Personal Recap: Hey everyone. I'm back in school, so I'm not only taking classes, but observing them as well (it's the plight of all future teachers). But don't worry, I have to get this story out of me or it will consume my thoughts during class, so there will be regular updates!!!! I'm also working on a humorous (IMHO) piece that I will post in its (small) entirety as a celebration of finishing this piece!
Reviews: Thanks again to everyone for the wonderful reviews! They make me want to get even more done! Hugs!
And now back to the story…
THE PASSING MOMENTS
"Welcome back Colonel Carter!" one of the gate room technicians greeted as she returned to Atlantis.
"Thank you Sergeant." She replied as she made her way up to her office. Flash and pomp was not Colonel Carter's style and she had made sure that her frequent returns from Earth would be as casual as militarily possible.
On her desk she found a looming number of files that had accumulated over the week. "Oh boy." She said to herself as she put her briefcase down and sat in her chair. She shifted through the topmost files and was about to get started when there was a knock at her already open door. She looked up.
"Colonel Shepherd, how can I help you?"
"Oh, I was uh, just dropping by to say welcome back."
"Thank you John, it's good to see you. I know I'll be getting your full report soon," Carter said with slight hesitation knowing it may not be as soon as she would like, "but just out of curiosity how have things been while I was gone."
"Nothing too interesting really, Rodney's still working on that device. They actually got it to turn on last night before it fried the power in the lab. No Wraith issues have arisen. Commissary did have a little uproar over the instant potatoes, but…"
"Sounds like a quiet week then."
"Pretty much, I guess I'll see you later ma'am." Shepherd turned to walk out the door.
"Oh, Colonel Shepherd!"
"Ma'am?"
"How has Lizzie been doing?"
"Just a suggestion ma'am, but I'd start with the fourth file down." And with that John left after a brief salute.
Colonel Carter would have returned the gesture if she hadn't been sitting, and besides he had already left. She quickly counted down the files, one, two, three…and then there was a file that was somewhat thicker than the bulk of the others. She opened the manila file and began to read. Her eyes began to grow wider as she scanned.
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"You cannot be serious!" Rodney's exasperated voice screeched out into the hallway, drawing Teyla's attention. Curious, she made her way into his lab where she was already headed to get Lizzie for lunch.
Their daily routines had evolved around a schedule for Lizzie. She would now wake on her own and accompany alternating members of the team to breakfast with Rodney; whom she would then accompany to his lab. She had caught onto using computers in all of an hour and was often times more helpful than any of his other assistants. From there she would go to lunch with Teyla. Then there was a sparring or gym workout until dinner, and from there her time was spent with whoever was not busy. They realized that she would not be able to accompany them on missions once Colonel Carter returned and they were back to field work, so they had gotten her comfortable with other Atlantis personnel including Zelenka and even Dr. Keller. They were also sure that Colonel Carter would be interested in spending time with her if she had the chance.
Teyla entered the room to observe the commotion more clearly.
"What a galactic waste of time!"
"Rodney, calm down, please." Zelenka was trying to bring Rodney back down to a sensible level.
"A diary?! You have got to be kidding me!"
Teyla came up to Lizzie's side. The girl was sitting on a stool watching the show go down with a less than enthused expression. She turned to Teyla as she came closer and gave a small wave before turning back to the scene.
"Rodney, is something wrong." Teyla asked in a gentle voice.
"Yes! Something is definitely wrong. We just spent more than a week working on this thing only to find out that it is nothing more than some Ancient's diary!"
"Diary?"
"Yes," Zelenka answered as Rodney was storming over to his desk, "It seems that this device had encryptions because its purpose was to store personal journal entries. Possibly for more than one individual, but other than that there is nothing to it."
"I see," Teyla said as she took a deep breath and turned to see McKay shoving himself into his desk chair to pout. Then she turned to Lizzie, "Are you ready for lunch?" she said with a smile.
Lizzie glanced at Rodney as her eyebrows rose in reaction to his behavior. Then she turned back to Teyla and nodded a definite yes as she hopped off the stool and the two women started out the door. They enjoyed their meal greatly, and Teyla took the time to tell Lizzie about her own family. She had felt guilty when she first mentioned the subject in front of the girl, but Lizzie's pleading eyes pulled it out of her. Teyla thought harder and realized that this may help the girl remember her own family if she had one, and continued. After the meal was complete they headed to the sparring room. She had worked with both John and Teyla, but today she was in for a treat.
"Well, today is your lucky day, Lizzie." Ronan said with a wry smile.
