Title: A Sunday on Earth
Author: Samantha Carter
Email: PG
Category: Beckett / Cadman
Spoilers: Duet, Critical Mass, Sunday.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Summary: When Laura had received the phone call she had been packing the largest of her bags. As soon as she got to Atlantis, she intended to talk to Dr. Weir to request a permanent transfer so she could stay in the city.
Author's note: I wrote this after I read the script for Sunday, I thought how Laura would feel when she found out about Carson. So, I came up with this. Thanks again to my beta, Angel Leviathan.
Feedback, please.
Everybody kept staring at her, which she found extremely strange. Laura was supposed to
leave aboard the Daedalus in a couple of days, and she had about to leave for the SGC when Walter Harriman had called her, stating that General Landry wanted to see her immediately.
She had guessed it was for what she had been dreading for weeks; she was being
reassigned to Earth in order to help fight the Ori. It wasn't that bad – she would be helping either way - but she was really looking forward to going back to Atlantis. She wanted to talk to Carson. Things hadn't worked exactly well while he was on Earth a few months back. He had been readjusting to Earth and she had been readjusting to having Carson around all the time, and then, suddenly, he was going back to Atlantis. He had asked her to come with him, permanently…he wanted to give
them a try.
She had been…confused, to say the least. He was asking her to leave Earth, her family everything she knew to live with him in a Wraith infested galaxy, for crying out loud! She wasn't ready to give up everything like that, to give up her independence, she was a military woman after all. She had asked him for time, which unfortunately meant they hadn't been communicating well since.
When Laura had received the phone call she had been packing the largest of her bags. As soon as she got to Atlantis, she intended to talk to Dr. Weir to request a permanent transfer so she could stay in the city. She was sure this time - she was a little bit in love with Carson Beckett - and she wanted to give them a try too. It would be nice to have someone to talk to, someone to return 'home' to after a mission.
She stopped dead in her tracks. She could see Rodney through the window in General Landry's office, and, of course, the group of people sat at the conference table: Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, Major Lorne, Dr Zelenka, Dr. Cole and, impossibly, Ronon.
"Lieutenant." Colonel Sheppard addressed her. Everybody stared at her…again.
"Sir, What are you doing here?"
Sheppard looked rather depressed, "Just running some errands for Dr. Weir…" now he looked uncomfortable, especially in his dress blues. "Why don't you wait here Lieutenant?"
"Yes, Sir. "
Laura waited patiently at the staircase, wondering if, after talking to the General, she could talk to Carson. He was in the Infirmary for sure.
As Rodney left the General's office, she glanced down at the gate.
She saw the coffin shaped box being removed and just caught a glimpse of the Scottish flag on top of it. There were only four or five Scottish personnel on the expedition. She felt a sudden rush of dizziness. Laura heard chairs moving and she grasped the bars of the staircase
"Sir, who's in the box…?" She turned round to see Colonel Sheppard and Rodney
approaching and five pairs of eyes focused on her.
"Lieutenant," two commanding voices ad at the same time, but she didn't register which voice was which.
"Laura."
He called her Laura. Rodney never called her Laura. Everybody kept staring at her, but she couldn't stop looking at the coffin. Rodney headed for her and tried to take her by the arm, but she pulled away.
"Rodney, who is in the box?" she could hear the tremor in her voice even as she tried to keep calm. She felt dizzy again and her vision blurred.
"Laura."
"Don't 'Laura' me, Rodney, who is in the box!?" she was screaming now.
"…It's Carson."
She threw up on the spot, thinking it had to be impossible that two simple words could break her.
The Daedalus left without her, as programmed. Rodney and Colonel Sheppard stayed behind, intending to travel to Scotland the next morning, where Carson had wanted to be buried.
Carson's mother had been already informed. She just couldn't picture the sweet lady now. He had talked about her all the time.
Laura stayed on base that night. She heard the a soft knock at the door before Rodney's head appeared, "Can I come in?"
She nodded; she hadn't said a lot since they had told her, finding herself only capable of crying.
Rodney sat beside her on the bed. She had already heard him blame himself, but she was beyond blame, she just couldn't believe it, she refused to. If she had just talked to Carson…stayed with him.
"I came to answer your question."
She had asked everybody why they kept staring at her, why they had called her in to explain everything in person; she wasn't his wife, not even his girlfriend. Officially, she didn't have to be given an explanation. Unofficially, she was just hoping for one.
"I collected all of Carson's things, he didn't…he didn't have much." Laura couldn't remember Rodney ever talking so softly, or even trembling, "but I found this," he gave her a small black box, meant to contain jewellery. "First, I didn't know whether to give it to you, maybe it was for his mother, but Dr. Jackson explained what it was, and I knew it belonged to you."
Laura opened the box. She found two rings: two hands, one at each side of
a crowned heart. The design was of Earth but the material was obviously from Pegasus.
"It's a Claddagh ring, I know what it's for…"
Carson had once explained to her about such rings, that they meant love, that you belonged to someone, and that he had had one made for her, before or after he had asked her to stay, she didn't know.
Laura took one out of the box and put it on the middle finger of her left hand,
crown outwards.
She broke down again as Rodney hugged her.
FIN