Notes: Sorry, its been a while. Also, sorry for any mistakes, its 5am. Thanks for reviewing!
-
Elizabeth was finally able to leave the room that had been converted to quarters for Terentia when the girl fell asleep, almost stubbornly clinging to consciousness for far longer than Weir had expected. Then again, she mused, the girl had spent the day, and several thousand years, sleeping. On exiting the child's quarters, she turned and immediately almost crashed into Sheppard.
He winced, grabbing her shoulder to keep them both standing, "Sorry about that."
"What're you doing here?" she questioned.
"You know, I might just think you want to get rid of me…"
"John…" she frowned.
"Alright, I was just heading here to see how Tia was doing," he shrugged.
Elizabeth began to walk away, speaking as he fell into step with her, "…You shouldn't get attached to her…"
"So says 'Mom'," he countered.
"I mean it, John," she stressed, "We know hardly anything about her. With the genetic manipulation…anything could happen to her…"
"Hey, don't give me the speech about not getting emotionally involved. I'm the military man, its supposed to be my job. And don't you tell me not to get attached; I saw the look in your eyes when we took her to her new home."
She glared at him for a moment, dropping her gaze to the floor, "…I'm not cut out to play mother."
"I think you're better at it than you know," John tried.
"I've been with her for less than a day-"
"And you just spent several hours with her, only leaving her when she was asleep, I presume?"
Elizabeth took the steps to the control room two at a time, "You don't just leave a frightened child like that."
"There you go. There's Mom."
"I-"
"Permission to take a puddle jumper out early tomorrow morning?" he quickly changed the subject.
"Why…?" she frowned.
"I have a plan."
"Involving?"
"Involving getting Tia some company," John grinned.
Figuring there wasn't much he could get up to that would involve getting the child some company, she nodded, "Alright…"
"Thanks," John yawned and over-acted stretching, "Well, if nobody objects, I'm off to get some sleep."
"Go for it…" she was still frowning at him.
"What?" he just grinned back at her.
"Don't get in any trouble tomorrow morning," Elizabeth pointed and prodded his shoulder, "You hear?"
"Would I?" he feigned innocence.
"Yes. Frequently."
-
Amelia Williams yawned and once again glanced back at her laptop for a reference, scrawling something down on a piece of paper at the same time.
"I've been telling you for years you work too much…" a disgruntled voice interrupted her train of thought, "…But was that any reason for you to drag me out of bed at this horrific hour?"
Amelia looked up to see one of her friends standing over her, "I dragged you out of bed because I need your help, Louise."
"Why do you need me…?" Louise practically collapsed to the floor beside her, dragging blonde hair from her eyes, "You're translating the stuff on the wall where the kid came from…"
"Ancient kid, at that."
"I don't think there's anyone here who doesn't know that. Anyway, me, sleep, interrupted, why?"
"I can't figure out some of this," Amelia tapped the screen of the laptop with her pen, then gestured toward the inscriptions on the wall, "and you know Ancient too."
"Not as much as you, and you studied with Doctor Jackson," Louise protested.
"Any help is help," the Doctor insisted, "Even just if your mind works in a different way to mine. Though we already know that," she goaded.
"…If I'd had more sleep I'd make an attempt at a return insult…" Louise turned her attention to the inscriptions, "Well, you know the sentence is negative, right?"
"What?"
"Its negative. Look," she pointed to the 'word' second to last in the line, "That much I know."
Williams glanced back at the laptop, "…I didn't notice-"
"That's what staring at it for hours does to you," Louse shifted as if she might stand, "It took me long enough to find you down here, let alone with directions. Can I go back to bed now?"
"No," she grabbed her arm as she stood, hauling her back to the ground, "You're staying right here."
The young woman's knees met the ground with an unhealthy crack, her eyes closed in a sudden grimace of pain, "One day you're going to pay for this…"
"Uh-huh…" Amelia was again engrossed in her translation.
-
The next morning, Elizabeth hit the control to allow her into Terentia's room, a mug of hot-chocolate in her hands, "Tia, you feeling okay this morn-" she stopped dead as the discovered the girl wasn't in the bed, "Tia?" she repeated, stepping forward and placing the mug down on what had been turned into a make-shift bedside table, "Terentia?" the room was so small the girl couldn't exactly be hiding anywhere. She adjusted the small microphone she had hooked round her ear, "Control room, this is Weir. The Ancient child, Terentia, is missing from her room. I repeat the child is missing."
A few moments of panic later, she got a reply, "Doctor Weir? Major Sheppard was seen with the girl around an hour ago…"
"He was?"
"Several Athosians are also present in Atlantis. He, and they, are currently occupying one of the larger recreational rooms."
"…He went to the mainland…" Elizabeth muttered.
"Doctor?"
"Never mind. Thank you," she shut off the communication and strode from the room, determined to have words with a certain Major.
-
When she finally located John Sheppard, anger and relief for her young charge fighting for dominance, she couldn't bring herself to shout at him, as she had intended to, when she took in the scene before her.
Terentia, dressed in dark clothes that appeared to be of Athosian manufacture, was running around the large room, chasing, and being chased, by several Athosian children of varying ages. The girl was laughing, out of breath, as she ran, oblivious to the audience of the parents of the children, and her own guardian.
Elizabeth smiled despite herself, momentarily glaring up at Sheppard, "Next time you see fit to abduct-"
"'Abduct' is a harsh word…"
"Kidnap-"
"I prefer 'abduct'," John decided. He shook his head, "I'm sorry, I should've told you. But the kids wanted to meet her and I thought we should teach her how to be a normal child as soon as possible."
"'We'?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. About to continue, she was interrupted as Terentia ran up to her, hair mussed and red in the face, still out of breath.
"Mama-Elizabeth! You're here!"
Too stunned at the prefix to her name to respond, she knelt beside the girl, "I…yes. You having fun?"
She nodded enthusiastically, "John said you wouldn't mind if I went with him."
"Oh he did, did he?" she shot him a look of mock anger.
Terentia smiled, "I thought I was to be the only child!"
"We'll see if we can get the gang to visit regularly," John grinned.
"Tia! You're it!" an older boy shouted across to her.
"I Am not!" but the Ancient girl laughed and ran back into the group.
Elizabeth stood, frowning, "…She looks older already…"
"Well, they say they grow up overnight…" John replied.
She folded her arms, "You know what I mean."
"Yeah…must be the genetics…" he grinned, "and look at you, 'Mama-Elizabeth'."
"Did you encourage that?" she accused, eyes tracking Terentia's movements.
"Nope. That was all Tia. I'm as shocked as you are."
"Really…"
-
On returning to Atlantis, the leader of the expedition's third team evidently wasn't in the mood for small talk, "Get me Doctor Weir, now," he demanded.
"Why?" one of the control room staff questioned, leaning over the railings.
"You want to know? You really want to know?" the major was clearly shaken, "The Wraith are headed to this part of the galaxy. Now will you get Doctor Weir?"
-
