After the Storm

V – Good for Everybody

A knock on the window caused Elizabeth to look up. Sheppard leaned in through the open door, a mug in his hand.

"You busy?" he asked.

"Not at the moment," she said, beckoning him in and to a chair. "Did you comb your hair?"

"Huh?" Sheppard ran his hand through his hair, quickly restoring its usual messiness. "I just woke up. It gets all flat when I sleep."

"So that look's intentional?"

John shrugged. "Intentional laziness."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, leaning back in her chair. "What can I do for you, Major?"

"McKay's running around the city looking for damage, and he asked me to take a Jumper up and look around. I thought you might like to come along."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"I still have work to do."

"I'm sure it will be here when we get back."

"That's the problem," Weir said. "We're still trying to figure out what the Genii got away with, searching for damage, and putting the Athosians into temporary quarters until we can get them back to the mainland."

"They know where everything is," Sheppard said. "Have you been out of the city, or even out of this tower, since we got here?"

"I took care of one of the grounding stations yesterday," she pointed out.

"Other than that?"

She sighed. "My work keeps me here."

"Come on," Sheppard cajoled her. "It will only be an hour or so."

"One hour?" Weir asked.

"Sure."

Elizabeth nodded. "I guess I could use a break."

"Great," Sheppard said, jumping to his feet.

"Give me five minutes," she said.

He nodded. "I'll go warm up the Jumper."

She only took four minutes. After making sure that Grodin could keep an eye on things, and would radio her immediately if there was a problem, she took the stairs up to the jumper bay.

No sooner was she onboard than Sheppard closed the aft hatch. The Jumper was already rising to the roof when she sat down beside him.

"Planning on a picnic?" she asked, noticing the basket behind his seat.

"I haven't eat in almost a day," Sheppard said, banking down toward one of the piers. "I woke up because my stomach was starting to implode."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," she said.

"I had a couple Snickers bars already."

"Snickers?" Weir asked. "Where did you get Snickers?"

"One of Beckett's nurses smuggled a case of them with him."

"How did you get them?"

"The Genii stole them."

"Major!"

"I'm kidding," he said, grinning. "I traded her some of these apple things." John reached back into the basket, one hand blindly digging around while he focused on piloting. "Here," he said, pulling a mottled brown object out. "Ignore how it looks."

Elizabeth gently took the fruit. It was slightly soft, and had a sweet scent. Carefully, she took a small bite. "Wow."

"Good, huh?"

"Mm-hm," Elizabeth mumbled, trying to wipe the juice that had leaked from the fruit onto her chin.

"Here, I've got napkins back here somewhere."

"You just concentrate on flying," she said. Turning her seat, she lifted the basket into her lap. "Do you want one of these?"

"I'll get the controls all sticky if I eat one."

There were several more of the apple things in the basket, along with a large, warm thermos (she assumed it was coffee), some of the jerky that the Athosians made from whatever it was they were hunting on the mainland, a few energy bars, another Snickers, and…

"A turkey sandwich?"

Sheppard smiled. "You know how I feel about turkey. Speaking of which, Thanksgiving is coming up soon."

"In another two months."

"I mean Canadian Thanksgiving."

Weir's narrowed her eyes, perplexed. "You're not Canadian."

"McKay is."

"So you think we should celebrate holidays of all the nations on the team?"

John grinned at her. "Only if they involve eating turkey."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, shook her head, and laughed, all in one motion. "You realize we're having a shortage on turkeys, right?"

"I'm sure there's something that will taste just as good somewhere in this galaxy. I just have to find it."

John continued to grin as Elizabeth laughed again. It was a sound he enjoyed hearing.

He turned on the Jumper's transmitter. "McKay, do you read me?"

"I hear you, Major."

"I've flown over the city. Nothing seems to have floated away."

"Did you see any damage?"

"Some broken windows out on the piers. Other than that, it looks good up here."

"What have you found, Rodney?" Elizabeth asked.

"A lot of water," McKay replied. "The city is pumping it out, though. It ought to be dry by the end of the week."

"That's good to hear. We'll see you in a little while."

She turned off the radio as Sheppard flew another lazy arc over the city. "Have you ever seen a sunset from space?" he suddenly asked.

Elizabeth shook her head.

"Me neither, actually. I hear it's something to see."

"You haven't?"

"It's not like I had a chance back home," he said. "And here, I tend to be running toward or away from the Wraith."

She nodded.

"So, you wanna?"

"Do we have time?"

"Sure. It's not like we'll have to wait for sunset to come to us."

"Okay."

John grinned and pulled back on the controls, pushing the speed. The Jumper soared up over the planet, breaking free of the atmosphere in seconds. He settled the ship into a low orbit and shut the engines off, then flipped the Jumper around so they could watch the sun sink toward the horizon.

"We still have to name this planet," Weir said.

"Lieutenant Ford wants to call it 'Atlantica'," John replied.

Elizabeth made a face. "That just doesn't sound right."

John nodded. "The Ancients lived here. They must have had a cool name for it."

"I might be able to search their databases for it."

"Why not one of the scientists?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "It seems to minor to pull someone off a project just to learn this planet's proper name."

"So give the job to someone who's ego needs knocked down a few steps. How about Cavanaugh?"

Elizabeth sighed. "He's very misunderstood. One incident were he got upset about a public dressing down when he was only concerned-"

"Hush."

Elizabeth blinked. "What?"

"The sun is setting," John said, pointing forward. The planet below, which had filled their view a few minutes ago, was only a thin crescent, and the sun was rapidly approaching the planet's edge.

Elizabeth held her breath as the sun reached the horizon. The planet's atmosphere turned to a long thin rainbow of color, pale blues, over red and yellow. The sun, glowing orange through the atmosphere, quickly slipped out of sight. A curve of re light hung over the planet a moment more, before it went completely dark.

"Wow," Elizabeth breathed.

"Yeah," John whispered back, turning to her. "So, wanna see the sunrise?"

Elizabeth grinned at him. "Yes."

Still smiling at her, he flipped the Puddle Jumper around to face the coming sunrise.

Here's a few good pics I found of sunsets from space.

Sunset pics: