Letters from Home - Part 1a
By Karabdai
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Disclaimer: See part 1...
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It was that time again; the day the mail came was always a special day. The inhabitants of Atlantis gathered in the makeshift cafeteria and waited impatiently for the voice to come over the loudspeaker to call them to the gateroom for mail pickup. A letter or care package from home lifted the spirits of the folks who had been on Atlantis for 2 years. Most loved their jobs but it always felt nice to receive a little love from home; when the members of team had left for Atlantis they had instructed family and friends to send letters and care packages to a PO Box the SGC took care of. The first time the SGC had made contact they had sent through all the letters and care packages that had accumulated over the 8 months they had been out of contact. Ever since then they had regular contact with the SGC and regular deliveries were made every 3 months.
There was a crackling noise and Dr Weir's voice came over the speaker. "Attention please! We have a mail delivery for all personnel. Please head to the gateroom to receive your mail. Thanks for your patience."
Sheppard, Ford and Teyla were in the control room as Elizabeth made the announcement to the rest of the base. They had watched the delivery and been on hand for the report Elizabeth had given and watched as they had organized the packages for the easiest distribution. Elizabeth and Sheppard's team always got their mail last.
"Are you excited to be receiving mail, Aiden?" Teyla asked.
"Yeah, my grandparents said they were going to send me the latest Superman comics. I've been looking forward to that for quite a while."
"What are Superman comics?"
Sheppard cut in with his comment. "I don't know how you read those new comics, the classics are so much better."
"Now sir, the new Superman comics are far superior to...."
"Hey, have you seen Rodney? I have a report to give him." Elizabeth had walked up and cut off the Lieutenant before he could go on a long rant about comic books. She had heard these debates often enough over the months to stop them before they started.
"Haven't seen him, Elizabeth. I'll let him know you need him."
Elizabeth felt a slight flutter at his wording and pushed it away. She nodded at him. "Thanks John, I guess I better head down and help with the mail."
Sheppard nodded and turned back to Ford to continue their "discussion" about comics. Elizabeth headed down to the mail level and went to the pile of mail marked control room. That little flutter was coming more and more frequently now and she wasn't sure what to make of it. At first she thought it was from the MREs they sometimes ate to conserve food resources. But then the flutters had started every time someone mentioned Rodney. Something always seemed to come up and she never really had time to think about it or the inclination. She had been with Simon for so long it seemed unthinkable she might have some small feelings for some other man. Elizabeth put the flutters out of her mind.
She always looked forward to the letters she got from Simon, her parents, sister and a few of her colleagues from when she taught at the University. Her parents thought it was strange they only got a letter from her once every 3 months but Simon kept in touch with them so they never questioned her explanations. Letters from Simon were usually filled with how much he missed her and questions as to when she was coming back. The "when are you coming home" questions had started a year into the project and she was getting a little tired of them. She understood that he missed her but had thought he understood the great benefits to humanity this mission could bring and all that she was getting out of it. Nonetheless letters from home where very nice.
People had started to file into the gateroom by this time and were headed to their designated sections to pick up mail and packages. It was a good haul this time around and took 30 minutes to get everyone sorted out and back to their quarters and work stations with their new reading material.
Elizabeth grabbed the letters and the two packages that were addressed to her top team and dragged them back up to the control room where Ford and Sheppard were still arguing. The two packages were for Ford and Sheppard. She was slightly disappointed that she hadn't received a package from Simon. She had told him how much she looked forward to his packages; he had better have written an extra long letter to make up for this.
"I thought you guys would have come and gotten your mail by now."
"Sorry, we got sidetracked." Sheppard gave a dirty look to Ford and muttered, "Young uns." Ford was heard to mutter, "Old foggies."
"Here is your stuff, take it and get out of here." Elizabeth said with a shake of her head. "I'll take Rodney his when I find him about the report."
Sheppard grabbed the stack of mail and pulled out 4 letters and then grabbed one of the packages; Ford pulled the stack over to him and took 3 of the letters which left 5 in the pile and grabbed the other package. Teyla looked at the 2 men and took their arms and said, "Lets leave Elizabeth to read her letters in peace, you guys can show me all the things from Earth you were sent." She looked back at Elizabeth and winked as she led the 2 men off.
Elizabeth looked through the five letters that were sitting on the console in front of her; one from Simon, one from her parents, two from colleagues from the university and one from General O'Neill. She looked around the console and the table next to it. She was sure she had picked up Rodney's mail along with the rest of the team. Sheppard and the other two were still just inside the control room and she stopped them.
"Hey, can you two check to make sure you didn't accidentally grab Rodney's mail."
Both men looked at their envelopes and shook there heads. "Nope, just our stuff, Doc. Sorry." Elizabeth nodded at them and waved them off. Teyla looked back but Elizabeth just waved her off also. She looked down on the main level and saw that Peter was down with the last of the mail that had not been picked up because those people were off world or working in one of the labs.
"Peter, do you have Dr McKay's mail down there or did he pick it up already?"
"Let me take a look. I don't remember him picking up his mail down here. I thought I put team one's mail with yours and the rest of the personnel in the control room." He shuffled through the remaining letters and parcels and shook his head. "Nothing here for Dr McKay."
Elizabeth was perplexed now; she hated to tell Rodney she had lost his mail but there was nothing else for it. She took her letters, headed back to her office and sat at her desk. Now that she thought about it, it was strange that Rodney was not in the control room when they got the call from the SGC. He loved to be in the middle of the action and this was uncharacteristic for him to miss a chance to show off his new knowledge. Sometimes he got into arguments over the radio with Sam Carter about his new discoveries; Elizabeth often had to tell them to cut it short. She suspected that he wrote to Sam just to get into more arguments since they didn't have time over the wormhole. The thought of Sam and Rodney brought the flutters back and not in a good way.
Shaking off those thoughts Elizabeth got to her feet and headed toward Rodney's lab; she had some questions for the good doctor. She got to the door and knocked on the doorframe since the door was open. He seemed completely engrossed in something at his desk, but that was not unusual for him.
"Rodney, do you know what time it is?
Rodney jumped in his chair and spun around to face the door. "Elizabeth, you scared me. No, what time is it?"
"You missed the call from the SGC. I thought you had some things to report into them."
"I asked Zelenka to go in my place. I wanted to keep working on this. We found it last time out and it's really fascinating..."
"Yes, yes, I know you've told me about it." It was good to see him enthusiastic about stuff again. Previously he had seemed to sink into a depression. This had lasted for a month and if Elizabeth hadn't found the culprit, an Ancient device that was designed to be a relaxation device Rodney could have had permanent damage. That was three weeks ago. He had gotten better within a week and was back on duty terrorizing the others. Also, she knew that once he got started on an explanation he would be almost impossible to stop.
"Zelenka was there but I thought you liked to talk to them, plus you missed mail call."
"Oh, that." He turned back to his desk and fiddled with some of the wires that were sticking out of the object he was working with.
"Yes, that, I have some bad news. I seem to have misplaced your mail. I'm sure someone just picked it up by accident and they'll bring it to you as soon as they see they have it."
"Don't worry about it, Elizabeth." he said in a monotone voice.
Elizabeth nodded and looked at him. He sounded strange but she figured it was probably something to do with what he was working on. She was anxious to read her mail so she cut her visit short after relaying her news.
"See you at dinner then."
He nodded and went back to work.
TBC...
AN: part 1b will be up shortly. It just needed a few finishing touches. Hope you enjoyed this installment. Thanks to all my great reviewers; it always makes me smile to see the little bot say Review Alert. Thanks for all the encouragement!