In the morning after John left Elizabeth was escorted back to the women's quarters. She was more relaxed and in higher spirits than she'd been in a long while. A night of genuinely relaxing sleep had done her a whirl of good.
The woman's quarters were nothing more than a big room stuffed full of bunks. The bunks were lined up in rows from wall to wall with only a few feet walking space between them. In the back of the room was a door to another room, the communal bathroom. Every part of the room was under the eye of cameras and listening devices, but there were places the women could go for small amounts of privacy – some individual bunks couldn't be seen by the cameras, and the women had gotten a length of cloth and hung it over one of the latrine stools in the bathroom to give women who absolutely needed it a few moments of unobserved privacy.
Aimlessly wandering through the maze of bunks Elizabeth soon found herself wandering over to Leea's corner – a spot on the floor between two bunks where neither the cameras nor the listening devices could pick up much of anything. The middle-aged woman sat working out the day's duty roster, Elizabeth mentally smiled in relief, working the negotiations meant that she was excused from day shifts.
"Looks like someone had a good night." Leea looked up.
"God," Elizabeth plopped down next to the older woman. "I can't believe I almost forgot what that could really be like."
"I'm glad for you, but be careful. Remember that while a man on occasion can be fun to fuck, never trust one with your heart. Men are selfish, self centered, arrogant, bastards that will beat you down at every opportunity."
"John's a good man, on his world…our world…woman are treated like actual people, treated like equals. He's a real gentleman." She smiled faintly thing of the night before. Suddenly terror ran through her as a thought came to her mind, she jerked up straighter, "Shit, how obvious is it that I had a good time last night?"
"You'd have to be dead not to notice. No need to worry, you know they won't care in medical."
"But Jerick will." If Jerick knew that John had been kind to her, she would never be allowed to go back to John. Jerick enjoyed sharing Elizabeth with men who'd hurt her; he got off on that. Elizabeth's misery was personal for Jerick, if he thought for even a second that she'd enjoyed herself with John he'd give her to someone else or even take her himself tonight, flaunting his possession of her at John, who'd dared to give his degradation toy a night of pleasure.
She had to do something she had to find a way to stop what she saw coming, but how? Jerick would interrogate her about John. She knew she was a good actress – years of working as a diplomat had made sure of that – but could she really pretend to be cringing and whining and terrified, as usual, when her whole world was upside down? When John was going to rescue her and the night with him had been amazing and the only reason she wasn't grinning like an idiot now was the terror that it wouldn't happen again?
"Well there's nothing you can do about it now." Leea gazed at Elizabeth with sympathy.
"Yes there is." Elizabeth scrambled to her feet headed for the bathroom.
Ducking into the make shift stall Elizabeth took a deep breath, and then flung herself as hard as she could at the wall. There were cameras all over the bathroom, as much a way to humiliate the women as a way to keep an eye on them, but the blanket blocked the cameras and everyone knew the listening devices couldn't handle anything short of a loud conversation, in a room where water was always running.
She threw herself at the wall, again and again, until her head spun dizzily. When she left the stall she was walking unsteadily, dizzy. She glanced at herself in the long mirror running the length of the latrines. Good, the bruises were already starting to show a little. In half an hour they'd be vivid. The guards rounded them up on schedule. In medical after all the samples had been taken and the examinations were complete Elizabeth was led off to debriefing.
She spent an hour lying to Jerick, telling him that no John hadn't told her anything, that there'd been no pillow talk or offhanded mention of strategies. Elizabeth gave him a detailed description of what John had done to her last night, including where the bruises had come from. None of it was true, but since she was drawing off things various Arcadian men, including Jerick himself, had done to her in the past, she had no trouble making it convincing. Jerick was staring at her, piggy eyes wide, obviously aroused, but it was entirely too poor etiquette for him to fuck a woman he'd temporarily gifted to another man, even if she was one of his favorites. He'd take it out on some other poor soul instead, she knew, and hated herself for how relieved she felt.
--
Through sheer force of will John managed to make it through the day's negotiations. As soon as the negotiations paused for mid-day meal John immediately rounded up Lorne and Ronon to go over what they had for plans to rescue Elizabeth.
Boarding the jumper Lorne had left cloaked by the gate John wasn't even the slightest bit surprised to find Rodney and Carson waiting, although he was surprised to find Teyla there.
"Save your breath," Teyla cut John off before he could open his mouth. "I am here and I am not going anywhere, until we have Dr. Weir back."
