And everything seems so peaceful...for now...
Chapter 11
I stood back and let them through the cave entrance first, bringing up the rear and re-arranging the vines the way they'd looked before Teyla had pushed them aside.
Inside, we paused to let our eyes adjust.
I sniffed the air. It was moist, with a pleasant undertone of something I couldn't place. There was a constant, low mutter in the background, almost like voices, but as I listened harder I realized I couldn't hear any actual words. Whatever it was, it wasn't people.
Teyla lit a torch. From the corner of my eye I saw McKay step closer to Sheppard, the rock walls and flickering light undoubtedly bringing back some bad memories.
"It's ok, Rodney," Sheppard responded softly, and McKay nodded, glanced searchingly at the pilot a moment, and moved back where he'd been. Sheppard touched McKay's arm briefly, almost absently, but it seemed to me that it was as much for his own comfort as the physicist's. I dropped back, 'covering their six' as Sheppard put it, and gave them some space.
Teyla led the way. It was a well-worn path, almost wide enough for two to walk abreast, and it showed signs of having been recently cleared. Small piles of screed were mounded at the side, and some larger rock as well. I'd lit a torch off Teyla's, and now I held it high for a moment, examining the ceiling. Rock had flaked away, and there were supports spaced along the tunnel, seemingly cast from a black stone that absorbed light.
"Definitely manmade." I observed.
"Ancient made, Ronon," Teyla's voice carried back, and I realized the acoustics of the place meant even a whisper would be heard.
I grunted acknowledgement, following the rest down a gentle slope, around a corner...and out into a bright, misty scene.
The change of light dazzled me for an instant. I recovered faster than the others, muscles tensing automatically against attack, scanning the surroundings. Old habits die hard.
The light came from above, crevices in the rock that let shafts of light into the cavern. It reflected off and into a cloudy rock in the walls that bounced the brightness throughout, lighting the drifting, see-through mist. That mist came from a string of pools that took up most of the area, all connected to a main, bubbling hot spring by streams and waterfalls. I counted five large ones, and several smaller ones.
The others looked around in wonder.
"You didn't mention this," Sheppard said, finally.
"I did," Teyla responded with asperity. "Several months ago. I believe Dr. Weir suggested one of the geologists might come out to study it, but as it has happened, you," she included all of them with her gesture "are the first from the city to come."
"Never was a hot tub kind of guy," McKay muttered. At Sheppard's elbow, though, he glanced at Teyla. "Never too late to try, though, right?" He looked around. "It is pretty down here."
"It is that," Sheppard agreed. "What do we do?"
She smiled tolerantly. "There are changing areas through that arch. It appears the Ancients also disliked being nude, there were scraps of cloth that we presume they wore into the water, but we do not bother."
McKay looked like he'd swallowed a crystal. "Naked?"
"Thank you, lass," Beckett said. "We appreciate this." He turned to Sheppard and McKay. "Ok, the both of you, in there and strip."
"Naked?" McKay squeaked.
I saw that Sheppard had his reservations, too, but the pilot wouldn't admit to them, enjoying McKay's discomfort. Earthers had a keen sense of propriety, or at least the ones from the continent where the two originated did. I still had trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of having not just thousands or millions, but billions of people on a planet.
"Well, if you want to put these on..." Beckett held up two pairs of shorts "to go in with..."
McKay snatched a pair. "How about the rest of you?" he demanded. Sheppard grinned, took a pair as well. Beckett handed me mine.
Teyla cleared her throat. "I will leave you now," she said. "Enjoy yourselves. I will send one of the children when the evening meal is prepared."
She left. I watched three pairs of eyes follow her trim form until she vanished in the mist.
"They go in naked, huh?" McKay said softly. As usual, with time on our hands, we'd had a couple of – chats – about women. It was normal, I'd found, for men with nothing else to do.
Sheppard whacked McKay with his shorts. "Behave! She's on your team."
"Oh, like you weren't thinking the same thing."
I took the shorts Beckett held out. "You should be glad she didn't hear that." I said, and turned to head for the change room.
And stopped, snickering, as Teyla's voice floated back. "I heard that."
"Darn acoustics." Sheppard muttered, following Beckett.
OoO
I was changed and ready before the others, so I sat and watched. Another propriety of these people was that a doctor examined a patient behind closed doors, but Beckett hadn't asked me to leave and I didn't volunteer.
Beckett peeled the bandages from Sheppard's incisions first. They were angry red weals, but they were well closed and only a bit tender. McKay's ribs had almost healed, and though the bruises were vivid yellow and purple on them both, Beckett seemed pleased. Sheppard's ease of motion in his hands satisfied the Scot, and he removed the last of the splints. McKay's had been more damaged, and he ended up with a couple of fingers self-splinted. "For a few more days," Beckett said, and waved them out.
