Title: Ten Days
Chapter: 6
Author: GeekyDollie
Date: 2006
Summary: Elizabeth awakes as a prisoner in a cold cell. Her people have no idea where she is. Will she lose hope?
Spoilers: The Eye, The Storm, and Coup D'Etat
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and the characters belong to TPTB of the Stargate franchise.
"Doctor, she's waking up."
Elizabeth opened her eyes and found Teyla calling for Carson. Beside her John was sitting up in a chair by her bedside, and Ronon hopped off an examination table from across the room.
"Elizabeth, how are you feeling?" Carson quickly approached the side of her bed and checked her vitals.
"Tired," a small smile brightened her features. She looked around at the group noting a missing member of the team. "Rodney?"
"He was injured in the initial blast. He's going to be okay." Carson nodded towards a bed across the room. Elizabeth glanced over to where he was indicating.
"I thought maybe…. They told me all of you were dead."
"The blast stunned us only momentarily. We awoke to find you gone with no indication of what had happened to you." Teyla explained. "Rodney was severely injured and men were approaching our position, so we brought him back to Atlantis before starting a search for you."
"Ladon was no help at all, until we met Corun who told us of Sora and where you were being held." John continued.
"Corun!" Elizabeth's eyes widened, "I promised him that we would help him bring their issues to Ladon."
"It's done. He explained everything to us. Ladon's men took Sora into custody, and Ladon set up a meeting with Corun this afternoon."
Elizabeth nodded, satisfied for now. After her ordeal, she was glad that she was home finally.
"How long was I there?"
"Ten days."
Ten days. Elizabeth closed her eyes. It had felt like weeks.
oOoOo
Elizabeth didn't hear the sound of footfalls behind her as she leaned against the edge of the balcony railing and stared at the expanse of water below. She just let the ocean breeze ruffle her hair as she pulled her black jacket around her a little tighter. On the horizon, the moon was just beginning to rise in the dark star-filled sky. Every reflection on the water seemed like little flames dancing to the rhythm of the water washing against the walls of the city.
A knock on the door leading back into the hallway and the call of her name caught her attention. Elizabeth immediately recognized the silhouette of John Sheppard, even though she couldn't see his backlit figure clearly.
"Hey." It was just his simple acknowledgement that he'd found her there. He stepped out onto the balcony without invitation. Not that he needed that invitation verbalized.
"Hi." The breeze whipped Elizabeth's hair across her face, and she turned back to the ocean where the weather and her hair were more co-operative. She felt John's warmth as he matched her position at the railing and tried to follow her gaze to whatever imaginary point that seemed to have captivated her.
"Carson finally let you out?"
"Yeah," Elizabeth glanced at him briefly before returning to her observation of the ocean.
They stood like that for a moment before John gently bumped his shoulder against hers to get her attention.
"You okay?" he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She mustered a small smile in response. It was neither an affirmative, nor a negative answer to his question. Just some response. Something she could give as an answer without having to go into any more depth… without having to think in any more depth.
That made John study her a little more closely as he searched her face for clues of what she was not saying. Elizabeth felt his eyes on her but refused to look back. He knew that she always had an answer or opinion for everything, so a non-committal response like this was not what he's expected. At the very least, he thought she would blow off his question with a simple "fine".
"So whatcha doing out here?" he decided on another approach.
"I couldn't sleep." Elizabeth didn't look away from the water. "I guess I just came out for some fresh air."
"Ah."
"What are you doing here? It must be, what, 3 or 4 in the morning now?"
"Couldn't sleep." John flashed her a wry grin. "Actually... I was just walking by, and I saw you out here."
"Well I didn't think anyone would find me here. Not at this hour anyway." She assumed she could be alone with her thoughts tonight. Now that he was standing there beside her though, she realized that the distraction was not exactly unwelcome.
"Do you want me to leave you alone?" John half expected her to say yes, but her body language read otherwise.
"Not really."
"Ok." John's brow furrowed trying to find the right thing to say, and kicked himself for suddenly blurting out something trite. "You did good out there, Elizabeth. I don't think anyone else could have handled it any differently."
At least that got a response out of her. She immediately turned and raised an eyebrow at his incredibly cliché statement. But then her expression changed and she looked away pensively.
"I should have been more aware of my surroundings. I truly believed we could have just walked right in there to meet Ladon with no trouble." Her voice softened. If it wasn't for the quietness of night, John may not have really heard her. "I was just so damned naïve."
"No you weren't," he was quick to dismiss that assumption. "None of us knew that Sora was mounting her own rebellion. Not even Ladon had any idea."
"Maybe if I had fought harder… maybe if I could have made a better effort to run for it."
"And do what? Do you think that you could have fought off these guys by yourself in that situation? You read the situation, and you made the best decisions you could."
"I would hardly call that the best. God, John, do you even know what it was like down there?" Her voice was tight. Her eyes shone as she blinked back the memories. "Tell me it was the best decision to have Sora imprison me, humiliate me, completely strip me of my sense of reality…"
"Elizabeth…"
"She made me think that I was alone down there. That no one was going to come looking for me. That all of you were dead. That either I give up the information, or she would continue to torment me or kill me. Tell me that THAT was the best decision instead of fighting when I had the chance!" She was visibly upset now. Anguish running down her cheeks as the emotion of the last few weeks broke though her usual façade. "I should have…"
"Elizabeth. Listen to yourself." John gripped her shoulders fiercely, and pulled her to him. She was tense in his arms, but she was silent at the sudden contact. "You can't change what happened. You can't let yourself second-guess at every decision, it will just make you crazy. What matters is that it turned out ok."
"Maybe this time."
"Then we learn."
Her arms came around his back and gripped the fabric of his T-shirt as she stepped closer and hid her face in his chest. She didn't want him to see her tears, but he could feel them in her shaky breaths. His arms surrounded her more securely. Gradually he felt her relax and lean into him.
"You know, I would have never left you there." John told her softly.
"I know." Her voice was almost a whisper. "You never leave people behind. You told me that once."
"I'm sorry it took so long."
"I know." She gripped him tighter, and her voice wavered. "You did the best you could."
John grinned ironically at the turnabout.
"I think just believing that you would find me gave me some sort of hope." Elizabeth admitted after a moment. "I kept thinking I might be able to get through just one more hour, one more day, because at any moment you would come through that door and find me."
"Did you ever think that we might not?" John watched her eyes turn more honest than he'd ever seen.
"Just before you came... I thought... I honestly thought that maybe..." she couldn't actually bring herself to say it.
"I'm glad you are okay." John made his admission after a moment of his own.
"Am I?"
John only gave her a slight smile, neither affirmative nor negative to her question. But her eyes were searching him for an answer, hoping for some wisdom in his military expertise. Somehow, not even military expertise could prepare one for something like this. John brought both hands up and brushed her hair behind her ears. She should never have had to experience what she did. Not for the first time, he wished he could have taken her place.
When he looked into her eyes, he saw a spirit nearly broken. And John whispered the words that he hoped would rescue her one more time.
"Elizabeth, you know I would never leave you."
FIN
