Chapter 7

Elizabeth's eyes opened and Rodney was still staring across at Heightmeyer. Well, nothing new there, he could see what Elizabeth saw. Okay, so that wasn't going to prove anything. He looked down at her hands to see if maybe something had changed there—

Wait! He had looked down. He had looked down.

He raised a hand in front of his face and wiggled the fingers, marveling at the fact that he was staring at Elizabeth's hand and not his own. Hmmm… he had never realized how well manicured she was.

Okay, so he could move her eyes and hands. Good to know. What else could he do?

"Um… testing, testing. One, two, three." Rodney spoke and was surprised to hear Elizabeth speaking the words for him. No—he was speaking the words, but in Elizabeth's voice. Through her lips. Okay, weird.

"Rodney?" Heightmeyer asked slowly. Rodney looked down at his body again—Elizabeth's—and patted himself down. Then he realized what he was doing and quickly jerked his hands away from the whole chest… area. Yeah, definitely weird.

"Looks like it." He said and rested Elizabeth's hands in her lap again. His lap. Her lap. Whose lap? Oh, it didn't matter.

"Is… er, is Elizabeth still there?"

"I'm here."

Rodney jumped—literally, for once—when he heard Elizabeth speak. Except this time, the words were inside his head. Or, at least the head he was borrowing. Yeah, this was definitely really, really, really weird.

"Uh, she's here." Rodney said quickly. He stumbled over the words a bit when he heard Elizabeth's voice speaking them. He felt like he was trying to talk over her and right after she had spoken inside her head…

"So, Rodney, what is it like?" Elizabeth asked. Rodney frowned. Hadn't she been listening? It was really, really, really—

"Wait!" Rodney shouted. "You can't hear what I'm thinking?"

"Apparently not." Elizabeth answered. "But I suppose it makes sense. I couldn't hear what you were thinking before. Why would I be able to now?"

"Hmm. I just assumed that whoever was in… uh, in charge, I guess, would automatically be… broadcasting."

"Apparently not." Elizabeth repeated. "I guess you could only hear my thoughts, which means that I can probably still only feel your emotions."

"Oh, yeah. This is weird."

"Definitely." Elizabeth agreed.

"Okay, trust me, it's definitely weirder from where I'm sitting." Kate said.

Rodney marched down the hallway towards the mess hall. Or, rather, Elizabeth was. But since Rodney was in control of her body, Elizabeth was walking with his gait and not her own. Which would probably explain the weird looks he kept getting…

"God, I'm starving." Rodney said, rubbing his hands together. Rather, rubbing Elizabeth's hands together.

"I bet you are." Elizabeth said. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday."

"Hmm… wonder what they're serving today?"

"Last I heard there was key lime pie on the list."

"Elizabeth, why would I want to eat anything with lime in it—"

"Because, Rodney," Elizabeth said, amusement filling her voice, "I can."

"Oh!" Rodney grinned. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

"I wonder." Elizabeth said and he could hear the smile in her voice. Now that he thought about it, there was probably a similar one on her lips, too. Or rather, his grin on her lips.

Yep. Still weird.

"Hey, look, it's Elizabeth." John said, glancing up from the table he was sharing with Ronan and Teyla. "Apparently she's feeling better. Rodney must not be giving her any trouble today."

"Should we not invite her to dine with us?" Teyla asked. John grinned—always the polite one.

"Sure—oh, here she comes anyway. And… she appears to be hungry."

The three members of Atlantis's frontline team watched in surprise as Elizabeth came over to join them, her plate covered with just about everything on the menu, including a slice of key lime, banana cream and lemon meringue pie. She sat down across from Sheppard—beside Ronan—and grinned at the three of them.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" she asked brightly. She grinned at Ronan and patted him on the arm. "How're you doing, big fellah?"

Ronan didn't answer. He just stared at her like she had just grown a second head. Elizabeth looked at Sheppard and Teyla and saw similar expressions.

"What?"

"Are you… feeling all right, Dr. Weir?" Teyla asked slowly.

"Never better." Elizabeth grinned. "Watch this."

She took a huge forkful of lemon meringue and stuffed it into her mouth. She hadn't even swallowed before she spoke again.

"It's lemon. Can you believe it?" she laughed and ate the rest of the slice in record-breaking time. She finished off the banana and key lime in equal amounts of time before she moved on to the rest of her food. She waved her chicken drumstick in the air.

"Check it out. Lemon chicken." She bit out a huge chunk. She chewed a bit and then shrugged. "Eh, I've had better."

"Elizabeth… are you sure you're feeling okay?" Sheppard asked slowly. "Because you're acting sort of… um…"

"Crazy." Ronan grunted. Sheppard shot him a look.

"I was going to say odd."

Ronan shrugged and went back to eating. Apparently, his original surprise had given away to amusement and he was perfectly happy to be sitting next to a crazy Elizabeth Weir so long as she didn't interfere with is lunch.

Teyla and Sheppard watched in amazement—and mild disgust—as Elizabeth polished off everything on her plate, pointing out every time she ate something with lemon in it. She finished off by drinking a huge glass of lemonade.

"Ah." She breathed, setting the glass down. "It's been a while. Well, I'm full. It was nice talking with you. Don't be a stranger; you know where I work. Which reminds me—why have you been avoiding me?"

"We… haven't." Sheppard said, his words sounding dumb even to him. But he really was confused. Why was Weir acting so damn weird? "You've been sort of preoccupied—Elizabeth, what is going on?"

"Nothing. Okay, see you later."

Elizabeth got to her feet and after dumping her tray, she walked out of the mess hall. Or rather, she strode.

A very familiar stride.

That was definitely not her own.

"That was…" Teyla paused when she couldn't find the word.

"Strange." Sheppard supplied. She nodded slowly.

Ronan merely grunted and kept on eating.