Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Stargate Atlantis. No infringement intended.
A/N: My very first Atlantis fic! Squee! I won't even begin to tell you where I got the idea for this story from, because if I did it would give a lot of the plot away, but this is too juicy to give up. Oh, and I completely and utterly lied when I said that I wasn't going to do any more of my other stories or write any new ones until I finish "With Grace", but I got this idea and had to write it all down before it was all sucked into the evil plot bunny blackhole of nothingness – or forgotten. I could put a bet on the second scenario, but… Oh I'll shut up now – just R&R peoples!
Synopsis: The year is 2017. Eleven years ago Col. John Sheppard was killed when a Wraith armada descended on Atlantis, destroying much of the city. Dr. Elizabeth Weir survived the onslaught, but now, many years later, she has begun to have strange dreams depicting her own death. With the anniversary of John's death approaching, Elizabeth begins to wonder if these are indeed just nightmares, or a message from beyond the grave?
"Coup de Grace"
Chapter One
My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Eleven years ago my husband Colonel John Sheppard was killed when a Wraith armada descended on Atlantis, destroying much of the city. Many brave men and women were lost over those three days. We seemed to be winning the battle with many of the Wraith mother ships departing the planet. But they were too powerful, bringing back a fleet of mother ships with technology beyond our knowledge, so powerful that the city or its occupants did not stand a chance. As the sun set on the third day of battle we saw a glimmer of hope. Earth had received our desperate call for help, sending a message onto the Asgard who, even though they refused to interfere themselves, they were not willing to stand by and allow the city of the Ancients to be destroyed.
They sent a cargo ship laden with explosives from Earth, along with various Asgard weapons and technology. By the time the ship descended on Atlantis, there were few survivors. Myself, John, and a small group of men and women had taken refuge in a previously unknown compartment in the base of Atlantis. We sat there for days, awaiting our fate.
But it never came. The Asgard cargo ship had arrived along with personnel from Earth. After a long battle the Wraith were defeated. Myself and the other survivors came out of our protected hiding place, preparing to go back to Earth, to safety. As we headed towards the ship we disturbed the hiding place of a solitary Wraith. Before we could act he drew his weapon and fired, the shot hitting John directly in the chest. Several of the other survivors fired upon the Wraith, killing it instantly.
I held John's head in my arms as the life left his body. Death, it may be the ultimate path to enlightenment, but all I cared about at that very moment was the fact that I had lost the most important thing in the world – the man I loved.
One week after I lost John, I discovered I was pregnant.
I decided to resign from the Stargate program, instead settling in a small part of the forest in the state of Ohio, as far away from the Cheyenne Mountain as I could bear to go.
The baby was born nine months later. She was a healthy weight, a bundle of smiles and rosy red cheeks. But I saw none of that. I went into deep post-natal depression. I wanted nothing to do with my daughter. To me, every time I looked at her I saw John. I also relived his death, time after time until I could bare it no more. I left Ohio and settled in New York, ready to start a new life.
It took me over a year to be able to hold my daughter without bursting into tears. We lost some of the most crucial moments in the bonding period, and because of that my daughter has always been distant from me.
It is now the year 2017. My daughter is ten years old. Now, three weeks to the eleventh anniversary of John Sheppard's death, my daughter has begun asking questions about her father and our life together. I cannot tell her about Atlantis, it would be too painful.
But now, I have started having strange dreams about John. He keeps repeating a sentence – "Love is infinite, Elizabeth."
They were the last words he spoke before he died in my arms. Not only that, but in the dreams I also see my own death.
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"Love is infinite, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth rolled over in her bed, the words echoing in her head. For the past eleven years Elizabeth has lived back on Earth, trying to block out the memories of Atlantis, the Pegasus Galaxy, and the Stargate – anything that reminds her of John. It was too painful to remember the times they had together.
She reached her arm across to the bedside table and flicked on the lamp. A hazy glow came out of the top of the lamp, casting a silhouette of eerie shadows onto the roof and walls. She picked up a glass of water from the bedside table and took a sip, her eyes trailing away from the glass and towards the doorway. Her daughter stood in the doorway, her head turned to the side with a questioning look on her face. Her shoulder-length dark brown hair pushed behind one ear as the tips touched the collar of her green and blue pajamas.
Elizabeth sat silently on the bed, looking at her daughter. Tory lent against the doorframe, both of them waiting for the other to speak.
"Everything okay?" Elizabeth asked Tory. She didn't answer, instead screwing up her face in thought. Elizabeth patted the corner of the bed, asking her if she wanted to sit down. Tory had always been a quiet kid with a fierce independence. Elizabeth knew that because of her post-natal depression they hadn't had the chance to bond properly from the beginning, and although they were more like friends than mother and daughter, they had an unusual relationship.
