CHAPTER 9 – THROUGH ANOTHER'S EYES
Kate Heitmeyer was able to see her more or less immediately as soon as she had rescheduled her current appointment. It was therefore with more than just a small measure of trepidation that Nicole paused at the entrance to the doctor's office and smiled at the taller woman. John and Rodney had accompanied her. Rodney to enable him to key pertinent data into his laptop immediately and John as Mr Support, feeling as though he was more or less responsible for her.
"Have you ever been hypnotised before, Nicole? I have a very simple procedure that necessitates you merely sitting in any position you feel comfortable with. You can choose to lie down or sit on the couch over there, or simply sit in the chair opposite my desk. As long as you're comfortable."
Kate smiled at the smaller woman, taking professional note of her wary posture and the almost cornered animal look that had come into her eyes. She rightly assumed, that this woman had very little understanding of just what she had inadvertantly fallen into and was processing information at an alarmingly fast rate in order to play 'catch up'. Kate knew that this could have a very real pyschological effect on anyone, and particularly those who had been exposed to such an extremely intense pool of information.
Nicole forced herself to smile, attempting to push the cornered look out of her eyes. "No, Dr Heitmeyer. I've never participated in a pyschiatric session before so you'll have to excuse me if I seem nervous or uncomfortable." John's eyes were immediately drawn to her small hands, held in front of her and now clasped tightly together. He wanted to step forward and reassure her, take those small hands in his own and rub some warmth into them. But held himself back. Support, yes – but this was Kate's show and he needed to let her take the lead and guide Nicole through it as she wanted to. So he kept his hands to himself for now, and hooded his gaze slightly.
Kate smiled. "That's perfectly understandable Nicole – I'd be more than a little surprised if you weren't intimidated by what you have recently been thrown into and to be honest, I need to let you know that I am impressed with how you seem to be handling everything so far. It takes a lot of strength of character to take on such an enormous amount of 'out there' information when you are least prepared to do so, so hats off to you." She switched her gaze briefly to Rodney.
"Rodney? You're here as observer today?" Kate and Rodney did not always see eye to eye, and Kate was simply making sure that Rodney knew his place in that room today. Watch and keep his mouth shut. As best as he was able, anyway.
"Yes, Kate. I need to see her reactions to questions that you ask, to see if something is merely hidden through natural means or has been pushed down by something less natural. I'm working on a vague theory that will hopefully pan out into something workable once I get a few more answers." Rodney settled himself down in a chair towards the back of the room and began fiddling with his laptop, finding Kate's assessing gaze a little too direct for his liking. She turned her focus to John.
"John?" You're here for security reasons?"
He grasped at that, preferring to admit to that rather than the fact that he simply wanted to offer her some sort of emotional support. Nodding once to Kate, he flicked his eyes between her and Nicole, then moved away from her to stop himself from taking those tense fingers into his own hands once again.
Nicole chose the couch but seated herself, rather than lying down and Rodney moved himself, pulling up a chair beside her but taking care to remain out of Kate's way where the doctor had immediately taken up position behind her. John went to lean against the wall, folding his arms across his chest and dropping his head slightly so that his chin was dipped down, giving him a dark almost forbidding look.
Kate took her under quickly. John had seen her do it before and the speed with which she managed to take a subject under never ceased to amaze him. One minute the person was staring ahead and the next minute their body visibly relaxed and their features slackened slightly, changing perceptibly. Nicole was no exception and he recognised immediately the moment her focus was taken inward after working through the basic relaxation excercises that Kate always began with. Next came a series of base questions, working backwards then bringing her forwards until the day that she was photographing in the Triangle.
It was a beautiful day, blue cloudless sky with an exceptionally calm sea. The boat that had been chartered was owned by a small professionally run company, whose reputation for getting people to the heart of where they wanted to go was impeccable and it was for this reason that Kate had hired their services. Those waiting in Kate's office learnt that Nicole had spent two hours taking photos until the heat had driven her down below deck for some reprieve from the sun and refreshments. She had spread out her chart maps and liased with the captain on where the actual disappearances had occurred. She hadn't known what she was really looking for – perhaps tangible proof that something as large as an entire ship had been able to disappear without a trace.
Deep in her hypnosis, the thoughts had swirled through her mind in the here and now. Tangible proof? In the form of what per chance? A giant vortex, perhaps... a large black hole that would just sit on the surface of that giant ocean. Waiting for little old me to stumble across it in my enthusiasm and careless naivete? Oh yeah... Get hold of yourself and your whimsical dreams. Pull yourself back into reality. Off on yet another wild goose chase with that damn large pair of rose tinted glasses clamped firmly over your eyes. Looking for the impossible, the unimaginable... the unprovable. Looking for proof? Tangible proof. That life as you know it is a lie..."
