The Alliance Bride

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters.

Eavesdropping and Revelations

It had been nearly a week since the incident on Genar that left Sgt. Chris Bates unceremoniously married to Princess Mili, and he had yet to talk to her. The truth was he didn't know what to say, their courtship had pretty much been along the lines of 'now that your finished signing that piece of paper, here is a lovely young woman who is now your wife, hope you two are happy together,' it's not suppose to work that way. In many ways he was thankful that she had decided to give him the chance to come to her in his own time.

Chris felt completely inadequate, from what he had heard that not only was his wife beautiful but also extremely intelligent. Chris had tossed and turned all night trying to think of how he should approach Mili, but every time he thought about it his throat felt like it would close up. Worst of all it almost seemed impossible for him to imagine that under normal circumstances she would even give someone like him a second look. Chris had never considered himself to be unintelligent or unattractive, but he knew what he was, a soldier, he wasn't a diplomat or a scholar like it seemed that Mili was, and he certainly wasn't a prince but here he was married to a princess. Chris imagined that lots of guys fantasized about marrying a beautiful princess, but right now he just wished he were married to someone that he loved.

Chris had been raised in a house where when you got married it was for life, in fact he couldn't even remember anyone in his family divorcing, except for his mother's sister but her husband had been a drinker and hit her a lot. Even with all that his aunt had stuck it out for years until her husband finally landed her in the hospital with more than a few broken bones. Chris had been a teenager at the time so he knew what was going on, and he couldn't even imagine his father treating his mother that way, for as long as he could remember they had always been crazy about each other.

Chris's parents married young, barely eighteen when they decided to elope because his mother's family thought they were just to young to get married but even now almost thirty-five years later they were still in love. Chris had always hoped that one day he would find someone who he would be just as crazy about and he'd marry her and they'd be together for the rest of their lives. Now it seemed that he wouldn't ever have that chance, weather he liked it or not he was married, so he guessed he had better just get used to the idea and get to know his wife.

Pulling himself out of bed that morning had been difficult not only because of the lack of sleep from all the tossing and turning he'd done in the past week but because he had resolved to talk to Mili today. No matter how this marriage started he was going to try an make the best of it, but first he was going to pay a little visit to Mike and try to gather some moral support.

As surprising as it may seem the nerdy archeologist had become one of his closest friends here on Atlantis, he guessed fighting side by side will bind even the most opposite of people together. It did however take quite a while for them to warm up to each other they had been on AG-3 together for more than a year before they became comfortable enough around each other to use their first names. Also, Mike had been spending a lot of time around Mili since she was working with the linguistics department; from what he had heard Mili's Ancient was better than Mikes and that little revelation was pretty amusing he had to admit.

Unfortunately when Chris approached the lab that Mike and some of the other linguists were using he heard voices inside one of them he immediately recognized as Mike's, the other he couldn't quite place it had an unusual lilt to it but it clearly was feminine.

The door was open so Chris poked his head in and opened his mouth to get Mike's attention, but quickly snapped it closed when he recognized the woman sitting across the desk from Mike, 'oh God it's Mili.' Chris quickly ducked back behind the door and pressing his back against the wall, his heart was pounding hard in his chest and he had already broken out in a cold sweat. 'Oh crap how am I going to do this I can't even see the woman without feeling completely overwhelmed,' Chris thought to himself.

He was about to run as far away as he could just to escape this feeling, when his ears finally registered the question that Mike had just asked Mili, "has he talked to you, yet?"

There was a short pause followed by a very irritated sounding, "no."

Mike couldn't help but smile a little at how annoyed Mili looked, "don't worry it's only been a week, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes him a while… I'm not sure but I think that Chris has a hard time talking to women."

Mili just glared at him, "I'm not women, I'm his wife." At this statement Mike started sniggering, making Mili look even more annoyed, "you find this amusing do you?"

Mike breaks into an all out laugh at her quip, "it's, it's just… well yeah the man could face down a hoard of pissed off wraith with nothing more than a field knife and appear fearless doing it; however, it would seem that he can't get up enough courage to talk to his own wife." One of the corners of Mili's mouth turned up, unfortunately Mike noticed, "see I knew you'd think it was funny too."

Now Mili couldn't contain her smile, "it's not that… it just reminds me of my older brother, he was the same way. To look at him you'd think he was this fearless warrior but try and put him in a social situation with a woman and he'd turn all nervous and twitchy… it was endearing really, but then he started not speaking at all trying to make everyone think he was only what he thought they wanted to see…a warrior. Thankfully when he was married it was to a very lovely woman, who was also a close friend of mine, was able to see past his act, that under the rough exterior there was a truly kind and wonderful person… lurking." Mili expression became thoughtful, "you know all the stories you have told me of Chris it sounds like they are very much alike and I can only hope that one day he will let me see that part of himself."

Mike could see from the shining of her eyes that she was hurting and then she said something that completely took him by surprise, "you know my entire life I knew that I would be married to someone I didn't love and that my life would most likely be lonely, but I want to thank you for giving me hope that one day there may be more for me than that life … you're a good friend."

Mike saw a tear start to roll down her cheek and trying to cheer her up a little, he decided to say sarcastically, "I know."

