A/N: I've kinda made this story a prequel to my other story, "Ties That Bind". Hope you don't mind that I started writing the sequel before I wrote the prequel. I'll edit "Ties That Bind" but it'll change a little bit but not much, just re-writing it so it's written better. Check it out when I finish this fic and edit/update the other one. Thanks to all who reviewed! )

Reality Elizabeth will be known as Elizabeth while the alternate Elizabeth is known as Alternate Elizabeth.

Spoilers: There is some reference of the Daedalus and SG-1 season 9

Tomorrow

Chapter Three: What Lies Before Us

Her head was faced down on the silver table, forehead just missing the keyboard of her laptop, left hand on the keyboard and the right beside her sagging. Next to the laptop was her coffee mug filled to the brim full of coffee and her pair of earphones, still plugged into the side of the laptop. The music was still playing, cranked up to the highest volume, as the chorus of a soft rock song came on.

I move to keep up in the urban pace

In colour in warmth

In the air I feel his sorrow

I move with the time

In the open space

In colour in warmth

In the air I feel his sorrow

On the top right hand corner was a huge mountain of reports and requests with a paperweight on it and a yellow post-it with the work 'IN' stuck on the paperweight. On the top left hand corner, there was only five reports or requests with another paperweight on it and the post-it with the word 'OUT' stuck on it.

Elizabeth was dead. The work had caught up to her and now she was zoned out on her desk, dead tired. She groaned as she shifted her head to the side, wincing as her head connected to the side of the laptop. She then slowly sat up, hair messed up, and propped her head on her right hand, looking down at the screen before her. Elizabeth sighed before realising that she wouldn't get any work done with out a little nap. She got up and strolled out of her office to the balcony. The wind blew through her hair as she took in a deep breath and released it.

She massaged her temple before turning her back towards the ocean and slid down the side of the balcony to a sitting position. She propped her right leg up and left her left leg out in front of her as she put her head in her hands. Even with all the amounts of coffee she took in, she was still tired. Her eyes began to droop and her shoulders began to relax. She lay down and soon, she was fast asleep.

When Elizabeth opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that her surroundings was different. She was in a corridor in Atlantis, with personnel walking through the halls busily to get to their jobs. She didn't know what time it was but she guessed that it was in the morning, the beginning of the day. She also had no idea exactly where in Atlantis she was but she figured it was in one of the unexplored areas. One thing in particular caught her eye. A small child, a girl at the age of seven years, was running past her and into a room just down the corridor. The girl had dark brown medium length hair and a side fringe. She had green eyes; smooth fair skin and she wore a nice light blue, sleeved dress that went up to knees to match her white sandals. Elizabeth followed her and entered the room just before the door closed. She sighed in relief and turned around to face the girl.

"Mummy!" the little girl cried out as she hugged the older woman in the vicinity.

"Hi there sweetie. We were wondering where you'd gone off to." Elizabeth's eyes widened as she observed the scene before her. There, sitting on a king size bed, in a white fluttery strap dress with a thin white robe over it, was herself. Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes. She stepped forward so she was standing right behind the girl and studied her double. Her hair was longer but still the same style type. Other than that, there was nothing physically different about her double at first sight. A voice from the bathroom made both Elizabeth's turn towards that direction.

"Daddy's little girl is back, huh? Did you have fun with Rodney this morning?"

"Yep!" She paused. "But I had to wake him up. He was sleeping on his table when I got there! Hehe, daddy! Lookie what Uncle Rodney gave me!" The little girl grinned before holding up a chocolate bar from behind her. Elizabeth turned to the man standing at the doorway of the bathroom. John Sheppard bent down and ruffled the little girl's hair. His hair too had also gotten a bit longer but that meant that it was messier and it was. He was all geared up, like he's ready to go off world on a mission. He grinned as he got an evil glint in his eye. Unfortunately, alternate Elizabeth saw this.

"Uh-oh. John, what are you thinking?" Alternate Elizabeth stood up from the bed and walked over to the couple.

"Oh, I'm just thinking that if Rodney has enough chocolate to give to Aith here, then I'm thinking that he may just have enough for me!" Elizabeth smirked at the sound of that idea and chuckled.

"Meaning that you're going to raid his lab until you find his stash," alternate Elizabeth said as she cocked her brow.

"Well you don't have to put it in those terms." Both of the adults laughed as the little girl, Aith, munched on her chocolate bar.

"Well since Aith is back, I'm going to get changed so we can go breakfast," said alternate Elizabeth as she took her folded clothes lying on her bed and continued on to the bathroom. Just as she was about to enter, she looked at John and Aith, who were now sharing the chocolate. "Just try not to make a habit of eating chocolate too early in the morning." They both nodded and continued on eating away the chocolate.

"So, watcha want for breakkie?" John asked as he snapped off another square from the chocolate.

"Chocolate!" John grinned.

"I'd like that too but if you eat too much chocolate, you'll get sick. We need to eat what good ol' Doc Carson classifies as 'real food'." Aith made a face and John continued. "Yeah. Today, I don't fancy powdered eggs in the morning."

"Well, we'll have to get real eggs along with decent food besides military rations, next time the Daedalus visits Earth," alternate Elizabeth said from the doorway of the bathroom. She was dressed in her red shirt with black on the side and her blue civilian pants along with her earpiece.

