Chapter 3: Passage of Time

Chapter 3: Passage of Time

Disclaimer—Don't own, but man I wish I did!! That would be SO cool.

Atlantis:

Sunlight streamed down onto the 'not so lost' city of Atlantis. The sky, an extraordinary shade of blue, marked the beautiful day in this ocean paradise. Unfortunately the peace in this paradise would soon come to an abrupt halt.

Elizabeth Weir received a large and comfy pillow from one of her Athosian friends when they last visited the over Christmas, and she decided to place it on the balcony near her office in hopes of spending more time outside. However, she spent a large portion of her waking hours in her office, getting coffee, being hauled off to the science labs to see some new ancient device that was discovered, or god forbid holding vigil in the infirmary for a member of one of the off world teams. She thought to herself that she should probably find a way to set up a waiting room of some kind with more comfy chairs or floor pillows for when she or others waited for a team member. This especially would apply to the premier off world team, as they always seemed to come back with some injury or another resulting with one of them on the brink of death and covered in blood. They just could not seem to play nice with the other inhabitants of the Pegasus galaxy.

So now she lounged on her comfy pillow, in the sunshine, on the balcony sipping a cup of coffee, and perusing Major Lorne's latest mission report. Carson had been getting on her case for spending so much time working in her office, so she set up camp out here to try and appease him. After all, she wasn't technically in her office anymore, granted she still wasn't in her quarters relaxing like he wanted, but she wasn't spending all of her time at a desk and could still work out here while allowing her close enough proximity to the control room.

She focused on reading the major's report that dealt with new intel about another faction in the Pegasus Galaxy set on hating them. She finished reading when the alarms went off in the gate room indicating an unscheduled activation. Only two teams were scheduled today; SGA-4 left six hours ago and was not due to check in for three more hours, while SGA-1 approached their scheduled check-in. Given their track record, she'd stake money that it was probably them, as they always seemed to get in trouble. Perhaps she should get a move on for her infirmary waiting room plans, as likely that she would need them soon.

Chuck confirmed her suspicions as she got up and walked to stand behind him. He said to her, "Receiving Colonel Sheppard's IDC." She was about to reply when the radio crackled to life and Telya's voice came through saying, "Be advised we are taking fire please lower the shield."

Trust Teyla to always be polite even in a crisis. Turning to Chuck, Dr. Weir said, "Do it." By now military personnel were taking up their positions around the gate.

He lowered the shield, and soon Teyla and Rodney exited the gate. Some very sharp looking spears hurling through the gate after them, but they both got out of the way quickly—Rodney especially disliking such objects. Elizabeth did not realized she held her breath, until she released it a few seconds later as Ronon and John exited the gate firing at the source of the oncoming spears. As soon as they exited Elizabeth signaled for Chuck to shut the gate down, and walked over to the stairs to find out what had happened.

By the time she had descended to meet them Sheppard waved off the military that gathered, leaving the group slightly more privacy to talk. Elizabeth looked all of them over, and they appeared to be fine with the exception of the Colonel. Trouble should have been his middle name, as some distinct bruises and a large and angry red line ran across his throat.

His customary smile did nothing to assuage her concern as she asked, "What happened? Colonel that looks rather painful," her eyes flicked to his neck, "Do we need to call a medical team?"

He shook his head no, causing her even more suspicions, however Teyla that answered. "He took the late watch and our camp was attacked. A hostile came up from behind and tried to strangle him, unsuccessfully of course."

"Yeah, but he kicked me in the process, waking me up," chimed in Rodney. They all shot him an evil glare. "What? I woke Conan and Xena up too. Nicer I might add, though I will probably have a bruise now."

Sheppard just rolled his eyes at that and mouthed sorry as Teyla continued. "We tried to ask the Colonel for more details, but I think he must have been injured because he has been unable to say a word. We quickly grabbed our gear and headed to the gate, unfortunately the other natives took to pursing us."

"Chucking spears at us I might add!" Rodney added.

Elizabeth tried to suppress a sigh, "Yes Rodney we noticed." She turned to John, "So you can't speak at all?" He shook his head no. "Well Rodney why don't you accompany the Colonel to the infirmary, because I'm sure Carson can look at your bruise too while you are there. We can debrief in an hour, and Colonel a written report will suffice." She smiled at him.

