Chapter 2

Elizabeth walked through the halls of the seemingly deserted city, refusing to be urged on by her watchers. Letting her mind wonder once again to her dysfunctional family and how they had shaped her into the person she was now, as her feet carried her to an unknown destination.

Robert Weir had been a very proud man, an Admiral in the Navy, someone who ran his family like he did his ship. Before she was born it had been Robert, his wife Christine, and their three sons; Brian, Troy, and Kyle all living on a ranch out in the Montana wilderness. Since Robert had retired he'd spent his time training his sons in the ways of the military; discipline, tactics, shooting, hand-to-hand combat and everything else they taught in boot camp, all the while telling his wife that it would help them with life in general. But, after suddenly finding himself with a daughter he didn't know how to treat her, except like one of the guys. As a result when someone picked on her in school instead of crying she would break their nose, much to her mother's dismay. All of her brothers wanted to be Navy Seals so naturally little Lizzie did as well, until Brian and Troy left to join up. Brian was nineteen when he left, having waited for Troy who was a year behind, leaving Kyle, 15 and Lizzie, 12 at home with their parents. It was a morning in late August, a year after they left, when Elizabeth woke up in the middle of the night screaming incoherently. It had been when she was sobbing into her mother's nightgown that she'd revealed that Brian was dead. Of course Robert and Christine had dismissed it as a bad dream, until an officer came to the door three days later saying that Brian had died on a classified mission at an undisclosed area. Everyone had avoided her for the next few weeks and then a year later Troy had come home. Elizabeth had grown to hate the military for taking her brother and organized severally anti-military groups in graduate and undergraduate school. All eventually moving her to a career as a successful diplomat and putting her in charge of the Atlantis expedition.

Realizing where her feet had subconsciously taken her, she took a deep breath of fresh air as she leaned against the railing of the balcony. She hadn't spoken to her family for ten years prior to leaving for Pegasus, now three years later she wondered how they were doing. Even without speaking she'd managed to hear things about her older brothers. How Troy was a promising young CIA agent and Kyle hunting for archeological treasures in the Bering Strait. Both fields had the potential of being tied to the Stargate program, she let out a quiet laugh at the thought of her brothers finding her name at the top of a mainly military expedition going to another galaxy, no less. Her parents on the other hand were an entirely different matter; both of them were out of the spotlight so it left Elizabeth in the dark. Both had been healthy the last time she saw them, if not still slightly depressed about all their children leaving home.

Hearing a footstep behind her, Elizabeth resisted the instinct to grab them and throw whoever it was over the railing.

"Dr. Weir?" a male voice asked questioningly, she recognized it as Sgt. Williams, a tech that worked in the control room.

Blinking away her reverie she notices that the sun had risen and it was raining softly, but she'd been out there long enough for her clothes to be slightly damp. Straightening herself up and ignoring the protest from her left knee, an old college injury, she turned to face the man.

"Yes?" probably not the most intelligent thing to say, but it would have to do.

"It's raining and we thought that maybe you should come inside?"

He stated it very timidly, but the implication was there that she might not be entirely aware of her surroundings. Regardless of the truth in that thought Elizabeth merely cocked an eyebrow before striding inside through the doors, followed by the sergeant. Trying her best not to let the stiffness in her knee show by limping, Elizabeth made a beeline straight to her office and promptly sat down at her desk.

Looking at the clock she noticed that she had a briefing with Major Sheppard's team in less than ten minutes. Thinking about her wet clothes she tried to think of a way to make it to her quarters and change, but still be on time. At that moment her knee gave a particularly painful sharp twinge of protest making the decision for her. Standing up and grabbing the necessary reports she made her way to the briefing room, effectively putting the dream and the mysterious watchers out of her mind.