"Elizabeth…" Tory said quietly, causing her mother's head to shoot up in realization.
"What did you say?" Elizabeth questioned her daughter, shocked to hear her calling her by her first name instead of "mum". The other thing that shocked Elizabeth was the way Tory said her name, quietly and sweetly, but almost like there was something that she wanted to say that she was unsure of.
Just like John used to.
"Tory?" Elizabeth prompted. Tory shook her head, "Sorry mum." She said before turning to exit the room in a hurry. Elizabeth let her go, deciding to talk to her in the morning before school. Tory had been acting strange lately, in the past three or so weeks she had been unusually silent and whenever Elizabeth prompted her she left the room in a hurry. She didn't know what had gotten into her.
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Tory sat cross-legged on the floor in her bedroom looking down at an object in her hands. It was a beautiful old book she had found in her mother's study. Elizabeth had forbidden Tory to go in there, so of course she took no notice, deciding to instead explore the room that her mother was so adamant about her not looking in. Tory could tell the book used to be golden in colour, but over time most of the thin gold outer casing had worn away, leaving in its place a drab brown cover. There was no title to the book, but that didn't matter. Tory was more interested in it's contents.
Inside the book were what looked like strange writing, delicately crafted letters that Tory knew her mother didn't write. The words were written in black ink, and although there wasn't much writing, there were small photographs of stone walls with the same strange writing. Tory had sat for hours staring at these writings, she felt like she knew what it meant, but was yet to find the answer.
As she turned the pages she noticed the corner of one page was stuck together. She ran her finger along the rim of the page until she got to the top, prizing open the two pages that she had previously missed. Inside was an ash grey envelope that had the flap neatly tucked into the body of the envelope. The rim of the flap was slightly ripped and there were smudged fingerprints on the corners, like it had been opened many times. Tory paused for a minute, reconsidering whether she should look in it or not. It was her mother's private possession, after all.
Tory decided to have a look anyway, reaching in and pulling out a pile of photographs. The photos had been worn from constant handling, but the fronts of them were not damaged. She took the first one from the pile and examined it, seeing her mother straight away in amongst a group of people. They were standing in front of a giant circular object, it was grey in colour and had weird writing on it like the writing in her mother's book. Her mother was dressed in a red t-shirt and grey jacket with red on the front. The people surrounding her were dressed mostly the same, their uniforms differing in colour.
The next photo was a similar shot, but there weren't as many people in the photo. The next few were almost the same as the first two, but the last three were what caught Tory's eye. The first of the three was a photo of Elizabeth and a dark-haired man, he was very handsome and had dark piercing eyes. The next two were ones of her mother and the same man, but these ones differed. One they were standing very close and the man had her arm around her mother, and Tory noticed something that she hadn't seen in a long time. Her mother was smiling. She looked happy, causing Tory to become even more suspicious as to who this man was.
The last photo was of her mother and the same man, but this time her mother was looking deep into his eyes, and she was holding a bouquet of bright red roses. It was a wedding. Their wedding.
Tory got up suddenly, rushing into her mother's bedroom. Elizabeth had turned off the bedside lamp and was facing the wall, away from Tory. Tory reached across and flicked on the lamp, the eerie glow canvassing over her the bed. Elizabeth turned to face Tory, sitting up sharply when she noticed tears welling up in Tory's eyes.
"Sweetie what's the matter?" Elizabeth asked her, reaching out a comforting hand. Tory pulled away violently, shoving the photo of her mother and the man into Elizabeth's face. Tory watched Elizabeth's face darken, "Where did you get this?"
Tory stepped back, "You lied to me!" she said angrily, taking another step back from Elizabeth.
"Lied? Sweetie what are you talking about?" Elizabeth asked, knowing exactly what she meant.
"You told me you were never married! Who's this?" she asked, holding out the photo to Elizabeth once more. She took it gently from her daughter, brushing her finger over the image of John's face. "His name is John Sheppard."
"He's my father, isn't he?" Tory asked Elizabeth.
Elizabeth hesitated, not moving or speaking. She didn't want her daughter to know about her father, but she knew she was bound to find out one day. Elizabeth was keeping John from Tory for selfish reasons, she knew that.
Tory snatched the photo from her mother, not waiting for a response.
"I hate you! You lied to me!" she screamed before rushing out of the room, slamming the bedroom door shut with a loud bang.
A/N: You know the dealio, reviews people:)