Four Seasons
Chapter 3
Spring
After her constant badgering of when winter will be over, one day she and Daniel are working on research and he nods up from his book. "Oh yeah, Mitchell told me to tell you that we're going for the next outing tomorrow."
"Isn't it still winter?"
"Not really, it's almost the middle of April now, the snows mostly melted away and—"
"I think we should just forget it."
"Vala," groans into his hand, and then shoots it accusingly towards her. "We're doing this for you."
"Well perhaps—"
"Oh no," he stands retrieving his book and tucking it tightly underneath his arm. "We're going, you're going and we're all going to hate it."
Cameron, Daniel and Muscles wait for her in the same room as before, and it's almost like no time has passed at all. She skips in wearing the outfit she wore before, tied up tank top and her shorts and Daniel shouts, "Nope."
"Vala, it's spring not summer." Cameron suddenly becomes very entranced by the opposite corner of the room and he drifts away, his back to her.
"Is that the one with—" she swirls her fingers in the air again.
Daniel rips off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You don't go outside in tornadoes."
"A sweater, Vala Mal Doran," Muscles offers from his corner, "perhaps a pair of jeans."
She clicks her tongue and points at him. "Thank you, Muscles. See was that so hard?"
They give her a sheet with a hole cut in it and at first she just assumes it's part of a weird Tau'ri mating ritual. Daniel tosses it to her as it's still folded and when she unpacks it, the texture of the rubber is smooth between her fingertips, she glances around and notices them yanking the garbs over their head, so she follows suit and promptly becomes entangled because there's no place for her arms.
Cameron frees her hair from getting stuck and frizzing against the opening and Muscles approaches her with a yellow hat decorated to look like a duck. "I have procured this hat for you. I believe you will enjoy it."
Cameron laughs as he hands her the hat, "where the hell did you get that?"
Muscles only arches an eyebrow with a mysterious grin playing over his face.
"I love it." She yanks down the hat, over her hair and observes the world from under the brim for a moment.
Daniel returns to the room, having secured the ancient text he was reading, and when he notices her he rolls his eyes, but he pinches his fingers around the rim and adjusts it so she can see better.
They walk out into the parking lot and the sky is so dark if she hadn't just eaten lunch she would assume it's night. There are a whole bunch of squiggly pink and white things strewn across the asphalt. She halts her walking and the feel of Muscle's solid back behind hers forces her to move out into the rain, out into a sea of gummy thingies.
"What are these disgusting things?" Bends at her hips, the rainwater running down the back of her rubber sheet and under the collar soaking through her sweater.
"Vala." Cameron calls in concern, he directs her up with two firm hands on her shoulders, the water returns to trickling over the sheet again. "Stand straight, you don't want to get wet."
"This is rain," Daniel announces as he points to the black clouds that grumble in the distance.
Brushes by him further out into the parking lot, careful steps in the clunky rainboots they gave her to avoid smooshing the pink things. "I know what rain is, I'm not an idiot."
"How do you know what rain is, but not snow?"
She opens her mouth to the sky and again all the rain runs over her face and down her neck and underneath the rubber sheet. "We don't have winter on my home world. It's more tropical."
"If you know what rain is, what the hell are we—"
"Is this all spring is then? Rain and little smooshy thingies."
"Little what?" Cameron asks his eyes squinting against the downpour of water.
"I believe Vala Mal Doran is speaking of earthworms." Muscles elaborates for her; his sheet is too small and comes with a hood so three quarters of his arms are soaked.
In the distance, beyond the trees that outline the drill field where they spent their winter outing, lighting crashes down in a flash, another strike soon follows. The rain and wind pick up and the water pours over the side of her ducky hat.
"All right maybe we should head back inside—" As Cameron finishes his sentence, lightening strikes one of the taller trees on the periphery, setting it on fire with a loud crash. She startles, and Daniel grabs her arm underneath her rain cape, pulling her back to the building entrance. They begin to run, and her boots trample up all the earthworms and she feels awful.
The rain is a straight sheet now and above them thunder roars shaking the ground. Cameron drops back allowing them to run ahead of him as he covers the rear. "Well, this is spring."