Elizabeth Weir sighed as she tossed another handful of her things into one of the military-issued boxes. For the past hour she had been packing away all of her things. During the past half hour, Rodney had been sitting with her; the two chatting like it was any other day; any normal day on Atlantis.The conversation was a gentle reminder of what would be lost, but they both, on some subconscious level, refused to speak of their upcoming departure.Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and surveyed the room after dumping the pile. 'This is the last thing left…' she thought, staring at the piece of furniture, similar to a dresser, standing before her.

"So…who are you looking forward to seeing?" Elizabeth glanced behind her at the sudden change in conversation. Rodney was sitting on the edge of her bed, continuing the rhythmic tapping of his feet against the bed frame. She shrugged, pulling open another drawer as she reluctantly thought about it. There was Simon… Elizabeth frowned and shook her head. 'No…there is no Simon. You let him go years ago,' she reminded herself of the message she'd taped that Simon had undoubtedly already received.

"My dog," she said finally, glancing over her shoulder back at Rodney. "What about you? Anyone special?"

Rodney frowned slightly,scooting back on the bed untilhis back touched the wall.For a moment, he sat in silence, simply watching Elizabeth pack as he thought about his answer."My sister," he said after a long internal debate, his voice quiet, sorroweating at his tone,his eyes darting away from Elizabeth's for a brief moment."Other than that, there's really no one…well, except my cat, but he lives with the neighbor now…" he trailed off, finding himself wondering ifhis cat even noticed that he'd gone. Then again, it had been nearly four years…

"What about your parents?" Elizabeth asked.

Rodney looked down at his hands, frowning deeply. "I…I didn't have the best family life," he said, his words staggered. He didn't bother to ask about Elizabeth's parents. McKay knew they'd past away before she'd left for Atlantis. "Don't you have a boyfriend?" Rodney asked tentatively. He and Elizabeth had gotten to be extremely close friends over the years, but there had always been an unwritten taboo about speaking of how things were just before they left Earth.

Elizabeth bit her lip. "I believe in long distance relationships, but I think light-years away is a little much," she told Rodney, laughing hollowly. She sighed before continuing, "I…gave him a message," she kneeled down, focusing on closing the box. "It wasn't fair for him to wait for me."

"If he's smart he will," Rodney said, and immediately clamped his mouth shut, inwardly swearing to himself in the silence that followed. "I don't want to go," Rodney blurted out suddenly. Elizabeth stoodfrom her kneelingpositionand looked at him, her eyes curious.

"Why not?" she questioned. Weir walked over to the bed, sitting down next to him. She had been having similar thoughts.

"It's just…" Rodney looked down at his hands. "It doesn't feel right, you know?" he looked up, his eyes searching hers for a reply.

Elizabeth smiled weakly. "I do," she told him, and sighed. "Everything's changed so much since we left."

Rodney eyed her. "You mean everyone."

Elizabeth nodded. "Everyone has. You, me, John, Teyla, Aiden, Radek, Carson, everyone."

"It's odd, you know, now that you think about it. The first few months we got here all we could think about was going home, and now that we've got the chance to…" he trailed off, leaving his sentence unfinished. Elizabeth, however, knew just what he meant. In the brief silence, she looked down at her hands, thinking of just how much things had changed.

"I'm going to miss everyone so much," she stated, her eyes sorrowful. "I just can't imagine not waking up to this," she gestured around the room, "everyday, seeing all of these people…" she exhaled softly. "It would be impossible to stay in touch with so many people. Just thinking about getting separated from them…" she frowned.

"I agree," Rodney replied, surprising her. Usually it took a lot more time into a conversation before he would even mention a scare care about the others on the base. "With the exception of Kavanagh, of course."

"Out of all the people to survive this long on Atlantis, he had to be one of them," Elizabeth said dryly.

"Well, you know what they say about cockroaches…" Rodney trailed off. "I think he was a cockroach in a previous life."

"Don't make fun of cockroaches!" Elizabeth said, grinning widely. "But seriously," she said, the smile on her face fading, "Can you imagine doing anything else? Living life any other way?"

Rodney shook his head and glanced at her. "No," he replied. "I guess we're going to be employed in the SGC program."

Elizabeth sighed. "I doubt I will be. I've broken about every rule there is to break."

"I think we all have," Rodney said, "but whatever they decide…" he sighed, "we're going to have to live with."

"Yeah…" Elizabeth frowned. "Sometimes I wish that they hadn't been able to contact us."

"Oh, I'm way ahead of you on that." Rodney looked up at the ceiling. "It's kind of weird when you think about it, though, I agree." At Elizabeth's look he continued. "I mean… I… I'm going to miss this," he looked around at the room. "Where else can I save a city day after day?" he said, meant to be joking, but his tone came out serious. Rodney looked at Elizabeth, pausing for a moment. "I'll miss you," he told her. "And the rest of them, too," he added as an afterthought.

"I'll miss you too, Rodney," she told him.

A long reach of quiet extended between them before Rodney stood up. "I'd better finish my packing," he announced.

"All right," Elizabeth said,standing as well."I should finish, too," she said, gazing at him.

"Right…" he fidgeted uncomfortably, "I'll talk to you later."

Elizabeth smiled warmly. "Okay. See you in a while, Rodney," he nodded and turned, heading for the door. "Wait!" Elizabeth called out, and he turned. "Do you…Do you have someone waiting for you on Earth?" she asked, stumbling briefly over the words. There was an odd look in her eyes as she looked at him. Elizabeth felt her heart leaping at her rib cage in the silence that followed.

"No," he answered slowly. He titled his head, frowning lightly in his deep confusion.Her question had come out of essentially nowhere."Why do you want to know?" he asked finally.

Elizabeth pressed forth a smile. "No reason; just wondering," she said quickly. Truth to be told, she hadn't an idea where the nagging question had come from;only that it needed answering.Rodney nodded and left the room, leaving Elizabeth to turn back to her packing. She paused halfway through putting the last pile of things on top and looked around her quarters. It struck her that this was probably the last time that she would ever be there.

"Forget it," she murmured aloud to the empty room. Elizabeth sighed. These were everyone's final days on Atlantis…and there was nothing anyone could do to change that.

Author's Note: Hope you liked! Thanks to Hans for the beta-reading :). Please review!

Thanks to the following reviewers:
Teyla Sheppard (Phew...That was my first real attempt at Sheyla, so I'm glad I didn't fail miserably)
cherry
M. McBride
Silent Cobra
mya croft
Margaret
PurpleYin