away from him
"Don't worry about him, he's just a grumpy old man who has no friends" said Marc with a smile
"Hey, I resent that" said Rodney.
"Now let's start with the basics, what's your name? Mine's Marc and his is Rodney" the little girl shook her head "your not going to tell me or you haven't got a name?" the girl shook her head again but moved a little closer towards him. Lorne sighed inwardly; this was going to take a while. His sister Kathy and her husband were Foster Parents and he had seen them spend hours trying to get the kids in their care to talk, it usually started with them trying to coax the kids out of the cupboard under the stairs.
"Leave her there, she'll come out when she's ready" said Rodney unsympathetically, Marc ignored him
"What about you mum what happened to her?" he asked, the girls bottom lip started to wobble and she pointed up
"She's upstairs?" he asked and she shook her head. She put her hands together and looked up and it dawned on him, her mother was dead "Ah, she's in heaven...um...with the Ancestors" she nodded "you poor kid, how long have you been here", she shrugged and crawled out from under the bench but still keeping her distance, Marc's face broke into a beaming smile "that's better". By his reckoning she had to be about five years old maybe a few years older, it was difficult to tell because she was so thin "so you don't know how long you've been here, do you know why you're here?". She pulled at her hair and then pointed to his and then Rodney's "What? We're all in here because of the colour of our hair?" Rodney snorted
"That's ridiculous" he said, Marc shot him a warning glance that said don't frighten her
"We don't know what happened here during the occupation, it might be perfectly natural to them to put kids with different coloured hair in prison," he said.
"Oh of course, every civilized society puts kids in prison," replied Rodney. Marc's back was starting to ache from lying on the floor
"Now I'm gonna get up and sit on the bench 'cos I'm getting backache, now you gotta trust me that I'm not going to come anywhere near you and I'm not going to hurt you, you ok with that" he said, the girl nodded "good girl, ok I'm getting up and I'm sitting down, see no problem". He sat back on the bench with a sigh of relief; he was getting to old to be doing this
"You know thinking about it everybody we saw in the village had blonde hair" said McKay.
"Yeah, and when we were arrested they kept calling us infiltrators and the like" said Lorne
"If the occupying force's soldiers had dark hair they'd naturally think we were spies," reasoned McKay "but what about her?" There was a sound of keys jangling and the door opened, the girl dived under the bench and peered out from behind Marc's legs, one point to me he though, a guard came through the door with three plates of food which he left on the bench.
"When are you going to let us go?" demanded Rodney, the guard sneered
"Let you go? You will be tried and executed as spies" he replied
"Look we are not spies we came to study the ruins" protested Rodney
"You will have your say at the trial," said the guard.
"What about the kid? Why is she here?" asked Lorne,
"Her mother was a traitor to her people and she is an aberration, she is disgusting and filthy and shouldn't be allowed to live...," said the guard. Lorne got up with his fists clenched and advanced on the guard who drew his weapon; Rodney caught hold of Marc's arm and held him back
"No Major, don't give him the satisfaction," said Rodney. The Guard sneered at them
"You're friend is a sensible man" he said as he closed and locked the door behind him,
"Well I guess we now know why she's here, her father was an enemy soldier and she and her mother were locked up because of it," said Rodney as he pushed past Lorne to get at the food "oh God this looks good, I must be starving to say prison food looks good". He picked up the plate and sat back down to eat, Marc sighed and sat on the bench, these guys were something else, keeping a kid in prison because her father was an enemy soldier, he smirked to himself Kathy would rip them apart with her bare hands if she ever found out. The girl picked up the remaining plates and handed one to him,
"You know, I had a big breakfast so I'm not that hungry, you have it," he said even though he could feel his stomach clench with hunger, God knows the kid needed it more than he did. She looked at him and then at the plate "go on, it's all yours" the girl beamed at him as she started to eat,
"Huh, if you weren't that hungry you could have given your food to me, I'm more important than some kid," said Rodney. Lorne scowled
"McKay shut the..." he stopped as he remembered the girl sitting next to him "McKay, be quiet"
"What? I was just saying," whined Rodney. Marc turned to the girl, he was beginning to win the hearts and minds battle,
"So you going to tell me your name now?" he asked, the girl shrugged,
"You haven't got a name?" he asked and the girl shook her head "well we'll have to do something about that, how about..." he took a good look at her and smiled "...Maria, my little sister's called Maria, you look a lot like her when she was your age". He wasn't kidding either, the big green eyes, untidy hair and dirty face reminded him so much of his kid sister and the way she used to beg him to distract mum while she cleaned herself up after playing in the street all day, a regular tomboy she was then. The girl thought for a moment and then smiled at him "you like that? Maria", she nodded "Maria it is then, how do you do" he put his hand out; Maria looked at it and then up at him "it's how we say hello". Marc clasped his hands together and shook them, he then held his hand out again and Maria took it gingerly, he gently shook her hand "we're friends now?" Maria nodded and shifted closer to him so she could lean against him. He grinned and gently put his arm around her shoulders; he started to hum a melody and then started to sing,
"The most beautiful sound I ever heard:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . .
