Chapter 60

2008

"I have to go."

"You always say that."

"I always do."

"Not always."

He laughed and sat up, ruffling his hair. She could still feel his hand on her belly and the aftershock of the cramp in her leg. Still she was lying on her side, her right leg stretched out. "Feeling better?"

Alex shrugged. "Thank you anyway." What had started out as a make-out session about half an hour ago had very quickly turned nasty. The cramp in her leg had come out of nowhere and had forced Evan to jump into action and massage her calf. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He patted her side and leaned over her to kiss her temple. "Happy to help out. Remember when you had to put a splinter on mine? That was a lot nicer of you."

She felt his weight leave the mattress and turned on her back to watch him throw on his jacket. "Come back?"

He stopped mid-movement, his shoulders still hunched, his watch halfway to his wrist. "You know…" he began, dropping the watch on the mattress and sitting down next to her again, "I always do my very best." It wasn't exactly a relief to hear that, but she knew he was right not to promise anything else. She reached out and touched his cheek. Clean-shaven.

"I know," she answered, pulling him closer for another kiss. "You don't have five more minutes?" She hated seeing him go. He'd been on a mission the previous week already and this was the second mission after his injury. This was not a recon, but a humanitarian one. It wasn't a dangerous mission, but things went wrong all the time.

She should really stop worrying about that.

"Ten," he sighed, "but then I'm gonna have to hurry up." Evan lay down beside her, still in his jacket, and wrapped her tightly in his arms. "You know, I'll only be gone for two days at most."

Alex nodded. "Yes." Leaning her head against his shoulder, she kept looking at the door, as though expecting it to slide open any moment. "I have no idea why I'm this restless." He'd recovered well enough, but she'd grown quite used to having him around all the time. It made having to stay in the city all the time a lot easier.

Well, she hadn't stayed in here the whole time. In fact, she and Jonas had accompanied Oliver and the rest of her team on a mission only a month ago. There had been countless security checks and everybody had been tense and nervous to see her go, but it'd been okay. They'd gone to Athos to take another look at the catacombs and Teyla and Kanaan had come along with their son as well. There still hadn't been any Wraith activity on that world, but still Evan had been relieved to have her back. If that was what it would be like going off-world from now on, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to keep going. Or if she wanted to stay. Because doing research wasn't the same like this. Anna didn't seem to mind, though. Teyla however was already back with her team.

"You're restless because you're bored." Evan took her hand into his and smiled softly.

"Not exactly. I have a lot to do." But he wasn't entirely wrong. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him a bit closer, and he drew her into another embrace, her bump pressed against his stomach.

"You'd like to kick some ass, huh?"

"So would you." She could sense it. Sense that he wasn't done with the Pegasus Galaxy. Not yet. There were countless bills still left unsettled. Ba'al. Michael. The Genii. The Wraith. Ronda. Every Wraith Worshipper and follower of Ba'al who had threatened them at some point. He wasn't a vengeful person, not really. He wasn't competitive. But this was too personal for him not to be. She only wished she could help instead of staying behind, pregnant and useless in every way that mattered to further this cause.

Closing her eyes, she leaned in for another kiss, which was a lot more tender than the first. A lot less demanding. It didn't make her heart race. It didn't make her catch her breath. She just enjoyed his warmth and his presence. The softness of his touch. All she could do right now was show him that she would be there for him when he got back.

He let go of her with a little groan, his right hand resting on the small of her back. "I have to go."

She nodded and pulled him closer despite his words, that one sentence suddenly giving her inexplicable chills. He'd be with his team. It was a humanitarian mission and it was less than likely he'd be exposed to enemy weapon's fire. They'd be as safe as possible, especially since the plague wasn't a virus. They'd be fine. And yet…

His blue eyes flashed in amusement and he kissed her again. Just one quick peck on the lips. He leaned over and kissed her belly. "Bye, little guy," he breathed against the stretchmarks and stroked it lovingly. During the last week she'd grown massively and looking at her seemed to make him proud. Like it was all his achievement, and not their baby's.

"Jonas?" she started again and he laughed.

"Adam."

"David."

"Daniel."

Evan laughed. "We should make that list, you know? And talk about names like adults."

She nodded. "I agree." It wasn't as though she didn't have a list of baby names in her head already. A list of names she was actually considering. "You know, when your dad told us about that brother he had…"

He looked at her and smiled softly. "I was thinking about your dad's name, but Michael probably isn't a good name in our current situation."

"No." She shook her head. "But Caleb Evan Lorne isn't the worst name either."

"Let's talk about it when I get back."

The ruins were halfway to the village. He hadn't taken pictures of it thus far, but he knew Alex would love to take a close look at them. And maybe one day they could. One day, when the Hoffan Plague was no more and he and she could go off-world together again. Maybe even with their son. Why not, if the planet was secure? Why not? With the Wraith beaten and Ba'al driven away from the galaxy, going off-world wouldn't even be half as dangerous as going off-world in the Milky Way. If that time ever came.

And though he knew that all of this was nothing but a dream, that no commanding officer, and no leader of the expedition, especially Woolsey, would allow them to take their child along on a mission, he couldn't help hoping and dreaming that a halfway normal life might be possible for them after all.

"Those look like fun," Woeste commented. He was sitting next to him and only now did Evan realize he was flying the Jumper at an angle, so he could take a better look at the ruins below, when he should be hurrying to the village. After leaving a stash of medical supplies there, they were supposed to take off again and deliver the next batch of medications to the next one, which was even further to the Gate and closer to the mountains. "Can we go take a look?"