Teyla walked over to the window seat and sat beside Shepherd. Lizzie looked over to the two who sat with guilty smiles. "Hey Lizzie, guess who's back." Shepherd said.
Lizzie turned her head slightly to the side as if to ask 'who'.
"Colonel Carter got in this morning. I think she may be coming to see you pretty soon actually."
Lizzie actually clapped her hands together and hopped in place.
"You don't get that excited when you see any of us!" John said with a slightly jealous but joking tone, and Lizzie just rolled her crystal blue eyes before looking back to Ronan.
"Colonel Carter's not why you're lucky though…"Ronan began. "Today, you learn from THE master."
Lizzie pursed her lips as her eyebrows shot up.
"Well get ready!" Ronan said shooing her off. She ran to the wall kicking her shoes off while tugging at her jacket and pulling her hair back. Soon she was pink in the face from her hurry and her bear feet were slapping against the marble like floor as she rushed back over. The fear that had initially hit her had faded after Teyla had explained to her what Dr. Keller had said.
Ronan handed her the sticks. "I've noticed you holding back on these two, don't let it happen with me."
He received an almost sinister grin in return that made him look at the two seated by the window. They both had grins stretched across their faces as well.
"OK, here we go." And with that Ronan started the engagement.
The spar had lasted a good twenty minutes at this point. Lizzie had kept ahead of Ronan, and he had never gotten a strike in on her, but she too had failed to make contact with her sparing sticks. The frustration in her eyes showed her disappointment. In the last few days she had been able to make progress with her other opponents, but Ronan was proving a challenge. But then something inside of Lizzie hit a strange calm and she stopped circling.
"You tired?" Ronan said, stopping to make sure that she was OK.
Lizzie straightened up and shook her head no with an almost proud look on her face. John and Teyla gave each other a cautionary glance. Both were unsure as to what was about to happen, and truthfully so was Ronan. Lizzie however, was quite aware of her intentions. She began to spin her sticks in her hands, faster and faster, gaining Ronan's attention with them as she moved in closer. He was so preoccupied with watching the grace and speed with which she maneuvered the sticks that he was caught off guard when she suddenly stopped them in mid air and swung, knocking both sticks out of his hands. She then dropped to the floor and swung her leg around to kick his legs out from under him. Ronan landed hard on his back with a loud thump.
"Whoa! Alright, Lizzie!" John said in an excited voice as he and Teyla both jumped from their seats. Ronan remained laying on the floor, somewhat embarrassed. But the other two came quickly to the girl's side. She was panting a bit, but the smile on her face was the biggest they had seen until that point, but it was soon outdone when a visitor at the door made herself know.
"Wow, I'd say that report was pretty bang on." Colonel Carter stood at the door in a bit of shock from having observed Ronan's defeat. She winced when she saw Ronan pick himself clumsily off the floor, but quickly smiled at the next reaction.
Having heard Carter's voice Lizzie spun around and dropped her sticks and practically flew over to the doorway with an even bigger smile than Carter had found her with. Then Lizzie copied one of the actions she had been observing as she tried to study the military members of the city and saluted her.
Laughing, Carter gave a playful salute in return. "At ease." She said with a light laugh. "It's good to see you again, Lizzie. I've got a surprise for you! Why don't you get your stuff together and meet me at your quarters. I need to talk to Colonel Shepherd for a minute and I'll be on my way."
By this time Ronan and Teyla were walking away from the conversation that was not intended for them so that they could begin their own practice. John and Carter stepped out into the hall for a moment.
"Well I read the report."
"Yes ma'am?"
"Sounds like she has a long road ahead of her still."
"Sure does."
"John," Carter was being very serious. "Do you think there is anything we need to worry about?"
"No, ma'am. We've all spent a great deal of time with her. We even talked about it after she went to sleep last night, and honestly we don't see how that girl could be any kind of a threat to us. I mean we had to push her to spar after that incident the first time. And Dr. Keller is starting to think it could just be part of her heightened Ancient gene, or that her people, whoever they are, are all like that."
Carter allowed for a pause, "Well good. I was hoping you'd say that. Personally I think she seems to be a good person. We've had problems with people with memory loss before…but that was a different case altogether." She slowed again. "Just keep an eye out."
"Yes ma'am."
Carter began to head off but added, "By the way, if you guys ever have a problem getting someone to watch her while you're on a mission, you know where my office is."