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word. .
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . .
Maria!
I've just met a girl named Maria,
And suddenly that name
Will never be the same
To me.
Maria! ". Maria giggled; it was the first sound he'd heard her make
"You like?" he said and she nodded "you wanna hear more?" Rodney sighed
"We're awaiting trial and execution and you're singing showtunes, kill me now", he whimpered.
"Dr McKay, Major Lorne?" said Ronon's voice
"Ronon, oh thank God, you have no idea how pleased I am to see you I thought I'd have to listen to the Major sing 'I Feel Pretty' for a moment there," said Rodney. John Sheppard's face appeared at the window; he saw Lorne with his arm around a skinny little girl and decided not to ask about the singing,
"We're gonna have to blow the bars so get back and be ready to run as soon as the bars are blown" said Sheppard, Maria looked like she was about to hide under the bench again so he hugged her a little tighter.
"These people are friends of mine and they've come to get us out of here I'm not going to leave you here, I want you to come with me to our city". Marc held her close and the explosive detonated, Maria started to wriggle. "Maria I promise you there'll be no prison and no guards in our city, no one will hurt you or be mean to you because your hair is a different colour to theirs...," he said. Rodney jumped out of the window
"Come on Major, we've no time for this" he said, Lorne glared at him
"You've gotta trust me honey, I want you to come with me so I can look after you and you can be safe..." he said practically begging her to come with him; he wasn't going to leave her to her fate at the hands of the guards.
"Major, we have to go" said Ronon urgently
"We're friends right? And as your friend I promise you no-one is going to hurt you, come with me to Atlantis and you'll be free" Marc said. He could hear the guards coming "please Maria come with me", Maria smiled and grabbed his hand "good girl" he said grinning. He picked her up and handed her through the window to Ronon "don't be frightened of Ronon, he may look scary but underneath he's a pussycat" this was met by titters from McKay and Sheppard and the pussycat looked like he was going to pounce on them. Lorne jumped from the window and grabbed Maria's hand
"Come on honey we gotta run" he said as he sprinted off,
"Speed it up people," said Sheppard as the sound of gunfire and shouting was heard. Marc picked up Maria and ran off after Sheppard and the others towards the cloaked jumper.
Once they were all in the jumper and heading for the gate in space Marc finally felt he could relax, Maria was still clinging to his hand as she stared bewilderedly around her.
"Don't worry Maria you're safe in here" he said,
"You wanna tell us?" asked Sheppard
"Her mother was sent to prison because her father's an enemy soldier, her mother died and they kept her in prison," said Lorne. Ronon growled and Teyla sighed
"How someone could put a child in prison," murmured Teyla as she smiled at Maria,
"Maria this is Teyla, Teyla this is Maria," said Lorne, Maria held out her hand "I've been teaching her the way we Earth people say hello" Teyla took her hand and shook it.
"Hello Maria" said Teyla as she leant her head forward, Maria looked at Lorne who nodded, Teyla touched her forehead to Maria's "and this is how my people say hello"
"See, that's another friend you've made today" said Marc.
Elizabeth and Carson were waiting for them in the Jumper bay.
"Welcome back you two, I understand you've have an eventful trip" Elizabeth said, Rodney immediately started to whinge "and I see you've bought back a souvenir". Maria looked warily at her
"This is Elizabeth she's in charge of the city, this is Maria", Maria smiled shyly at Elizabeth "she was in our prison cell, I couldn't leave her there I just...couldn't" he said by way of explanation. Elizabeth smiled at Lorne
"I would have been more upset if you'd left her behind" she replied as she ruffled Maria's hair "take her to see Dr Beckett and then we'll decide what to do"
"I said I'd look after her" he said, Elizabeth raised her eyebrows
"You Major?" she said. Lorne grinned
"I've got over twenty nieces and nephews, I'm everyone's favourite Uncle, I know what I'm doing," he said
"I don't doubt it for a minute" she replied.
"If we're going to open the Atlantis Home for Waifs and Strays he's going to be Mary Poppins" grouched Rodney. Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon stifled giggles as Maria peered over Lorne's shoulder and stuck her tongue out at Rodney; he huffed off to the Med Bay with Carson.
"We've got to go and see the Doc, he's going to make sure you're ok and you're not sick, is that ok?" he said as he put Maria down, she nodded and took his hand, she smiled up at Teyla and took her hand too. Surprised, Teyla looked down and smiled
"Looks like I found myself a babysitter already" Lorne remarked, Teyla smiled at him this time
"I think I would like that" she replied as they headed for the med bay.