Disgusted with herself she had slapped a hand hard against the charts, and ignoring the protest of the captain, she had grabbed her camera and stormed upstairs to the upper deck to stare pensively out over the water...
Eyes wide, alarm was suddenly evident in every nuance of her body. She screamed then – now, in Atlantis... sitting on the couch allowing a pyschologist to take her back into her memories for something that was hidden. She pushed herself out of the chair, still deep under hypnosis. She felt the hands on her back – then, in the Triangle, felt two hands plant themselves squarely and push and screamed again, this time in both places as she tumbled overboard in one, towards the clutches of the open water and lurched forward in the other, gripped by firm comforting hands that dragged her against him and murmured senseless words in her ear. Still there...she squeezed her eyes shut just as she had at the moment of impact with the water, and as it closed over her head she had opened them before looking upward to see the tunnel, inside which she now travelled. Dry, cold and tumbling mercilessly out of control towards a destination that had no meaning.
Then became now as after an interminable amount of time in the spinning, disorientating darkness she arrived here, in Atlantis. Held tight in the arms of a man who know both everything and nothing.
Kate's voice bit sharply into the void. "I'm bringing her out now Colonel. Rodney? You have your answers. You'll have to make sense of the information she gave you, I can't risk leaving her in there any longer. Colonel? Keep a tight hold of her... her emotions will be overloaded." She received a curt nod from John and didn't wait for Rodney's response. She brought her out, Kate watching her face closely for signs that she was overly traumatised and finding confusion to be the prevailing emotion.
Nicole shook her head slightly as though to push away cobwebs and John continued to hold tightly to her until he felt her hands push slightly against his chest. Allowing her to push him away, he reluctantly allowed her to stand back and put some distance between them so that she could gather her thoughts, and he remained on alert and ready to grab her at a moments notice should she prove unsteady on her feet.
Her voice was shaky and she reached up a trembling hand to run through the slightly tangled curls.
"Damn it! I was pushed, deliberately pushed – into that dark tunnel. Wormhole? Someone on board that boat knew that it was there, knew what it was and wanted me there... here?" Dragging her hand through her long curls again, she grimaced slightly as her fingers became caught in the tangled ends, pulling painfully. John brought a hand to her face, grasping her chin slightly to bring her eyeline back up to his.
"Nicole, it's important. You need to think, really think. Tell me the names of the people who were on board that boat. One of them knows of the stargate programme and possibly a third operational gate based on earth and yes... it would seem that they wanted you here for some reason. Wanted you to find the truth. Friend, Nicole. Not foe."
He kept his touch at her face as he watched her eyes widen and flicked a glance down to Rodney who was busy inputting data into his laptop.
Her voice was still shaky. "Oh my God John – you mean military?"
"Not necessarily Nicole. There are independent contractors on earth who have knowledge of the stargate, but who are supposedly sworn to secrecy. National security. But if they disagreed with what the stargate programme stood for, what better way to expose it? Find a way to send a reporter there."
The implication that she had been chosen for a task of that magnitude caused her to tilt slightly and she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. John grasped her arms firmly and tried to lower her back down onto the couch but she resisted. "So where does that leave me John? Given that this knowledge will be passed on to your headquarters on earth... They'll never let me return to earth, but how can they let me stay here?"
His voice was deliberately brusque, attempting to pull her out of her panic. "Quite a conundrum unfortunately. But firstly? I need all those names and then I'll turn that information over to the SGC, let them investigate that end of it and find that gate that you came through. Your job? It's likely they have a way to keep tabs on you to make sure you're doing what they sent you here to do."
"A spy? Here in Atlantis?" Kate interupted, looking from John to Nicole.
"It would appear likely Kate, and perhaps we just need to sit back and wait for them to make contact. Nicole, I'm thinking that they'll approach you with a way to get your pictures out of Atlantis." John's eyes had narrowed as the full implication of what was taking place began to set in. She had been chosen to expose the stargate programme. And she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn't.
Nicole's voice was quiet. "But... if they're watching me, they'll know I've given you this information, know that you're onto them."
"A chance we'll have to take Nicole. This information will stay in this room and will be passed back to the SGC via Sam only. We trust no one else, apart from the members of my team. I know that Ronon and Teyla are above reproach. Everyone else? As far as they're concerned, you still have no idea how you got here and we'll keep it that way until we get to the bottom of this." He began guiding her toward the door. "Go grab your cameras... you've got some pictures to take."