I sat as Beckett cleared up, watching. Finally, though, the doctor had finished, bagged the detritus to be returned to Atlantis, and stood, looking at me as if he could read my mind. And it turned out he could.
"D'you see, lad?" he said kindly. "Mending, both of them. Your team will be ready to go in ten days. Maybe less."
I nodded once, outwardly indifferent, but inside, I took a moment to thank my childhood gods that I'd ended up in Atlantis.
"Thanks." was all I said, though.
It was all Beckett expected. He grinned at me, and headed out.
Chapter 12"So now you see what you've been missing, not being a hot-tub person," Sheppard observed, leaning back against the wall, arms on the ledge. We were in the largest of the pools. It wasn't the warmest, but Beckett had given it his approval, happy that the temperature permitted a far safer extended soak than did some of the others. I mimicked his pose, as did Beckett. McKay floated in the middle. There was still room for more.
We'd used the lowest pool as the Athosians did, to wash. The constant flow of water from the spring kept it fresh, but it was the coolest of the lot and the final pool of any real depth – it gave into a stream that disappeared into the earth and likely made its way to the sea. The other pools grew warmer the tighter into the rough spiral we went. We'd spent some time splashing experimentally in each pool, settling on the one with the best compromise of size and warmth.
"I'll concede that point," McKay replied. He ducked and surfaced, what hair he had plastered over his forehead. "I guess we'll have to tell the others about this place, huh?" He sounded a bit regretful as he lay back and floated again, turning gently in the eddy of the water flow like a rather larger than normal leaf on the surface of a stream.
"As Teyla pointed out, they've already been informed..." Sheppard trailed off under Beckett's disapproving stare. "Ok, ok. We'll tell Elizabeth. She can take it from there."
"When we get back." I made the suggestion in my deepest, most resonant tone, and Beckett eyed me.
"Of all people, lad, don't you think she deserves a hot soak now and again?"
I sighed, nodded.
"I'll tell her when I go back." Beckett said, smiling.
"Meantime, I think we should come by here every day. For medicinal purposes, of course." Sheppard floated his feet up, pushing McKay lightly on the shoulder. McKay slid through the water, bumping gently off the wall. He sank with a yelp and bobbed up again, scowling.
"You are so dead," he growled. He was learning, I noted. The growl didn't have quite my tone, but it was getting there. He dove again, and Sheppard had a second's warning before he was tugged down too. The horseplay lasted only a few moments before both were leaning on the wall, panting hard. McKay was whining about his ribs, too, but the effect was spoiled by the grin he couldn't wipe off.
I'd glanced at Beckett when Sheppard first vanished, but the doctor had just shrugged, an amused, tolerant expression on his face.
OoO
It became our routine. We'd wake, eat, do the housekeeping the camp required, then take the twenty-five minute walk to the springs. We'd spend the morning there, then dress and join the Athosians in the village, helping with the work that needed to be done. We'd eat our afternoon and evening meals there, join the rest of the village around the main fire for a story or two, and head back by the moonlight. A quick dip to wash off the grime of the day, and then we'd be back in the tents for the evening. The kids took turns, and they had it down to an art – the stove would be lit when we got back, kettle approaching a boil.
The twenty-five minute walk became twenty, then fifteen, as Sheppard and McKay mended. I found some ease in the simple life, as well; Halling and I rebuilt the main shelter for the smaller food animals, felled and barked several trees ready for planking, and cleared a field of stumps. Sheppard and McKay were drafted into the picking gangs for the bumper crop of beans and squash. "Good physical therapy," Beckett was heard to comment.
Remarkably, McKay's complaints were minimal. Given the alternative, which was boredom, he pitched in with a will. I had learned quickly that the one thing McKay could not tolerate was being bored. It didn't silence him. Only a problem – or unconsciousness – did that.
Our main tent was littered with tiny wooden plows as he tried to design a more efficient blade configuration. It made sitting an adventure - the chairs had to be inspected before use, or there was a good chance of being poked in the butt. It happened a couple of times, but I realized getting mad wouldn't help. I planted one in his bed one night, and the next evening all the models were lined up on the table by way of apology.
Doctor Weir visited us twice, bringing a couple of what Earthers usually used for swimming. She and Teyla spent a considerable time in a slightly warmer pool than the one we used, and their laughter was as pleasant as it was unexpected.
Teyla slept in my tent more often than not. I had re-discovered my talent for waking just enough to keep a fire lit, and the dreams and memories were beginning to - if not fade - assume their true place in my life, as dreams. And memories.