"Yes ma'am." Shepherd said with a smile as he headed back to the sparring room. He knew that Colonel Carter had become attached to Lizzie even in the short time they had known each other. He was even more certain that the attachment would grow after she realized how much the girl had become attached to her in return.
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Lizzie was in her room by now. She had not spent much time there, and had never before seen the way the light danced across the room during the mid afternoon. As soon as she entered the room she had become aware of several additions to her small quarters. On the bed were three large duffle bags, and it took all of her self control not to open them before Colonel Carter arrived. To keep herself occupied she began to explore the room around her, marveling at the intricate detail of the columns and floor. As she walked closer to one of the windows she was startled as it pulled away to reveal a doorway. A cool misty breeze blew against her face, and the sound of lapping waves could be heard from far below. The sea beckoned her out onto the balcony and she was caught in a trance by the shimmering ocean below.
"Looks like you've got quite the view." Colonel Carter had entered behind her without her even noticing.
Lizzie turned around and smiled before looking back to the ocean as Colonel Carter came and joined her against the railing.
"It's beautiful isn't it?"
Lizzie nodded in delight.
Sam looked out over the ocean too. It was beautiful, and she was happy with her job, but something was missing. Looking at Lizzie though she was brought back to the fact that she was able to go home to what was missing, while the girl didn't even know who or what home was. "You ready to open your presents?"
Lizzie pushed herself back from the railing and dashed back into her room without a second glance at the ocean.
"I'll take that as a yes." Carter said to herself, as she was now the only one left on the balcony.
Entering the room she saw Lizzie as eager as a child at Christmas standing beside the duffels. "OK, go ahead and open them, but I warn you it's nothing fancy. Still better than what you've been stuck with this last week or so though." Carter moved over and sat on the corner of the bed as the wide eyed young woman unzipped the first bag.
Lizzie was excited even though she knew what would be in the bags. But this was something that would be hers. The first two bags unzipped to reveal clothing of all types. Among the items were several pairs of blue jeans, t-shirts of different cuts and colors, some khaki shorts, some workout cloths (which Carter was now more than certain were a necessity), some sneakers and sandals, and a leather jacket like Colonel Carter's that would actually fit her. Lizzie already felt like she was going to burst and there was still one bag left.
Sam opened this bag herself to show the girl what was inside it. "This bag is a little different than the other two. Those things were necessities, but I thought you could use some unnecessary things as well." Lizzie's smile brightened her own face as she continued, "We girls have to look out for each other, don't we?" And Lizzie nodded in response.
"Let's see here. I got you some games to occupy your time if you get bored. I heard you've been spending a lot of time listening to McKay's whining so I'm pretty sure these will come in handy." Lizzie giggled, silently of course.
Carter went through several other knickknacks, including some makeup before she came to a box that was on the bottom. "And this," she drew out as she pulled out the box, "is for special occasions." Sam pulled the lid off the box to reveal a navy blue a-line cocktail dress. "You never know when we'll be entertaining guests, and we do have a few formal events slash parties to keep up moral, so I thought that might work." She didn't even notice the tears forming in the corners of Lizzie's eyes.
Lizzie hadn't felt like this in her seemingly short existence. These friends had not only saved her life, but they had given her a home, taken her in, and were treating her like family when she didn't have one. She took the box from Sam's hands and ran her fingers gently over the dress, and its sheen glistened in the light.
"Oh, I almost forgot, there's one more thing." Carter reached back into the bag to get something that had shifted down during her trip. "This is from Jack…I mean General O'Neill."
Lizzie looked up from the dress when she caught Sam catch herself and narrowed her eyes with a sly grin that Carter pretended not to see. That girl was perceptive. Then she placed the dress on the only empty spot left on her bed and held out her hands and Sam placed the heavy sign language book in them.
"The General thought you could use that. See, on Earth, people who can't communicate through verbal speech use their hands in order to converse. I realize most of the people here won't know sign language, but I took some time on the midway station to learn the alphabet, and I'm sure the rest of the team will be more than willing to learn it as well. The report says you're a quick learner, which seemed pretty apparent already, but once we get someone to help you learn basic written English, that's the language we're speaking now, it shouldn't be too hard." Carter was beaming as Lizzie began to flip through the pages absorbing as much as she could with her wide eyes.
"Dr. Keller actually knows a little bit already, so that should make your visits shorter, and I'm pretty sure you'll like that."
Lizzie didn't look up, and Carter noticed that her disposition had changed. Then she heard a small thump as a heavy tear fell on one of the pages of the book. Was she upset by this part of her gift?
