"Mother, are you alright?"
She opened her eyes and found the bright, tearful eyes of her daughter. "Does it hurt much?"
"No darling, the flowers have taken care of it."
"You're lying." She was silent for a long moment. "Mother, you should stop feeding me. Maybe you should just—let me go." She stifled a sob, but she couldn't keep her tears from falling.
"No, I could never do that. Don't you even think of it." She reached out a trembling hand to wipe the tears from her daughter's cheeks. With her non-wraith hand, Liu pressed her mother's fingers against her face.
"As I get older, I need more and more energy. I know you never recover all that I take from you. It—It's killing you." This time a full sob escaped her lips.
"Liu, Liu." She said in a singsong voice. She moved her fingers to her daughter's chin and lifted her eyes. "I make sacrifices, like all mothers do. But I sacrifice gladly to have you near me." She spread her arms wide. "Come, lay with me a while."
Liu smiled faintly, showing her oddly sharp teeth. She clamored onto the bed and into her mother's arms. She laid her head against her mother's chest, and listened to her heartbeat. There was silence between them for a long time. "He stayed, you know."
"What? Who?"
"That man that came. After you passed out, he carried you to your bed, and he tended to you your wounds. Then he sat in that chair and watched over you until he was sure you were safe."
"Hmm," Maia muttered, "How chivalrous of him."
"He didn't tell me his name, but I think I figured out who he is."
"And who is that?"
"When you would take me to the village, I would hear the people talk about the city. They tell stories of a hero there, one of the High Generals. I recognized him from the old weapon they say he carries." Liu's eyes lit up and she spoke in an awed whisper. "He's General Deri."
"He's not important." She said, and drifted off to sleep.
"Elizabeth, wake up." It was Rodney's voice again, a bit hoarser than before.
She sat up and found him standing in the open doorway. "You wanted to know when we got power to the escape pod?"
She nodded, got out of bed and walked towards the door.
"Um—Aren't you going to get dressed?"
She looked down at herself, realizing that she was still wearing her nightgown. "Oh…right." She stood awkwardly, and then turned towards the small room that served as her closet. She closed the door behind her and changed her into her uniform. As she tossed her nightgown into her hamper, she heard something that made her stop. She thought she heard very soft laughter. She listened intently for more than a minute, and she heard nothing but the distant sounds of the ocean. She opened the door and left the closet, and walked silently with Rodney down the hall. He held a tool, which he kept switching from hand to hand. He said nothing, which was out of the ordinary—for Rodney.
"Listen, I'm sorry if I upset you." Elizabeth said suddenly. "You know, before."
"Upset? I'm not upset." He tossed the tool to his other hand. "Who said I was upset?"
She shook her said and couldn't help but smile. It was so like Rodney. "Never mind." She said quietly.
They walked to the lab in silence, and when they got there they found John milling around, watching the pod as if something was about to jump out of it. Elizabeth found herself watching it too, though she couldn't say why. She moved next to Sheppard. "Didn't Carson tell you to rest in your quarters?"
"I think you got the same order." he said, then shook his head. "I can't sleep anyway."
"More nightmares?" she asked, voice very low.
"No, just weird. That guy—he was telling a scientist in Atlantis about Liu."
"Why would he do that? He knows Maia wants to keep her a secret."
"Why does it matter?" he said, his voice very low. "It's not like we can do anything about it—even if it did actually happen."
"Perhaps we can look him up in a database here on Atlantis. He was a general right?"
A panel suddenly lit up on the pod and it emitted a deep chiming sound.
"Rodney, what did you do?" Sheppard said, almost like his old self again.
"Nothing, it came on by itself." He said defensively.
The chiming grew louder and the lights brighter. Elizabeth reached out involuntarily, found Sheppard's wrist and clung to it. Suddenly, there was a massive flash that seemed to go right though her, and her mind went blank.