Date : 01.06.2008
Title : The A.U. Series : Second Chance At Love
Author : ElaineDex
Chapter : 3 of ?
Rating : M
Pairings : Major Evan Lorne/Dr. Ellie Harrison
Warnings : Some Sexual Content, Angst, Romance, Adventure, Maybe Some Strong Language.
Spoilers : This story has character's in it from my Loves series and follows on from my last story - Ellie and The Major - which I would recommend you re-read the last chapter of, just to refresh your minds, as this story starts exactly where that left off.
Feedback : Yes please, always welcome whatever it may be.
Disclaimer : Dr. Ellie Harrison, Lt. Matthew Franks and any O/C's are mine. Lyssa Hunter belongs to Kazavid and is from her Atlantis stories Behind The Mask and Reunions. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.
Summary : Just when they thought that they had found happiness with one another they now have Charlotte to contend with, a declaration of love, a hot and bothered fire-fighter, a pregnancy and a crazy IOA agent on the loose. Things couldn't possibly get any more complicated for Ellie and The Major…could they?
--
Lorne's team was scheduled to go off world in twenty minutes and both Lorne and Ellie had been cornered by Charlotte and Sheppard respectively.
In Lorne's office, Charlotte was trying her best to get an answer out of him as to how he felt about her these days.
"Charlie", he was saying as he moved around his desk, trying to put some distance between them, "I don't know what it is you expect me to say…".
"I don't have much time left Evan…I just want us to be close again…like we once were", Charlotte replied, her eyes filling with tears and Lorne's stomach twisted at how suddenly vulnerable she looked.
"I know what you're saying Charlie but a lot happened between us, you betrayed me and I…..", he trailed off though as she suddenly began to sob.
"Charlie…don't cry like that", he said awkwardly as she covered her face with her hands and wailed loudly.
Glancing at the doorway to make sure no-one passing was witnessing her break-down, he slowly moved back around his desk and stood before her.
His hand hovered in mid-air for a moment or two before he gently touched her shoulder.
Taking her chances at this first sign of warmth from him, Charlotte launched herself into his arms and buried her face into his shoulder.
"Don't leave me alone Evan…please? I need you", she sniffed and Lorne sighed deeply as the weight of responsibility settled onto his shoulders.
oooo
In Sheppard's office, Ellie glanced toward the doorway anxiously. She wished that whatever it was that Sheppard wanted to tell her, he would just get on and say it as she didn't have much time left to get her stuff together before she went off-world.
"John…I have to get going soon…", she prodded and he looked at her as he perched on the edge of his desk.
She frowned as he took her hands in his and squeezed them.
"Maybe I should wait until you get back…", he said and Ellie shook her head.
"Oh no…come on, out with it…I cant stand the suspense", she joked, thinking it had something to do with Lyssa. Maybe John had asked the Calestrian to move in with him or something.
"Okay…well…the thing is Ellie, over these last few weeks I've been thinking about you and me and the way things used to be between us…and I've also been thinking about my life and where I really should be by now…", he took a deep breath as Ellie's frown deepened and she looked slightly confused.
He ploughed on quickly before she could interrupt him.
"I want to settle down Ellie…I want what we had, but on a permanent basis".
Ellie cocked her head to one side and regarded him.
"You're going to ask Lyssa to marry you", she grinned at him but he shook his head and pulled a hand away from hers so that he could rake it though his floppy hair.
"I realised when you were in the position of having to lose your 'virginity', that I wanted to be the one you came to Ellie, I wanted to be the one who made sure that you were safe and I was so angry when I heard that you had had to go to someone else…I wont ask who…but if it had happened weeks earlier it would have been me…", he stopped as Ellie held up a hand.
"John, what are you going on about? You and Lyssa…", Ellie began but he shook his head.
"I broke it off with Lyssa when I realised that I wasn't sure of my feelings".
Ellie groaned. Poor Lyssa.
"I don't understand what you're…", Ellie tried but suddenly John pulled her toward him, his hands at her waist as he said,
"I love you Ellie…I want us to make it work".
'O', was all Ellie could manage as Chuck's voice came over the tannoy system.
