INTERLUDE 4 - Halling

He watched as the last stitch slid through his skin, pulling the last of the ragged edges of the cut across his forearm together.

It would not scar, too small as it was, but though superficial it still stung sharply. He was still surprised how raw pain was for him, after so many years. He thought he would have grown used to it by now.

For pain was a lingering unwell friend of late. Since his serious hip injury several months ago, the near constant aching pain remained, feeling like a guest who refused to leave. He feared that his aging bones would not let it.

As the healer stepped aside, not even attempting to remind him of how to care for the wounds – they were too common for Elite – the door to the healing area slid open and Teyla stepped into view.

Behind her, Ketra's scaled head peered around the door's seal, knowing full well that she was banned from entering the healing area. The creature's intelligent eyes swept around the room as if seeking out potential foes, or perhaps for someone who might have food.

"How do you fare?" Teyla asked as she approached him, her greeting as familiar as the number of past wounds.

"Scratches only," Halling replied immediately as he stood up from the healing bed and reached for his coat.

"Of course," Teyla replied, but there was a touch of annoying insight within her words.

"And how fares your leg?" Halling responded, knowing she had taken a heavy strike during their first battle planetside. That they had travelled immediately into a second battle aboard a Wraith base surely had not helped her heal.

"Aching, as I am sure yours is as well," Teyla replied, falling into step with him as he led the way out of the healing area, lowering his hand to stroke the top of Ketra's head as he passed her. He swore she grew visibly larger by the hour.

"My hip is stable enough," he stated, feeling the nagging sliver of concern and doubt rising again, but he forced it down and away. Elite did not doubt themselves, they were strong. Even if his weak hip might one day slow his reflexes and flexibility enough to give a Wraith the moment it needed to strike him down.

"I did not say that it was not," Teyla replied at his side, the soft padded sound of the dragon's feet following along behind them.

Halling frowned down at Teyla and saw the surprisingly soft amusement in her expression. He had not seen such lightness from her in many days. Since the near assassination of her sister, father, and Charin at Zabetha's wedding carnival she had seemed distant. There were times, before and after battle, when her thoughts appeared to be especially focused elsewhere. In battle though, she was as fierce as ever.

"You fought nobly this day, Teyla," he told her.

"As did you," she replied with an emphasis that was again disturbingly pointed. "You know, as all of us do, that it takes time to recover from a deep wound."

"I know it," he agreed somewhat unwillingly, faintly irritated that she could see his weakness clearly enough. He had not faltered in the battles. He had not let it slow him.

"Good, for you seem to have forgotten," she added.

He looked down at her again. She looked only forwards as they progressed down the corridor together side by side. She was his friend, of so many years that he could not remember any of his days without her.

"I apologise," he offered. "It only seems that recovery takes longer with each passing year," he confessed quietly, even though no one else walked the corridor, except for Ketra behind them.

"It is the way of nature," Teyla quoted, using one of Charin's favoured wisdoms.

Halling let out a breath and conceded defeat. "True enough."

"You fought nobly, my friend," Teyla repeated. "One would never know." She did not have to explain further, he understood. They barely had to speak full sentences to each other anymore, it was not necessary for they knew the shape of each other's mind with a lifetime's experience.

"Have you taken late meal yet?" He asked.

"No, I was hoping to sit with you," Teyla replied with a smile.

"Making sure my old bones are well fed?" He joked and her smile widened.

They made the rest of their way up to the canteen in companionable silence, where most of the other Elite onboard were eating.

As he and Teyla selected their own food the door slid open and Oneakka strode in.

"Where have you been?" Kari demanded over her shoulder.

"He has been pursuing his obsession," Teyla replied before Halling as they made their way to the table.

Kari frowned. "We have barely been in orbit two hours and you have already been off world and back to cause trouble?"

"While you were sleeping, I was working," Oneakka replied, as he dumped his food selection into his bowl with about as much attention as he gave such mundane things.

"And stealing Madesh away from his studies for you to use to read who you choose," Halling added.

Oneakka frowned at him as his long strides ate up the distance between the food selection and the eating table. "He needs the experience, and he agreed to it." He dropped his bowl down onto the table top opposite Halling and sat down heavily.