Evan smiled softly and turned the Jumper into the direction they were supposed to be heading. "Maybe we can take a couple of pictures on the way back? I bet Jonas has been itching to go down there."

"Oh, I have," Jonas said from the seat behind Evan. "Believe me. I just wish we had a bigger archaeological team in Atlantis."

"So do Anna and Alex, believe me." The foliage below them was light green as they soared over the treetops towards the village, leaving the ruins behind. "Especially since they're both not going off-world anymore."

"Alex is gonna do that again, though, isn't she?" Woeste asked.

"Is that really any of your business?" Nabi interjected from the rear compartment, where he was going through the dozen or so boxes of supplies they'd brought along.

"I mean-"

"It's okay, Evan said. "She wants to. We haven't figured out how to do that yet, though."

"Anna, Alex, you and Kanaan are taking turns watching Torren and Josh, aren't you?" Woeste continued, ignoring Nabi. "That could be a system."

"It's not a system yet." And it also wasn't quite true. Kanaan was staying with Torren most of the time when Teyla went off-world. Anna was doing it when Kanaan wasn't available and Alex and Evan had only taken over once. That hardly counted as a system. But Woeste wasn't all wrong. They were making it work already. But nobody wanted to leave it all to Anna once Alex got back to work full-time.

"What is it going to be anyway?" Nabi asked as he came through the door. "Boy or girl?"

"Now who's asking inappropriate questions?"

Evan looked over his shoulder at Nabi and caught a glimpse of Jonas staring at his tablet.

"We'll be there in a few minutes."

She was on the brink of getting sick of her lab. Yes, she had a window here, which was a massive improvement from the one beneath miles of rock in Colorado, but sitting in here day after day would drive anyone insane.

Anna and Oliver were on holiday back home with little Josh, which made working in here almost dull. She missed her friend's constant interruptions and her pleas for chocolate biscuits. The two of them hadn't been on Earth since the expedition had returned to Atlantis however, which meant that neither his, nor her parents had met their son yet, so of course it was high time they went home. And yet…

She clicked on one of the five e-mails she'd received with the last data exchange between Pegasus and the Milky Way. She hadn't read any of them yet. One was from Adam, one from Evan's mother, two from Daniel and one from Cameron Balinsky.

The first one from Daniel was actually from Vala, who still didn't bother with using her own computer apparently. She and Daniel were looking for a house. Not bad, Alex thought. She'd never have thought it possible Daniel would be willing to leave his flat, the hundreds of books and relics must be quite a hassle to organize for a move. He had even more clutter than she'd ever possessed, especially since it included a huge chunk of Katherine Langford's collection.

Adam was giving her an update of the status of the renovation of their mother's house and sent his love along with a couple of pictures. No news of his wife, but he rarely spoke of her anyways. He'd written a lengthy report of his recent trip to Edinburgh with their mother. By the looks of it, her brother was growing soft. Unconsciously Alex reached for her necklace and held it for a moment. She doubted Adam would have sent it five years ago.

Evan's mother and father were planning on visiting England in the coming month and Alex had little doubt that David and Molly were eager to get Adam and Alex's mother to help them convince both Alex and Evan to remain in Colorado Springs. Apart from that, Molly had bought a scanner and was now digitizing all of their family photographs. She'd sent the top five in her first e-mail burst and would send the next two hundred or so in the coming weeks.

In the one e-mail Daniel had written, Daniel told her about the search for a house and about how the research on the book he'd found was progressing. He was done with the translation for the most part, and would send the book back to them with the Daedalus. There was also a paper attached to the e-mail. They rarely got to publish their work nowadays, which meant exchanging papers among the little intergalactical archaeological unit they had was all the public they were ever going to get. She would have to take a day to read and review this one in length, just to give him the recognition he deserved. He'd do the same for her.

Balinsky was just about to depart on a mission to the Goa'uld graveyard which Alex and her then team had discovered years ago. Since the fall of the System Lords, the archaeological department of the SGC had been itching to go back there, especially since Ba'al had kept a secret lab inside the monument. For a second Alex wished she could go along. And then she remembered what else they'd found in that lab and she closed her laptop.

She should focus on her work now. The work on the collection of Athosian stories wasn't even nearly done. By now she had only finished the transcriptions, but she still needed to put them in order and arrange them so that Teyla and Halling and all the others could go over them and tell her what needed to be changed.

She took a deep breath and looked out the window and at the hundreds of unoccupied buildings sprawled out beneath her. There were so many stories still to be told. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. She really shouldn't be worried about Goa'uld graves now.

Stroking her bump, she opened her laptop again and opened the e-mail Evan's father had sent. They were just pictures of Evan. As a baby, with dark hair and deep blue eyes. It was almost painful to look at them now that she'd known another baby who'd looked so much like him. And then there was another picture. A five year-old boy and his older sister, both of them in the garden behind the house, holding brushes and covered in paint as they did their best painting the flower patch.

Alex smiled softly and wiped the tears from her face. She was just about to click on a file captioned France 1977 when she heard a knock on her door, which opened just a second later.

"Doctor Lorne?"

Momentarily Alex stared into those blue eyes. She cleared her throat and got off her chair. "Lieutenant?"

Johnson shrugged. "Everything okay?"

Alex nodded absentmindedly and closed her laptop. "Sure. What can I do for you?"

"Major Lorne requested your presence on M42-YN4. He said there's a set of ruins you should take a look at."

"And why-"

"It's urgent apparently and thanks to an update to the system, internal communications are down for the next hour or so. Mister Woolsey agreed. I'm to accompany you, Doctor."