"Major Lorne's team to the gate room please".
Sheppard grinned at Ellie and released her.
"We'll talk more when you get back…I cant tell you how good this feels Ellie", he said as he turned her to walk her quickly to her lab so that she could collect her stuff.
"Ahhh….", Ellie trailed off, unable to think of anything coherent to say.
Her mouth opened and shut like a goldfishes' as she tried to come out with something that would stop this madness before it could begin properly, but she couldn't think of a single thing to say.
As they neared her lab, Lorne and Charlotte appeared in the hallway before them as they turned the corner ahead and Ellie gasped as she saw that Charlotte was pressed to Lorne's side and he had his arm around her shoulders, albeit loosely, but around them nonetheless.
Her eyes met Lorne's and tension crackled between them as they both took in whom the other was with.
Ellie had been looking forward to this next mission but now, after seeing that Lorne had obviously decided that he too was going to be there for Charlotte but wanted to revert back to before they had gotten close with her, she wasn't sure that she could handle being in such close proximity to him and not being 'with' him.
For now though she didn't have a choice and as Sheppard greeted him, she ducked into her lab to get her belongings.
oOoOo
Ellie sighed as she trudged behind Lyssa, Lorne and Lt. Franks.
She felt less than unwelcome as her three team-mates laughed at something that she obviously was not a party to and she looked around her glumly, her eyes focusing on the trees to the left of them.
She wondered what had made Lorne change his mind about Charlotte and maybe now that he had re-considered about her, he might change his mind about them too.
But now there was John to consider.
'What on earth had come over him earlier?', she wondered absently. 'All that talk about loving me. No wonder Lyssa has been avoiding me like the plague for the last week'.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realise that she was veering off to the left and was not following the same line as her colleagues and so consequently did not know about the huge gaping hole about a metre in front of her…
Lorne smiled fleetingly as Franks told them how Teyla had completely floored him in training the other morning. In truth, he was barely listening to his team-mates' story as his mind was in turmoil.
He didn't want to be involved with Charlotte in any way. Sure he felt for her…he wasn't a heartless bastard, far from it - but he didn't love her. He didn't feel that he could give her what she wanted from him and he was no actor. He could be her friend, just, but that was all.
Dying or not he couldn't bring himself to be her lover again, he just didn't feel that way about her any more…he couldn't, not when his heart, his mind and his body still firmly belonged to Ellie.
Ellie. Geez but the woman was infuriating.
'How could she switch her feelings on and off like she had?', he pondered as they walked. 'And now it seemed she was getting cosy with Sheppard once again. Lyssa was obviously sore over that too and he had noticed that she hadn't spoken to Ellie since they'd left Atlantis'.
He hoped there would be no trouble between the two women, he didn't want to have to break up a cat-fight, the cause of which was his C/O.
Glancing behind him to check on Ellie he saw that she had wondered off to his left and he was about to call her over when she suddenly disappeared from sight.
He blinked and it was only when her delayed reaction scream filled his ears that he actually realised that she must have fallen down some kind of hole in the ground.
"Shit!", he bit out as Lyssa and Franks turned at the sound of Ellie's scream.
The three of them began to run, Franks and Lyssa following Lorne's lead as he had been the only one to have seen where she had last been stood.
"Ellie!?", Lorne shouted as he peered down the dark hole that she had failed to notice.
There was no response.
"Damn it", he said. "Shine your P-90 lights down there", he instructed Lyssa and Franks and they switched them on and did as he said.
With their three lights combined they managed to provide enough light to just about make out Ellie at the bottom of the dark shaft…but she wasn't moving.
Dread filled Lorne's heart at the thought that Ellie might be badly hurt and he began to shrug off his back pack to get the rope that was in there but he stopped as he heard a low groan from the bottom of the hole.
"The Doc just moved Sir", Franks informed him and Lorne breathed a little easier as he peered down the into hole once again.
"Ellie?", he called out, relief rushing through him as he saw her push herself into a sitting position.
"Evan?", she murmured sounding disorientated and Lorne ignored the looks that Lyssa and Franks sent his way.