Kari scoffed beside him. "Asked him did you? As if anyone would be brave enough to deny one of your 'requests'."

"We need your attention on the present, not some obsessive need to clean the galaxy," Seifer added into the growing disagreement.

Seifer had been assigned to the Sythus while Nalla remained back in the Training Facility to sit as Elite representative on the Military Council. It was a position that mostly she and Teyla shared, though others could in their place if necessary, but they were all agreed that Nalla and Teyla were the best suited to the role among the Elite.

"It is not an obsession," Oneakka objected almost angrily.

Halling watched him with a level gaze. Since he, Teyla, and Si had visited Dreamstation in pursuit of the Iketani, Oneakka had become fixated on bringing those in charge of Dreamstation to justice.

Oneakka met Halling's stare and held it. Few could outstare Oneakka, but Halling did not need to, for he simply shook his head doubtfully.

"I'm allowed a hobby," Oneakka protested, the anger slipping into defensiveness, an emotional response that was rare with him. "Si does his mediation, you make coats, Teyla collects slaves from Earth."

"It was just one man from Earth," Teyla argued, surprising Halling in that she would rise to such a clear baiting comment.

Oneakka smiled as he continued. "And Seifer talks to the trees in the hydroponics level."

"I do not talk to the trees, I go there to think, and speaking a problem out loud assists in reaching an answer," Seifer explained.

"And Sheppard was never my slave," Teyla added.

Oneakka smiled again, pleased in his disruption and provocation of his friends and allies. "And I like to track down criminals."

"Dreamstation is not our problem," Halling replied, and not for the first time. "Let the Investigation Division deal with them now."

The playfulness that had lingered across Oneakka's expression died away in a flash, and his usual angry resolve retook its natural position. "It was a sign of weakness of the Alliance and the Elite to let Dreamstation have its way for so long, and that's why Iketani was able to use it for her own means."

"The decision was agreed long ago to let the spacestation collect its small time criminals," Seifer responded.

"NOT small time," Oneakka interrupted, jabbing into the air with his fork. "Iketani saw the weakness and she exploited it. She probably visited that station for years behind our backs, and we know she had help in her attack on Athos. Someone helped her find those assassins, helped set up the attack on elder Charin, sneaking up on her to shoot her through the back."

Halling glanced at Teyla beside him, watching her expression, but there was barely a glimpse of the torment reliving the event must have upon her. He knew the depth of the love she had for her birth family, and for Charin. Their near death had shaken her into a fury Halling had not seen in her before or since.

"They slipped into Torren's home and almost killed him and his youngest daughter," Oneakka continued, his furious anger loud in the silent room. "They killed a damn High Councillor of the Alliance." His fist slammed down onto the table, dancing bowls, cups and cutlery across its surface. "And I won't let that go. None of us should. Creass will know who the traitor dealt with, who she conspired and seduced over the years, and I will find them. And Creass will pay for his part in all this, for running Dreamstation and sheltering all the scum he let use it."

Silence lingered after the speech, perhaps one of the longest and most logically constructed arguments Oneakka had ever expressed. Halling had to concede his friend had a valid point.

"You are right of course," Halling said calmly. "I have no doubt that the rest of the Elite will support your endeavour."

"I agree," Teyla said with an overly calm expression. "Though Creass had many years to prepare for the day he would need to leave Dreamstation. He is likely based far away from the current border, perhaps too far removed for even our reach."

A little surprised by her admission, Halling slid his attention back to Oneakka, watching his reaction.

"There is always a trail, and I will find it," Oneakka stated simply, his temper once again contained and in its place sat defiant confidence in his capability to seek out the criminal Creass.

Halling had little doubt that Oneakka would continue to throw himself into the endeavour with his usual determined single-mindedness, but he was hardly known for his subtly, and these criminals he sought were like water sliding through shadows. Oneakka's patented brutal aggression, overwhelming physical strength, and unstoppable intimidation might not be the skills required to find Creass. However, it was his choice and no one could even try to stand in his way.

"I am certain that my father will assist you in your hunt in any way he can," Teyla offered, though it was unlikely that Leader Torren would be able to help in this situation.