He gave her a disgusted look and mouthed 'real funny'.

However, Rodney's face sank and said, "Oh, funny laugh at the injured man." But, he regained his good mood at having to escort the silent Colonel to the infirmary, realizing the opportunity to terrorize the man. "Well I must say the silence is rather nice. Come on Mr. Talkative, you get to go see Carson, man of big pointy needles."

Sheppard shot him a venomous glare as he was led out of the gate room. Rodney would so pay for this, as he almost wished he kicked him harder.

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Twenty minutes later Elizabeth made her way to the infirmary to find out the status of the team. Teyla and Ronon left already to shower and eat, but she looked around to see the other half of SGA-1.

As she entered the infirmary, the sound of Rodney complaining about his post mission exam greeted her.

"Stop complaining, 'ya big baby," Carson told him. "Ye are just fine and doe need tae make such a big deal out o' it."

Rodney sat there looking sullen and cranky. "Am I done yet?" He spat.

"Yes, nah get out o' my sight! I have real patients tae see."

"Yeah the silent one over there seems to be a big problem. Ha, now he can't complain about being stuck in the infirmary. Are you sure you want to fix this?"

Rodney looked over at Sheppard who sat on the bed across from him, giving him a look that said he best leave now or suffer a real injury.

Elizabeth said to Rodney, "You realize it's only his voice that is injured and he could probably still hurt you easily. I would leave if I were you." Sheppard nodded at this, cracking his knuckles, as Rodney took the hint and left rather quickly.

"Uhh yeah I'm off to find sustenance. Mm, blue jello all the way!"

Elizabeth turned to Carson who was writing some things down in John's rather file—his certainly was the largest—as John looked at her pointedly hoping for some escape help. She asked Carson, "So what's the damage?"

"Well the strangulation attempt did nae do much for 'im," Carson began earning a 'duh' look from John. "His larynx is severely swollen, which explains why he cannae speak. The good news is once the swelling goes down," He turned to look at him, "You shoul' be able tae banter with Rodney tae your 'eart's content again."

Elizabeth gave John an encouraging smile, "So what should he do in order to recover fastest? And is staying in the infirmary part of that recovery?" She asked. She knew a silent John Sheppard might be more of a problem then normal, as he could and probably would be able to slip away more quietly to escape this albatross.

Carson, probably thinking the same thing, said, "Yes, Colonel you do not need ta stay here overnigh', but ya do nee' to rest and drink a lot o' 'ot liquids, because that'll help soothe those muscles."

This caused John's face to light up like a kid at Christmas as he hopped off the table, and started to head out the door. Elizabeth turned to Carson saying, "He is so pathetic isn't he?"

"Aye luv, that he is." At this they both shared a smile before Elizabeth said good bye to Carson and headed back to her office.

"I'll make sure he doesn't turn up at the gym later. Maybe I can get Radek to lock him out or something." Elizabeth called on her way out.

"Good thinking lass, I might have a word about that ta Ronon as well."

Elizabeth silently laughed as she headed down the halls, musing over how her 2IC could be such a handful some days. She definitely did not envy Carson for having to put up with him; he was a pretty bad patient most times.

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An hour and a half later Elizabeth's computer beeped signaling the time for her debriefing with Colonel Sheppard's team. They all sat in the conference room except for Rodney, but Radek stood next to John hooking up a computer.

"Oh Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard stopped by my office with a rather good idea allowing him to better take part in the debriefing." John nodded. "So I hooked up his laptop to one of the wall monitors so he can type his comments to the conversation. It is a good plan no?"

Elizabeth replied looking pleased, "It is a great plan. Thanks for helping get it ready, and nice problem solving John."

He typed "Thanks, I try."

Radek excused himself and left as Rodney hurried in. "Ok I'm here, we can start now."

Tying could be heard and everyone looked up, "Geeze Rodney have you heard of a thing called time? It's measured by a watch and smart people usually have one. I guess you aren't that smart now are you? Or you would have been on time!"

Rodney moaned, "Oh great the mute thinks he's so smart 'cause now he can type instead of talk. At least I can talk, so ha!"