"Right." John turned to face Lorne, "What've you got Major?"
"This," Lorne handed a paper to John "is the scan we took of the building. We know for sure that these rooms," he pointed out different sections of the scan, "are the conference rooms, and that these are the guest quarters. Other then those rooms we don't know what any of these other rooms are for."
"I'll show these to Elizabeth, she should know what these other rooms are." John slid the scan into his jacket. "Ronon?"
"Guard rotation's pretty standard. Shouldn't be a problem for us to get past them into the building. After that things get tricky, we have no idea how many guards are inside or what their rotation's like. There's also the security cameras to deal with."
"Got that covered." Rodney spoke up. "Just get me inside and I can jam the cameras and any listening devices there might be."
The group spent an hour planning out as much of a plan as they could with the information they had – John planed to get the information they were missing from Elizabeth the next time he saw her.
Arriving back at the conference room John snagged one of the many aides running around and pulled him off to the side. After arranging to make sure Elizabeth would be waiting for him in his room John reluctantly forced himself back to the negotiations.
Finally after a frustratingly long day John was able to return to his room. Entering the room he didn't immediately see Elizabeth
"Elizabeth?" John called out as he entered the room.
"In here," Elizabeth's voice came from the bathroom. "You don't mind do you, if I wash up a bit?" She poked her head out the bathroom door.
"Go for it." John plopped down on the bed sliding his boots and jacket off. More exhausted than he realized John dozed off before he knew it.
A while later he woke up, the room was darker. Feeling Elizabeth pressed up against his side, a soft arm around his waist, John smiled softly as he moved to wrap an arm around her.
"What's wrong?" John, having felt Elizabeth wince, was instantly wide-awake.
"Nothing." She snuggled in closer to John.
Knowing a lie when he heard one John quickly ran his hand over the light panel by the bed lighting up the room. Elizabeth sighed in resignation, waiting for the inevitable. Seeing the bruises on Elizabeth's body John felt an uncontrollable rage surface inside him.
"That son of a bitch," he started to get out of bed. "I'm going to kill that fucking bastard!"
"John, no!" Elizabeth jerked up right in bed grabbing John's hand tightly. "It's not what you think. They don't even really hurt not like the implant or some of Jerick's more unpleasant pastimes. Besides he's not the one who did it."
"If he didn't…" He trailed off taking in Elizabeth's down cast eyes filled with hints of guilt and uncertainty. "Elizabeth tell me you didn't…you did this to yourself?"
Elizabeth lowered her head nodding faintly, arms folded across her stomach. "I didn't have a choice. It was the only way I knew of to make sure he'd let me come back tonight."
"I don't understand."
"Jerick likes to see me hurt. But last night I…I enjoyed it, you know that. And this morning, I was thinking of tonight... you, and the way you would make me feel, and even if we didn't do anything just knowing you wouldn't hurt me, that I wouldn't have to pretend to be thrilled to the core that some piece of shit would deign to fuck me... and that you were going to get me out of here..." She looked up at John. "I like to think I'm a very good actor… kind of a necessity if you're going to work in politics. But even I have my limits. I didn't know if I could stop hoping, if I could stop looking like I was hoping. Like I was happy. And if I was happy Jerick never would've let you have me again tonight."
"Even if I had insisted?"
"You don't get it, this is more than him just owning me. It's personal for him…the man that bought me from the slavers…he was Jerick's brother and Jerick blames me for 'corrupting' his brother, even though the man was unhappy with the government long before I came along. Jerick likes to think of me as his personal plaything. Sure he hands me out to other men but because of what he thinks I did to his brother he has a personal interest in seeing me suffer. If he'd thought I liked you, he probably would have used the implant on me anyway, just so I'd stop hoping. And even if he didn't do that, he'd never have let me go to you again. So I... I had to make sure, that he'd think I'd suffer if you got me again."
"God, Elizabeth." Elizabeth was pulled into herself, huddling, shivering slightly. John placed his hand on her un-bruised shoulder, repositioning himself to sit closer to her. She leaned into him slightly, the shivering abating.
Holding her firmly without, he hoped, making her feel trapped, he ran soothing touches down her back. She wasn't crying, but she was breathing raggedly, as if fighting off tears. "You're not angry with me, are you? Please don't be angry with me John..."
"Of course I'm not angry. Not with you. I'm angry at them, for forcing you to this, but I understand why you did this. I'm just sorry you had to."