"Lizzie, is everything OK?" Carter was thoroughly confused, reading emotions was not the same as reading a diagnostic review.
Lizzie closed the book as she nodded her head vigorously, wiping her tears with her free hand.
"Maybe this was a bit too much for…" But Carter wasn't able to finish. Lizzie had tossed the book onto her new clothes and flung herself around Sam's waist. She was just that happy.
"Wow, that's quite a grip you've got there." Carter stated as she realized she was actually having trouble breathing because of the strength of Lizzie's hold. "Hey, are you ok?" She pulled the girl back a bit to get a look at her face, smiling through the tears.
Lizzie wiped away her tears once more as she backed up a few spaces, and then gave Sam an even bigger shock. She moved her right hand up to her face, and signed 'thank you.'
"You're welcome. And I'll pass on a note to General O'N…." Sam stopped. "Lizzie? How did you…?" Carter had just realized what had happened.
Lizzie picked up the book and flipped through the introductory chapter and pointed at the image of how to say 'thank you'.
"You picked that up from just glancing through the pages?" Carter was still a little unnerved.
Lizzie nodded yes.
"Wait, how did you know that said 'thank you'?"
Lizzie ran her fingers under the words.
"You can read that? You can read in English?"
Lizzie poked her finger against the words with a questioning glance.
"Yes, that's English. You can understand that?"
A cautious nod. Lizzie was worried she had done something wrong and began to back up a bit more.
"No, no. Lizzie, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm just a little…shocked, I guess. They said you've been catching on quick, I guess I just didn't realize how quick. And if you can understand English I guess you can read it easily too, I mean you have been spending a lot of time in the lab with McKay, and it's not like we haven't come by planets with English speaking and writing cultures." By this point Carter was trying to rationalize with herself and had drifted away from the girl in front of her. She focused again and continued, this time directing herself at Lizzie, "Sorry. I do that sometimes. Anyways, it looks like you'll be pretty up on that soon, so I'll make sure everyone gets a copy of the alphabet and the basics, I'll just use my copy so you can keep using your book." Carter was calm again and Lizzie was following in suit. "I'll let you get everything squared away in here, and then I think it would be great if we all had dinner together, what do you say?"
Lizzie smiled again. As quick as she was at learning, she was even quicker at forgetting unpleasant or uncomfortable situations.
"Great, I'll see you in the commissary in about an hour."
Carter started to go but Lizzie grabbed her arm to stop her and she turned around. Lizzie reached under her neckline and pulled out the necklace that she had when they found her. She unclasped it and looked at it before pulling out Sam's hand and placing it in it.
Carter just looked at the necklace with an uncomfortable smile. "Lizzie, you don't have to do that."
Lizzie gestured at all of the gifts strewn across her bed.
"That's a little different. This necklace is the only thing you have of who you were…are. I don't want to take something that may be even more important to you than you realize." She placed the necklace back in her grasp and saw a slightly hurt look in Lizzie's face. "Look, why don't you hang onto it for now, and if….when you remember it, then you can decide?" Carter was leaning a little forward to get closer to eye level with the slightly shorter girl.
Lizzie pondered the thought and smiled. This time it was Carter who hugged Lizzie before she headed out. "See you at dinner," she said as the door closed.
Lizzie put her necklace back on and began to straighten up her room. There was plenty of storage space and everything was soon neatly stowed away accept for something she had plans for. She sat on her bed and flipped through the sign book one more time, and stopped when she found a notes page at the back that had something written on it.
Dear Lizzie,
Sam has told me a lot about you. Keep an eye on her for me, please. I hope this book helps. I look forward to meeting you one day.
-Jack
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"Well guys, guess we have an early morning ahead of us." John said as he sat himself at the table with the rest of his team and Colonel Carter.
"The Trenadorians are a very friendly people. Hopefully we will be able to aid them in rebuilding after the storms." Teyla added.
Rodney entered the conversation with an unusual delight, "Well, I'm just looking forward to examining that outpost they have on the outskirts of their village. Who knows what kind of Ancient goodies are hidden in there."
" 'Goodies'?" Ronan repeated with a face that begged the question 'are you serious'.
"Yes, 'goodies'. Another term for highly advanced technological devices."
"You ever miss going off world, Colonel?" Shepherd directed the question at Carter.
"Well, technically Atlantis IS off world, but yes, I guess I do miss missions."
Ronan was now in the mood to hear more. "Ever run into anything as ugly as the Wraith?"