A smiley with its tongue stuck out appeared on the screen.

Elizabeth decided that even with this altered form of communication they could still carry on annoying banter. "Ok, let's get this under way."

The debriefing went according to their usual format with Sheppard making his comments on the screen. He could type surprisingly fast, for never being caught carrying around a computer before. When it was Rodney's turn to speak John made funny pictures dance around the screen behind Rodney's seat (Since he was the last one there the only open seat was with his back to the screen) Every one tried to keep from laughing, but even Elizabeth had a hard time keeping a straight face when "I'm stupid" and "Ahhh the lemons are going to get me" and "You arrrr loooking at a genuis right her" and "Bow down to my awesome intelligence" (This one had a flashing red arrow pointing at Rodney) appeared behind the scientist's head.

However when John made a crown with the message "Hail the King of the Geeks" show up—Ronon cracked up, Teyla quickly looked away, and Elizabeth turned a laugh into a cough—Rodney turned around and saw the blank screen. He shot John a look of questioning, but of course John just gave him an innocent look and please continue appeared. Rodney turned back to face everyone and began again when John made the crown pop up, only the message flashed. This time, everyone started laughing and Rodney caught what John's message before he could erase it.

"Oh real mature Colonel. That's it. I am so done"

Elizabeth looked sheepish and said, "Sorry Rodney, really we were paying attention."

"I should have guessed something was up when you all looked so into what I was saying, but no, smarty-quiet-pants was being clever." Rodney answered angrily.

"Hey I enjoyed it a lot. Best debriefing we have had in a while." Ronon quipped leaning back in his chair.

"It was amusing," Teyla admitted.

Elizabeth decided they were pretty much finished, "Well that covers most of it I think, so the rest can go into a report. Which you should have plenty of time to do since it will be a little while before your next mission."

With that everyone started to file out. By now it was lunch time and SGA-1 usually ate lunch together after mission, as per their tradition.

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The day passed pretty normally for everyone: one minor explosion in the science lab, Sheppard tried get in the gym and the city refused to let him in—thanks to the work of a certain Czech scientist, and Rodney kicked half of his staff out of the labs due to their 'incompetence.'

Dinner consisted of the usual, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, so Elizabeth decided that she really wanted to be alone for a while and took her meal to go, grabbed her laptop (she might as well read reports while she ate) and headed out to the East pier for some quiet.

Quiet was sort of what she got, because when she arrived at the pier, she found that it was already occupied. John was camping out there with a blanket spread out, a thermos of some kind of hot liquid, and a laptop of all things. He looked up as Elizabeth walked in and typed, Hey- didn't feel like eating with everyone else either? She smiled, sat down next to him, and turned on her laptop and opened the instant message program.

EW: Yep

JS: Oh, yeah well the whole not talking thing kinda put a damper on dinner conversation.

EW: What dinner conversation? Doesn't Rodney talk the whole time anyway?

JS: Point taken.

EW: Heard about your gym fiasco.

JS: Was that you or Carson? Wait never mind, I don't want to know.

EW: Guilty. I sort of thought of it as I was leaving the infirmary. Ooops. Sorry.

JS: If I were Rodney, you would have just bought yourself a ticket for a weeks worth of cold showers.

EW: But you aren't so now what are you going to do?

JS: Wouldn't you like to know?

He shot her a smug grin, set his laptop down, and leaned over and kissed her.

Even though he couldn't talk, his kissing was not diminished.

Their fate was sealed the moment Elizabeth Weir walked out onto that balcony. Ever since he returned from the encounter with Lucius two months ago and kissed her on the control room balcony, they maintained a low profile with their relationship towards each other. He brought her coffee and breakfast, and escorted her to her room if she tried to work past midnight. In turn, she worried more than ever when he was off world. Then in the evening they would meet at different places to talk, and kiss. Nothing past kissing yet: They both agreed to take it slow and did not want to raise suspicion because neither were sure of the best way to proceed—they also did not want to give the rumor mill more ammo. John managed to keep Rodney quiet in regards to his intrusion, but he was suspicious that some how it might have leaked out because nobody ever bothered them when they met in the evening or disappeared for an hour or two, or how ate together. For now, they ignored it, both happy with their progression.

--TBC--