Oneakka nodded in acknowledgement as he began to eat, and they fell into silence as they all did the same, and perhaps all finally feeling the weight of tiredness from the day's battles.

The meal over, Oneakka stormed out to continue his investigation, or perhaps to actually sleep. Halling left the canteen with Teyla once more, the two of them walking in easy silence, whilst his hip continued to ache deeply.

"Do you believe we made an error in leaving Dreamstation untouched for so long?" Teyla asked as they reached the door to her quarters. She paused outside the doorway as it opened, Ketra sliding between their boots and disappearing inside.

"If Dreamstation had not been there, Iketani would still have found somewhere else to meet those like her," Halling replied. "We knew most of the goings on in Dreamstation, and our contacts there provided vital intelligence in the past."

"True, but we heard nothing of Iketani' presence there all that time. What else was slipping under our sight?"

Halling had to agree with her and Oneakka's point. "Much I suspect, but then, we are not enforcement officers, we hunt Wraith. We cannot oversee the entire galaxy," he added with a wistful smile.

Teyla smiled back. "Oneakka will never agree to such restrictions."

Halling nodded.

"Though he is perhaps correct, and it seems somewhat strange that Oneakka is the one out of us who is pushing an ethical point, but if we have power, should we wield it?"

It was a question the Elite had faced before, but always in the constant war against the Wraith there was no space for anything other than the complete destruction of the Wraith. Now the Alliance so was much more successful and pushing her borders out further, would the Elite eventually one day play a role in law and order rather than battle?

"We strive to defeat the Wraith," he pondered, "but I wonder whether if the day should arrive when they are all gone, will the Elite cease to exist as well?" Such thoughts had rarely passed his mind, for to conceive of a life truly free of the shadow of the Wraith...as much as it was the only goal of the Elite, he had never truly believed he would see such a day.

"It is strange to think of the day when the Elite can finally lay down arms as anything other than a victorious event, but I find myself-"

A sharp call from the intercom inside her quarters cut off the rest she was going to say, but Halling suspected it was going to reflect his own thoughts. Surely the last day of the Wraith would be joyous, but would it also mean the end of the Elite. Could the Elite exist in a world without warfare? Was such a galaxy even truly possible?

It was hard to imagine where some Elite would find themselves if it occurred, especially Oneakka, so filled with fire and furious determination.

Teyla had moved inside her quarters and now triggered the intercom's connection. "Emmagan here."

"Honoured Elite," the tinny voice replied, "there is an open link for you, identity stated as Elkaska."

Halling saw the lightening to Teyla's expression and he smiled to see it.

"Put him through," she instructed into the intercom before moving further into her quarters. "Stay to pass on your greetings to him if you wish, Halling," she offered.

"I would be honoured," Halling replied as he followed her inside, triggering the door closed behind him.

On the wall to the left, the display screen lit up, and, after Teyla entered her private code, the screen shifted to the familiar face of her uncle, Elkaska.

"Ahh, Mistress Emmagan," Elkaska greeted her, the large teasing smile a near constant on the Athosian trader's face.

Teyla smiled in response. "Greetings, Uncle."

"We have heard of the latest great victory won by the Elite and Military," Elkaska said, "Your father asked me to send his good wishes."

"And please return them to him," Teyla replied. "I have not yet had time to contact him, but will shortly. Do you know how Rhakshar fares?"

Halling glanced at her out the corner of his eye. For so long Teyla had been suspicious of her now brother through marriage, but it seemed that since his near sacrifice to save Teyla's sister, Zabetha, it had changed Teyla's opinion of him. It pleased Halling, for he could see and value for her the bond of the Athosian family. It was rare for Elite to keep such strong ties, but in Teyla's case, Halling saw nothing but value for her in its strength.

"I do," Elkaska replied, "I left Tjaru only yesterday. He is doing very well, you would not know of his injury now. Zabetha still worries over him, but in truth I believe he rather enjoys it. They had just left Athos for his home, their first visit there now married. Rhakshar's mother seemed overly keen to have them approve of the new rooms she had prepared for them when they stay."