She pressed her face against his chest tightly then leaned back, rubbing her eyes with the back of a pale hand. Oddly, only then did he fully realize she was naked. She seemed quite unselfconscious about it. "You must be hungry." She changed the subject.
"Nah just tired."
"Then go to sleep." Elizabeth settled in closer to John. "I'll be here in the morning."
"Won't they…?"
"No," she shook her head. "They know you had me once; since they think you smacked me around, they won't care what you do to me tonight."
Elizabeth's casual use of the expression 'had' as if she were some sort of delicacy and not a person, disturbed John, along with the fact that the Arcadians thought he was the sort of man who beat women for pleasure, like them. The more time he spent on Arcadia the more he was convinced that the majority of the people there deserved to be culled by the Wraith.
"What?" Elizabeth couldn't quite identify the emotion she saw flash in John's eyes.
"Nothing." The emotion disappeared from his eyes as quickly as it had appeared. "Look before we go to sleep I need to go over some things with you."
Carefully reaching over Elizabeth John retrieved the scans from his jacket he'd dropped on the floor next to the bed. He briefly out lined the rough plan they had so far. Elizabeth listened closely, filling in missing pieces of information were she could.
Seeing Elizabeth's eyes starting to droop, John brushed back a strand of her hair out of her face kissing her temple feather lightly. "Sleep, relax. Before you know it we'll have you out of here and back home where you belong."
Elizabeth smiled and closed her eyes, all but nodding off in front of him. John watched her a moment longer, then got under the covers, telling himself quite firmly he was not the least bit aroused by being in bed with a beautiful naked woman.
Waking up early the next morning John smiled finding Elizabeth curled up against him. Her pale body felt light and warm against his. She slightly shifted in her sleep, a noise similar to a whimper escaping.
"No, please…" Elizabeth mumbled in her sleep. Her arms tightened around John, he was pretty sure she was having a nightmare. He wanted to comfort her, but he doubted caressing her as she slept would be a good idea. She'd doubtlessly been mauled so often since coming here...so many unwanted hands.
As another pained whimper escaped from Elizabeth and John couldn't take it any more. Slowly and softly, he moved his hands around until they could trail a long, gentle caress up and down, from the tops of her shoulders to her hips, and back again. To his relief she calmed, her breathing once again slow and deep. He kept touching her, soothing her, long after she'd obviously gone back into deep sleep, smiling at him self, again feeling comforted as well.
The morning came quickly after that, and he awoke feeling quite refreshed, considering.
And then he frowned, realizing he'd reached across an empty bed. Elizabeth wasn't there.
"It's about time you woke up."
Looking up John paused speechless. Elizabeth was standing there wearing a pair of his boxers and one of his black shirts – both of which she'd obviously swiped from his bag – and he had to admit, that to him at least, she looked hot.
John mentally smacked himself, those were not the kind of thoughts he needed to be having. "Morning." He smiled lazily.
"Breakfast?" Elizabeth motioned to the table.
"Mmm," he rolled out of the bed and made his way over to the table. There was what looked like bagels, and fruit, along with the instant coffee that had been in his bag. Sitting down he frowned when Elizabeth didn't move to join him. "Sit down, you need to eat."
John smirked watching the emotions that played over Elizabeth's face. Part of her was touched that he cared and the other part wanted to tell him to go to hell, she was a big girl and could take care of herself. It was just like old times back in Atlantis before she went missing.
Elizabeth sat at the table with him. She nibbled on one of the bagels as John poured her a cup of coffee. Taking the cup she wrapped both hands around it. Sipping at the liquid slowly a look of bliss formed on Elizabeth's face. "Mmm…god I've missed caffeine."
"I'll bet." John grinned. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up." He got up and disappeared into the bathroom.
Emerging from the bathroom John found Elizabeth sitting on the edge of the bed. She was sitting with her shoulders hunched and a far off gaze in her eyes.
"You ok?" He sat down next to her.
"Yeah…just nervous." She let out a soft sigh.
"Don't worry by tomorrow night we'll have you out of here."
She shuddered and stared at the floor. "I can't think about it. If I think about it I'll go crazy." Abruptly, she lay back on the bed, her arms stretched out over her head. "I'm not going to think about anything. I'm just going to report in, let them give me the once-over and lock me up. It's a day like any other." Her hazel eyes shifted and met his. "And I'll see you tonight."
"Wraith couldn't keep me away." He ran a comforting hand across her back. "I'll see you later." Grabbing his jacket off the floor John left the room.