"Are you okay?", he asked and they all heard another groan and then Ellie seemed to regain her senses and she replied,
"Oh yeah, I'm just great. Christ in a camper van, what kind of question is that to ask someone who's just fallen down a twenty foot hole?".
Lorne's concern quickly turned to anger and he pursed his lips to stop himself cursing.
"Well if you had been looking where you were going instead of daydreaming as usual then you would have seen the god-damn hole wouldn't you!", he said and Franks and Lyssa exchanged a look over his head that clearly said that their C/O's relationship with their Doctor was still just as stormy as ever and Lyssa in particular wondered why that was.
Was Ellie still in love with John like he professed to be with her?
Sheppard's news had broken Lyssa's heart and at first she had wanted to believe that Ellie had no idea what was going on but the fact that she and Lorne were still at each other's throats only confirmed to her that Ellie was not involved with the Major and so could still somehow be linked with Sheppard.
"The hole was covered up if you must know", Ellie replied, thinking that it must have been for her not to have seen it and Lorne muttered under his breath,
"Yeah sure, whatever…", as he began to pull the rope from his back pack.
"And what do you mean, daydreaming?", Ellie suddenly changed the subject before continuing, "You make me sound like some kind of complete air head and that's not…", she suddenly stopped talking and Lorne shook his head at Lyssa as he said,
"What's wrong Doc, you just realised that you are 'some kind of air head' huh?".
There was no response again and Lorne silently indicated that they shine their lights down the hole again.
Just as they did so, gun-shots sounded from below them and they just managed to see Ellie shooting at a Wraith with her hand-gun before he disappeared out of their line of vision.
Ellie looked up at them, fear in her eyes as she cried,
"Get me out of here…please!".
Lorne nodded, his throat tight as he threw down the rope to her and she caught it easily.
Lorne began to pull her up but when the wraith re-appeared below her and grabbed her ankle, Franks joined in and they pulled hard, literally pulling Ellie out of the wraith's grasp and she all but flew up the shaft toward them and they fell backwards, Ellie landing sprawled with her top half across Lorne and her legs across Franks.
Lyssa grabbed Ellie's hand-held device out of her back pack and said,
"We should get out of here Major…this thing says that there are plenty more where that one came from".
Lorne nodded and looked at Ellie who avoided his gaze as she pushed herself off of him but immediately became tangled up with Franks who was trying to get up himself.
"Watch it Doc", he said as she narrowly avoided elbowing him in the face.
"Sorry Lieutenant", she mumbled as Lorne scowled at her.
Getting themselves together they headed back to the gate and got off the planet as fast as they could.
Once their briefing was over, Ellie tried to catch up to Lyssa.
"Hey, Lyssa!", she called out, but the taller woman did not slow down and Ellie had to jog to catch her up.
"I've tried to catch up with you this last week…I had some news to tell you", she said and Lyssa made a derisive snort.
"I'll bet you had", she replied and Ellie snagged the other woman's arm and they both stopped abruptly, Lyssa turning on Ellie.
"I thought we were going to become friends Ellie…you said that you had no problems with me dating John…if I'd have known that you still had a thing for him then I wouldn't have gone near him, wouldn't have let myself care…for him or you…".
"Lyssa…I don't know what John has said to you but I…", Ellie trailed off as Lyssa held up a hand.
"I thought you liked Lorne…but it just shows you how wrong you can be, so just forget it Ellie…I hope you and John are very happy together", she said before turning on her heel and heading off, leaving Ellie feeling dumfounded, which seemed to be happening to her a lot in the last day or so, she acknowledged glumly.
She sighed deeply and groaned as she saw Charlotte heading toward her.
"Hey, Ellie, I'm so sorry about our lunch date the other day, I got bogged down with work. I've been wanting to catch you though", the red head said and Ellie pasted a smile on her face and replied,
"That's okay, what's up?".
"It's Evan…he's agreed to give our relationship another go…we're getting back together!", Charlotte gushed as she spun her web of lies and Ellie felt like the ground had opened up beneath her and was about to swallow her whole…
End of chapter 3