His plan seemed to work when Mili's lips curled into a smile and she responded just as sarcastically, "and you're so modest about it too."

However, then even more tears began to spill from Mili's eyes, for a few helpless moments Mike just sat there trying to think of something to say to make her feel better but he knew that there was only one person on Atlantis who could completely put her fears to rest and he as of late was being an idiot.

So Mike just got up and came around the desk and put his arms around Mili, "shh, don't worry everything is going to be alright." Mike let her cry as much as she needed to but he also thought to himself, 'I think I need to pay a little visit to one Sgt. Christopher Bates and tell him just how much of a schmuck I think he was being at the moment.'

Outside the door Chris had stood there listening as Mike and Mili had been talking, he had felt hopeful when he found out that she really wanted them to get to know each other, but right now he was just feeling like an ass. He could hear the soft sobs coming from Mili inside the next room and he felt awful that he was the reason that she was so upset. Chris knew he couldn't face her like this now, he couldn't look her in the eyes and see pain there and know he had put it there. 'I will talk to her tonight when we can be alone,' he resolved in his mind, 'and I am going to make this work.'

Chris walked away from the room as he heard the crying subside and Mike began to encourage her to concentrate on work for a little while, get her mind on something else. As he walked away Chris couldn't help thinking that he was actually looking forward to getting to know Mili and feeling that maybe the only thing he had to offer her now was the only thing she wanted from him, his love, he could only hope to she would give him hers in return.

A few hours after Chris's little eavesdropping session he came out of the briefing room, having just finished up a briefing with AG-3, to find that Mike was waiting in his office.

Chris stepped inside letting the door close behind him; he could only guess that Mike was there to talk about Mili, so he decided to get to the point "Mike is there something you needed?"

Mike just looked at Chris and feeling that they were close enough as friends that he could be completely honest with Chris, "yeah there is something that I need… for you to take your head out of your ass."

Chris just stood there regarding his friend quietly before he answered him, "I assume this is about Mili, and for once I agree with you."

Mike's brain didn't register completely what Chris had just said because he starts to say angrily, "your damn right this is about Mili, I mean she is… what?"

Chris couldn't help but smile at the look of confusion written all over Mike's face, "I agree with you, and I have every intention of going to speak with her today."

Chris took the opportunity of Mike's confusion to sit down at his desk, he watched as Mike sat down heavily in the chair across the desk from him looking completely shocked, "hey Mike you ok?" Chris asks.

"I just can't believe you agreed with me?" Mike says breaking into a smile.

Chris smiles back, "yeah well miracles happen sometimes," he says sarcastically.

Mike doesn't completely lose his smile when he addresses Chris again, "she's pretty fantastic you know?"

Letting out a sigh Chris says, "actually I don't… but I'm going to try and find out."

Mike is feeling kind of sorry for Chris, he knows this situation can't be easy on him, "hey man don't worry, I know your going to like her when you get to know each other and she really wants to get to know you, just stop ignoring her."

Swallowing hard Chris says, "it's not the liking part that I'm worried about… I always imagined that when I got married it would be to someone that I loved… this is just all so foreign to me."

Mike snorts a little, "I wouldn't worry about it, she seems like an easy person to love, I mean look at me I've only known her for a week and I'm already crazy about her."

Chris narrows his eyes at the Archeologist, "Mike, please tell me you don't have the hots for my wife."

Mike regarded his friend thoughtfully for a moment, "you know Chris I've always considered you to be a pretty observant guy but there are certain things you seem oblivious to… dude I'm gay."

Chris just blinks at Mike a few times, "humm…" regarding his friend questioningly Chris says, "alright let me rephrase that please tell me, you don't have the hots for me."

Mike bursts out laughing at Chris's statement, when he'd finally settles, he says, "you took that well, and NO… though granted you are a cute piece of man meat." Mike smirks at the obvious discomfort written on Chris's face at the description of him, "don't worry man you are so not even my type and besides… I'm already with someone."

Chris looks at him slightly amused, "as for the taking it well, I kind of suspected and who?"

Mike laughed deviously as he stands up, "you know I think you've been hit with enough aneurysm inducing revelations for one day… I think I'll save that one for another time."

Mike walked to the door when, Chris suddenly says, "hey does Will know? … I mean you guys always share a tent when we're off world."

Mike stops and turns around with a pointed smirk on his face, "you said you'd talk to Mili today and I'm going to hold you to that ok, I'll see you later," with that Mike walked out, leaving Chris to draw his own conclusions.

Mike laughed to himself as he was walking away from the office, when he heard Chris exclaim, "are you kidding me?"

Chris just sat there trying to wrap his head around all of the things he had learned today, the wife that he had never spoken to as of yet wants to get to know him as much as he wants to know her, one of his closest friends and teammate is gay and it would seem that if he wasn't completely losing his mind that his other friend and teammate is as well and they were seeing each other. 'My head hurts again,' was all Chris could think at the moment.

Reviews:

Lady Valmar: Thanks for the compliment I'm glad you like the change of pace.

Purple Yin: Also, happy that you are enjoying the story and I totally agree that I need a beta, if there are any volunteers out there.

The inspiration for this story came after I took an anthropology course and studyed how different some cultures really are from our own. I'll go into that more in later chapters, when Chris starts to learn more about Mili's customs.