"And I suspect you helped supply some of those new furnishings?" Teyla asked as she set her hip against the corner of the large sofa behind her.

"Perhaps," Elkaska agreed with a smile. His eyes slid to the right towards Halling. "Is that Honoured Elite Halling there with you?"

Halling stepped further forward so that Elkaska could better see him. "Yes it is. Greetings to you, Elkaska."

"Are you not tired of battles and ready to return to your father's career of trade, Halling?" Elkaska teased, as he did quite often, having traded with Halling's own father in his youth.

"That day has not yet arrived," Halling replied, both of them knowing that such a day would never arrive. Not for an Elite. Though, if the last day of the Wraith were to magically arrive in his lifetime...

"I suppose that is best for the Alliance," Elkaska conceded.

Halling smiled at the compliment, somehow more meaningful from Elkaska, a contemporary to Halling's lost father. It occurred to him that Teyla's family was not just a bond and source of pleasure and strength for her, but also for him, for his own family history was closely tied to hers.

"I hear that you will be returning into the core worlds within days," Elkaska continued to Teyla.

"You hear that from whom?" Teyla asked.

"I have my ears," Elkaska replied with a trader's grin. "I am on my way to Pelydr, for a trading opportunity, and to visit Sitayi. Is there a chance you may be passing there and could visit as well?"

"I believe I can easily enough," Teyla replied. "I have not seen Sitayi since Zabetha's wedding and we did not have much of a chance to speak then, so it would be good to see her."

"She thought as much," Elkaska replied with a knowing smile. "I will be there tonight and leave tomorrow eve, if you can reach Pelydr by their mid meal tomorrow we can share half a day together."

"I will meet you there," Teyla agreed.

"And I might have a few items of interest that the Elite might find worthy of trade."

Halling grinned.

"You can join us too if you wish, Halling," Elkaska offered.

"I thank you, but in this brief pause between missions, I have my own plans arranged," Halling replied. The main plan was to rest enough that his hip would cease complaining. "I will take my leave now, Elkaska, Teyla," he added, sensing that his part in this family conversation was drawing to a close.

"Good victory in your next battle, Honoured Elite Halling," Elkaska offered.

Halling bowed his head towards the screen and then to Teyla.

"Good evening, Teyla."

"Sleep well, Halling," she offered and he saw the echo of her former concern for his previous injury show around her eyes again.

He turned away before he lingered in such thoughts again himself.

As he neared the door, Ketra scurried her large body towards him, always eager to greet and to see others out of her mistress' quarters. Halling smiled down at the creature as he stroked the top of her warm smooth head.

"Good evening to you too, mighty Ketra," he offered before he opened the door.

As he stepped through, he could not help but overhear Elkaska's next question to Teyla.

"Have you spoken with Major Sheppard recently?"

"No, Uncle," Teyla replied almost sternly.

"I only ask as I still hope to trade with Atlantis..."

The rest of the conversation was cut away as Halling triggered Teyla's door closed.

He knew Teyla well enough to have seen her care for Sheppard of Atlantis long before now, but it seemed that Elkaska was not so subtle in his questioning over the man from Earth.

A thought occurred to Halling as he stood looking at Teyla's closed door.

No, he would not imagine she would have taken Sheppard as a lover. It would be a foolish and risky thing for them both, and besides, it was unlikely they would interact again. Atlantis was in a more dangerous position than ever before with the Alliance, for Iketani' assassins had been dressed in stolen Atlantis uniforms. The High Council was strongly split between acceptance that those uniforms had in fact been stolen and the all out anger of those who believed it to have been an Atlantis sponsored plot.

If Teyla did harbour strong feelings towards Sheppard, she would control them, and if the two were to meet again, it would likely be in the thick of war again anyway.

Logical enough, but Halling could not help feel somewhat concerned as he moved away from her doorway. Concern, he realised, not for her as a warrior, but as a female friend. It was the first time he had felt this way towards his fierce and powerful Elite sister. For, perhaps that was what she truly was now – a sister.

A sister who he had seen hurt many times physically, but realised he had never seen her heart hurt before.

It was something he wished never to witness.

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TBC