Disclaimer: Kedawen belongs to me. Caine owns herself, and the rest of them are R.D.A's.
Chapter 6
(Feb. 9)
"Are you sure this isn't citrus?" Asked McKay, for about the sixteenth time, smelling the round, orange fruit in his hand. Caine, sitting in a relaxed lounging position in the crook of the tree smiled lazily as she took a bite of her own fruit.
"Are all of your people as paranoid as you?"
"I'm allergic. If I have citrus, my windpipe will swell and I'll asphyxiate." he snapped, smelling the fruit again and tentatively taking a small bite. Caine raised a sardonic eyebrow and rolled carelessly onto her side, looking down at him. They were about halfway up the tree, and whereas she was relaxed, he was nervous as all get out.
"Is there not a cure for this allergy?" she asked.
"There's a treatment for when it happens, but I've foolishly left it back at the village, with all my other equipment and weapons." he said, still holding onto the main trunk as he continued to nibble on the juicy pear-like fruit. She tilted her head at him and rolled off her branch onto his. He stopped eating and stared at her, edgy and concerned.
They were up in a tree, after all.
She stood up on the branch and he made sounds of incredulous anxiety without actually letting go of the trunk in order to get her to stop being so careless. She could fall and break her neck, and then where would they be? She ignored his protests and walked three steps towards him, well inside his personal boundaries, before squatting down to sit on her heels.
They were almost nose to nose.
"Uh..." said the suddenly speechless doctor. She raised an eyebrow and leaned forward a little bit.
"The fruit you have just eaten...is called the Citronis." she said, mischievously.
His eyelids flew even more wide open than they were and his anguished shriek of terror could be heard for miles.
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"You don't think she's killed him by now do you?" asked Ford, with a hint of amusement. "I've heard that there are people on Earth who can skin a human body and dismember it within a few hours. Think of what a person like her could do."
Teyla, Sheppard, and Carson made a look at the all too eager Lieutenant.
"No." said Sheppard, shaking his head. Teyla shared an exasperated look with Carson as the Major continued. "She seems like a civilized person. She and the good doctor are probably---"
A loud, shrill scream of pure and undiluted terror broke the air and they stopped, the hair on the back of their necks standing up on end.
They looked at each other for a moment and then simultaneously made a break for the source of the noise, Sheppard, Teyla, and Ford in the lead, being in the best shape, and Carson bringing up the rear, panting raggedly after only thirty yards of a full on sprint.
It was perhaps a minute before the three in front broke through the thick vegetation and saw....nothing.
At first.
It was a moment before they noticed the tree moving.
Looking up, they watched as two persons descended the tree branches to the ground. The first was McKay.
He looked livid.
The second was Caine.
She looked strangely satisfied.
Until she saw Major Sheppard and the others.
Her posture changed dramatically, and her right hand drew immediately to her firearm, not drawing it, just hovering, as if waiting. And the smile disappeared from her face.
It seemed she was threatened by Major John Sheppard.