Sam had an amused grin as she took in the question. "Well, it all depends on your definition of 'ugly', but yes Ronan there were some pretty nasty looking aliens in our galaxy too."
Most of the team was laughing by now over the small talk until John and Rodney both looked up from their side of the table. The others quickly diverted their sights to see what had caused their withdrawal.
"Well that's different." Ronan said, breaking the silence.
Lizzie walked forward with a prepared tray in her hands. But it wasn't the tray that had their attention. For more than a week the team had been seeing Lizzie in an oversized, and slightly unattractive uniform. But now she looked completely different. Now she had on a pair of dark denim jeans that hugged to her hips, and lavender v-neck fitted t-shirt that revealed more of her matured age as well as her crystal necklace. Even though her silver hair and crystalline eyes set her apart from anyone else on Atlantis, she still looked different than the person they had been getting to know.
John got up from his seat and pulled up a chair for Lizzie who just looked at him like he had lost his mind along with the rest of the men at the table.
"Wow, Lizzie, uh, you look…nice." Rodney said in a non-flirtatious manor.
Lizzie smiled and signed another 'thank you'.
"What was that?" Rodney questioned to no one in particular.
"It's sign language Rodney; it means thank you." Sam said politely.
"Huh. Well, you're welcome, I guess. How did she learn…"
"Someone sent her a book on sign language. Apparently she can read English and has already gotten a head start. I'm having copies of the alphabet and simple signs made for each of you so it will be easier for Lizzie."
"That is a very thoughtful gesture, Colonel Carter." Teyla remarked. She and the others seemed to have missed the 'someone' and assumed that it was Colonel Carter who got the book.
Sam noticed and had to suppress a giggle at Teyla's use of the word 'thoughtful'.
"That shouldn't be too hard." John added. Then turning his attention to Lizzie, "It'd be nice to know what you're really thinking." And Lizzie grinned at him.
And so time began to pass once more. First days, then weeks, and soon Lizzie had been living in Atlantis for over a month. Her training became more advanced, and her lab work with Rodney was beginning to yield more promising results than the Ancient diary. In the time when Shepherd and his team were away Lizzie had gotten to know Colonel Carter, Zelenka, and even Dr. Keller better. And after a few weeks she had been allowed time to herself in her room and was no longer considered any type of a security risk.
Lizzie herself was becoming more convinced that she was not going to remember who she was anytime soon, and became accustomed to her daily lifestyle. She looked forward to spending time with the different members of the team, especially Rodney who made her laugh, if only on the inside. And Sam had begun to fill a gap that she couldn't explain. But even though her memories still eluded her, her nightmares did not. They became spaced out, but increasingly violent. One morning when Rodney had come to get her to join him for breakfast, he had found that she was not waiting for him, and after trying to call her from outside her room with no response he went in.
"Lizzie? Come on Lizzie, we have a mission tonight so we don't have all day to work on this." Rodney peered into the room that was already beginning to lighten as morning had broken close to an hour before. "Are you decent?" Rodney was nervous to what he might find in the room of a young woman who had overslept.
Then he saw her, tossing on her bed, still asleep. He straightened himself and walked over to nudge her awake when he noticed that she was wet with sweat. Even her nightgown was beginning to stick to her body, and while her eyes remained closed her face was twisted in fear. Her arms began to flail.
"Lizzie, wake up. Lizzie! It's just a bad dream wake up!" Rodney was leaning over trying to snap her out of it. "Lizzie!"
And with the last call she shot up gasping for breath striking at Rodney who backed away before she could knock him over. Then realizing it was him she stopped and slumped back, trying to catch her breath.
"Hey, are you alright?"
'B-A-D D-R-E-A-M.' she signed slowly.
"Yeah," he snorted out with a high pitch. "I'd say."
'S-O-R-R-Y'
"No, no, it's fine. Are you sure you're alright?"
She just nodded without making eye contact.
"Have you been having these nightmares often?"
She froze from movement and slowly lifted her eyes to meet his, then shook her head very slowly, no.
"Lizzie." He said in a stern fatherly voice that was more uncharacteristic to him than almost anything.
Her eyes got wider and she raised her hand and wavered it.
Copying her motion he asked, "What does," and he wavered his hand, "mean?"
No reply.
"Un-huh." He looked at her for a moment. "OK, let's go. Get up and get ready and meet me at breakfast, I'm so hungry I could eat a Wraith. Well maybe not that hungry." He said as he walked out the door talking to himself.
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Writer's note: hope you're paying attention to details…the ride is getting ready to start : )