Title: Beginnings.
Summary: Elizabeth realised they had been in space for eight days, One hundred and ninety two hours, Eleven thousand five hundred and twenty minutes and six hundred and ninety one thousand and two hundred seconds. It was driving her crazy. JohnxElizabeth
The ending is never as good as the beginning. It's always been Elizabeth's firm belief throughout her negotiating life. It's a lesson she tried to teach to anyone who listened during her few years as lecturer of political science at Stanford. It applies to so many situations – serious ones or not that it's an invaluable lesson. But for once in her life, for once in her political career – she would like nothing better then to see the ending of this tale, or more importantly, this day.
It had begun with the arrival of a 'political advisor' to Atlantis, a young man whose apparent job, by order of the president, was to analyze each situation in which they found themselves and find a diplomatic way to resolve it. Other words, the Trust had finally managed to get the Air Force to cut down on funding to secret organizations. Elizabeth requested to be returned to Earth shortly after the young man found himself being fed apon by a Wraith that had descended on the city, sabotage no doubt on his mind. He found the hard way that negotiating didn't always work, the opposite to which Elizabeth had been told by him earlier in his beginning days in the lost city. Intent with the desire to argue her point of needing to use the military in required situations, Elizabeth arrived in the SGC after eighteen days of lounging around in the Daedalus, trying to be diplomatic about military use without opening a window for them to insist on replacing Colonel Sheppard with Colonel Caldwell.
The negotiations went moderately well – they agreed with the insight that the money diverted to Atlantis funding was indeed necessary, and surprisingly Elizabeth found General Landry to be much less hostile then he was on her last visit. She was ready to return to Atlantis the next day, after all, there was only a certain amount of time she felt inclined to leave John Sheppard in control of Atlantis, no mater how responsible she knew him to be, she felt the nagging worry wherever she went none the less that she would return to find McKay had destroyed Atlantis with one of his wacky experiments. She had arrived to the SGC early in the morning, ready to ship out the minute the Daedalus was packed and ready to go, only to find that it was undergoing a diagnostic – only a few hours they said. Irritated, but willing to wait, she left them be, deciding to pick up a few things for the expedition herself – letters from home for one, it would be a great morale boost to bring them all back with her. She organized it and was back in five or six hours later, several SF's packing into the ship the letters and a few extras – video games, books, anything to take their minds off the incoming threats (that itself had taken several hair raising hours to buy in the Christmas rush).
She walked toward the technicians, only to be informed there had been a computer error in the ship, something exploded and as a result it would be several more hours before they could get it back in the air. Elizabeth had almost fainted right there on the spot – either that or fly into a homicidal rage, she was still trying to figure out which one she was closer to. Three O'clock Earth hours, she found herself being woken up in her quarters to be told the Daedalus has been fixed and they were waiting to take off. Stumbling, she made it into the ship before she realised she had left her treasured pocket watch in her suitcase – which was currently in the quarters in the SGC. Caldwell seemed annoyed, she didn't blame him as she sent two SF's to retrieve the missing items, and it was nearly another hour before they returned and the Daedalus finally took off.
On day two she had finished every inch of paperwork ever assigned to her.
On day three she swore she would have already gone crazy had she not have had a gym to work away her traveling nerves.
On day five she had taken to doing other peoples reports.
On day six she had taken up residency in the cafeteria – John could never say she never ate enough again.
On day seven, Caldwell threatened to have her thrown off the bridge if she didn't stop pacing; apparently it was driving him crazy. Doctor Novak had hiccupped three hundred and forty seven times in six hours. Elizabeth was keeping count.
On day eight Elizabeth realised they had been in space for eight days, One hundred and ninety two hours, Eleven thousand five hundred and twenty minutes and six hundred and ninety one thousand and two hundred seconds. It was driving her crazy.
On day nine Elizabeth managed to stay excruciatingly patient, tapping her foot only four thousand and nineteen times. Had she known the cafeteria didn't serve decaf – she would have brought her own bottle.
On day ten, her trip was coming to an end and she couldn't be more pleased. She had tried talking to Hermiod, only for the Asgard to do what she assumed to be the Asgard version of an eye-roll, before insisting he had an important diagnostic to run. She talked to Doctor Novak for the most of the day, who turned out to be quite the character.
On day eleven, they lost contact with Atlantis.
On day twelve, they finally determined it wasn't Atlantis they had lost contact with; it was the other way around. The new Daedalus communications receiver tower that had just been installed apparently had fallen off and floated away into far off space – once they return to Atlantis Caldwell needed to have another one installed. A permanent knot had formed into Elizabeth's stomach and all she could so was sit and wait to return to Atlantis.
On day thirteen, Elizabeth realised it had been a horrible week.
On day fourteen, the Daedalus landed on Atlantis, all nice and well in the ancestral city as Elizabeth, breath taken, walked into the control tower to find John ready to hand her a computer tablet with the reports.
"How's your week been?" He asked, giving her a pearly grin.
Elizabeth sighed, looking around the place that was her home, a smile playing on her lips.
"Brilliant." She whispered softly, as he kissed her lightly.
"Good to hear," He said, just as softly, "because if you think your leaving me in charge again, you've got another thing coming." He smiled and turned, before stopping and looking back. "Oh, dinner with me tonight?"
Elizabeth nodded, as John grinned again, before walking out of the door. Carson, who hugged her, looked at her for a long second, as she glanced at the reports and back to him again.
"What?" She asked, confused. Had something else have gone wrong?
"Ah…you're going to need to let Doctor McKay out of the brig. The colonel decided Rodney's constant whining was nerve breaking." He gave her a quick, sheepish grin, before turning and walking back in the direction of the infirmary.
Elizabeth set the microphone back in her ear, before turning to her office and sitting down, breathing in the refreshing Atlantis air.
There was nothing better then a brilliant beginning.
Fin.