"Now that mummy's ready, off to breakfast?" John asked as he stood up from his crouched position. Aith nodded enthusiastically and skipped out of the room. "Shall we?" John held out his arm and alternate Elizabeth linked arms with him. He kissed her on the lips and they both then giggled and followed Aith. Elizabeth was shell-shocked. She didn't know what to think so she just followed them, through the corridors of Atlantis, to the mess hall.

"Hey guys," said John as he sat down at the table with alternate Elizabeth and Aith. Already at the table were Teyla, Aiden and Rodney. Elizabeth stood by, watching them interact, noticed that Aiden seemed rather close to Teyla.

"Good morning Dr. Weir, Major Sheppard, Aith. I trust you slept well last night?" Teyla took a sip of tea she had in front of her.

"Yes, I had a very comfortable sleep with my wife here," John mumbled as he kissed alternate Elizabeth along her jaw line. Alternate Elizabeth suppressed her laugh as she helped Aith butter her toast. Aith, on the other hand, made no attempt at buttering her toast herself for she was pestering Rodney.

"Can I have more chocolate?" asked Aith as she put on her pleading eyes.

"No." Rodney took a gulp of his coffee.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?" Alternate Elizabeth grinned as she noticed that Rodney was getting thoroughly annoyed.

"Aith honey, eat your toast," alternate Elizabeth said as she held the piece of bread to Aith's mouth. Aith opened her mouth wide and took a huge bite from the toast, crumbs all around her mouth and all. She munched on the bread as she turned to Rodney and continued to pester him.

"So when are you and Teyla going to get married?" John looked pointedly at Aiden. He coughed before Teyla spoke up.

"We have not arranged a specific date but I believe it to be next season." Teyla and Aiden smiled at each other as they held hands. Elizabeth couldn't believe her ears. 'Teyla and Ford are getting married? I'm married to John with a child? I wonder if she's just like her father,' Elizabeth mused to herself as she turned around to continue to observe the scene. Despite the fact that this was not real and she knew it, deep inside, she longed for it to be reality.

"We better get ready to go. We're scheduled to leave in one hour," said Aiden as he stood up with his tray. Soon, the others followed his suit and filed out to the control room and gate room.

Just as Elizabeth was about to follow them, her surroundings faded and reappeared in a different setting. She was no longer in the mess hall. She was now in the control room balcony, looking over the teams that come and go. Next to her was alternate Elizabeth and Aith holding each other's hand while below them was John and his team, ready to move out. The Stargate dialled and locked onto the address. Just as John was about to leave, he turned around waved good-bye to alternate Elizabeth and Aith. Aith waved back enthusiastically while alternate Elizabeth just smiled.

The scene faded around Elizabeth again and reappeared again, in the same spot, just different time. This time, everyone was in panic. The Stargate was active and the shield was down. Right next to her like before stood alternate Elizabeth looking out at the Stargate. Elizabeth looked down at her double's hands and noticed that she was gripping the railing with a worried and panicked expression on her face. Then all of the sudden, they came through the gate.

First it was Rodney, then Aiden and Teyla. Alternate Elizabeth bit her lip as no one else came through. They waited for a couple of seconds with Rodney's occasional yelling of "Where is he?" before John came through the gate.

"Raise the shield!" John yelled out to the control crew. Just as the shield was about to get raised, an energy weapon of sort came through the gate and shot John in the chest.

"John!" Both Elizabeth's screamed out and alternate Elizabeth ran downstairs to John's aid and Carson's team running into the gate room. Alternate Elizabeth was moved aside as Carson and his team got to work. Teyla held alternate Elizabeth, trying to prevent her from shaking badly, but ultimately failing.

After ten solid minutes of hard work, Carson lifted his head up, sadness evident on his face.

"Elizabeth…I'm so sorry."

"No…" Alternate Elizabeth sobbed in her hands, as Elizabeth looked at the limp body before, unable to believe what just happened.

'They were so happy…why?' Elizabeth thought sadly to herself. There was a gasp from the top of the stairs as they all looked up and saw Aith standing there, eyes filled with tears. The scene around Elizabeth faded yet again and the last thing she heard was Aith's screaming cry, calling out to her father. Elizabeth closed her eyes, refusing to open her eyes.

When she did, she noticed that she was still in the gate room, except that it was empty and there weren't many lights on. She was facing the Stargate so she turned around and jumped a bit when she saw a figure standing there. It was a male with light brown hair, and was wearing silvery-white robes with a large silver headpiece. He held a staff with a blue crystal in the tap part of it and his head was down.

"You look so much like her," muttered the stranger.

"I look like who?" Elizabeth stepped forward. She was genuinely confused with what was happening.

"It doesn't matter now. It's too late for me to help her."

"Who are you talking about? Maybe I can help…" Elizabeth touched his shoulder and was flung back as she landed with a painful thud.

"She tried to save me but when I tried to save her…it was too late…it's always too late." Elizabeth groaned, shook the dizziness away and looked up. The male lifted his head up for the first time and Elizabeth saw that he had amazing green eyes. Elizabeth blinked and he was gone.

Hope you liked it! Please review! Song in the beginning was In The Air (Sorrow) by Primary

Dark Card Mistress