Thanks Purpleyin for the beta!
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"This day is going to be normal," Elizabeth told herself as she walked down the corridor, "or at least as normal as a day can be in a floating city."
The morning had been normal at least, and that was a good start. John had led a group into the unexplored parts of the city. While they had found several rooms they marked as promising, they had not found any more alternate selves like they had two days ago, and Elizabeth was extremely glad for that. When they had found that old woman in the chamber, they had been so excited. "Finally we get to meet one of the
Ancients!" they had all thought. When the old woman had become conscious, and introduced herself as Elizabeth Weir, Elizabeth's world had become very complex and confusing.
She had read the mission reports of SG teams and had known there could be another version of herself out there; she just hadn't expected to ever meet one. When she had, if that wasn't enough of a shock, the old
Elizabeth had told them that the original mission to Atlantis had failed. How she had led everyone to Atlantis only to die, mostly by drowning, and she had been the only survivor.
Giving an absent nod to the group she passed in the corridor, her thoughts traveled back to that alternate Elizabeth and the awful events of her Atlantis. She thought of Col. Sumner and his men, all of their faces flashing before her eyes; Bates, Stackhouse and Miller, all of whom had drowned along with the scientists. The scientists, the brightest and most talented, that she had hand picked for the mission. What a waste, to be lost to something as innocuous as water. She thought of Lt. Ford with his big smile and excited attitude who the alternate Elizabeth had said was in another jumper, but trapped because he didn't have the gene to fly it. She wondered what happened to him; did he slowly die of suffocation or did he open the jumper door and try and swim to the surface? Could he have made it, or would he have drowned too?
A knot had formed in her stomach and her chest had tightened; she tried to calm herself down, to focus on her feet as she walked, but then her thoughts traveled to John and Dr. Zelenka who had escaped with her other self. She could picture the whole scene in her mind, like she had been the one in the jumper with them. John, with his ancient gene had managed to transport them not only out of the flooded Atlantis, but also back in time 10,000 years. They had escaped, only to be shot down by the Wraith and killed. The tightening of her chest expanded to her shoulders and back, but she was too lost in thought to notice. Elizabeth wondered how she had survived. The alternate Elizabeth had told her that an Ancient named Janus had healed her wounds. How had he been able to heal her, but not John or Zelenka? Did they die in the crash, or were they alive when found, but too badly hurt to be saved? It just didn't seem fair that she, the person who got them all into the situation that ultimately killed them, would be the only survivor. She wondered if there could have possibly been other survivors. Could any of them have escaped? Maybe through broken glass or an open door and made their way to the surface. Maybe Rodney or Peter could have made it.
Elizabeth's steps faltered as she pictured Rodney, enveloped in swirling dark water. The same image that had been haunting her dreams the last two nights. She tried to take a deep breath, to calm herself, but found it difficult. That he had sacrificed himself to give her the chance to get away, it ate at her. She had known he was brave; his many missions with John had proved that. She had known he was able to put his life on the line; when he had used the personal shield to stop the shadow creature, and when he had stepped in front of Koyla's gun to protect her. Those however, were not certain death; there had been the chance that he would have been all right. This time though, he had chosen to work on opening the bay doors so she and the others could escape on the jumpers. He had let the waters reach the room, cutting off their only escape route. He had valued her life over his own, and he had died for it. As she tried to blink away the tears forming in her eyes, she stepped into the transporter that would take her towards the hydroponics lab.
When the doors opened, she didn't even look up; she just stared at the floor with unfocused eyes, trying to regain her composure. Starting forward she was stopped by a hand on her arm. She was startled by the contact; but when she looked up into Rodney's blue eyes she relaxed her body slightly. She sighed quietly to herself as she looked at the healthy and very much alive Rodney, a man who only moments ago to her had been consumed and lost to her forever.
"Are you ok?" he asked, his hand still on her arm. "You just about ran me over."
She gave him a small smile. His concerned face was full of warmth, and that warmth was slowly replacing the dark cold that had been filling her only moments before. "I'm fine; I was just thinking about something and wasn't paying attention."
He released her arm, not quite satisfied with her answer but not pressing. Motioning to the cart he had behind him he excitedly explained, "Ford just brought these to me. Some stuff they found during their search. I was on my way to the lab to look them over."
"Sounds fun," she tried to tease "but my stop sounds better."
Rodney looked dubious, and glanced down at the prizes on the cart. "What could be better than new Ancient artifacts?"
Her mood restoring itself every second she was in his presence; she tried to string it out. "Oh I don't know…. Just some little things called strawberries!"
"Strawberries!" He repeated his mouth slightly agape in his incredulity.
She grinned at his reaction. "Dr. Linsky called and told me the first strawberries had finally matured, and he wanted to show them to me in hydroponics. They finally found whatever it was that was killing the seedlings, so now we have strawberries!"
"Wow, strawberries… I thought we reached our peak when we got the tomatoes going, but strawberries?" Rodney started to rub his hands together in anticipation, but dropped them when he saw the smirk on Elizabeth's face. "Well, I better get going…. I have a lot of important stuff to work on."
He passed her onto the transport, his hand brushing hers momentarily. Her hand spasmed slightly as if to grab his when it touched; but he continued on past her pulling the cart behind him. The door started to close, but Rodney stuck his hand out to stop it. He looked down at the ground briefly but when he looked up again he had a slightly nervous grin on his face. "Hey, um, I have something pretty cool I want to show you later. Could I come by your room after dinner?"
Her curiosity peaked; she raised her eyebrow in query. "What no hints?" When he crossed his arms and leaned against the door with that smug expression on his face she knew she would get nothing out of him. "All right… How about you come over before dinner? I'll bring something up for us and you can show me your "pretty cool" thing."
He thought a moment before replying, his eyes concentrating on a space on the wall. "I should have it ready by then. That'll work for me. You can't see it until the sun sets though, so we'll have to eat first." Elizabeth let out a little laugh, and he rolled his eyes when he realized he had given away a clue. He started to laugh too though; her laugh was infectious to him, especially when her eyes held a bit of mischief in them like they did now.
They just stood there for a moment smiling, their eyes never leaving the others. Rodney finally broke the eye contact, stepping back into the transporter and unblocking the doors. Before the doors closed though, he called back out. "See you tonight!"
She nodded, and then he was gone. She turned around, away from the transporter, and suddenly felt very alone. There was no one in the corridor, and as she walked towards the lab she felt the dark cold of her previous thoughts start to fill her again. The image of Rodney drowning once more threatened to overtake her, but instead of letting it, she tried to change the image. Now, instead of water, it was strawberries. In her mind she saw him being buried in strawberries, and he was only too happy to eat his way out of them. The images got more extreme and crazy as she willed away the cold and forced deep slow breaths into her lungs. She had him throwing handfuls of strawberries in the air, and him swimming the backstroke through the red fruit. The silliness of the images gave her heart and she was free of the dark repetitions by the time she reached the hydroponics lab. If Dr. Linsky was willing, maybe she could take a few of the strawberries, and then she would have something "pretty cool" to show Rodney as well.
Chapters 3 and 4 are coming your way!