Note: Thank you again for all the kind comments and reviews – I'm really touched, thank you. I hope everyone continues to remain safe and well. A few people have told me that they are particularly appreciating fanfic right now as a distraction away from the current situation; so, in light of that, I present the latest chapter, which brings a close to 'Day 13' of the story.
00000
DAY 13 – TRUST
Chapter 17 – Chaos and Calm
He was trying to find something, or a place.
Yes, a place.
Somewhere he'd been before, but had no idea how to find.
He'd been searching for hours for it, right through the night and into the new early dawn light that had brought with it a cold thick fog. Moving through the chill, he squinted through the thick soft haze, trying to get his bearings. Nothing looked familiar though, not even as he climbed a faint incline out of a thick patch of fog and into a clearer view of the landscape.
He should be wearing warmer clothes for this, his arms chilled against the morning freshness, but he was almost certain what he needed for that would be found in the place he was looking for...whatever it was.
There was a break in the line of the hedgerow up ahead where he could see a metal gate, so he headed that way quickly and clambered up over its frame. The old and rusted metal hinges creaked loudly under his weight before he dropped down onto the thin grass of a field on the other side.
A field!
That was what he was looking for, but this wasn't the right one; he could tell even through the thick fog. If he could only remember which field he was trying to find. Maybe it was the next one on from this one?
The grass felt slightly crunchy under his boots as he moved carefully across the foggy open space. He couldn't see anything ahead of him, just different swirls of white within the thick fog, so he constantly switched his attention between the lack of clarity ahead and the ground just ahead of him, carefully watching his footing.
A good distance on, he guessed he had to be at least halfway across the field by now, but without any landmarks, he just couldn't tell. He couldn't even tell which way he was going, so he paused in the thick whiteness, only to feel a prickling warning creep across the back of his neck. He quickly looked back over his shoulder, looking the way he had come, but he couldn't see anything, couldn't see the gate in the distance. But he could hear it, he realised, the hinges creaking through the fog.
Except, he'd not left the gate open...
The sensation of being watched, being hunted, crept further down his neck and across his shoulders, whispering fear and danger.
He turned completely round towards the distant squeaking gate, trying to make out any shapes in the fog.
It could just be that the gate had simply swung open after he'd climbed over it. The latch was probably as old and rusty as the hinges...
He kept turning slowly on the spot, squinting around the unseen field, seeking out the source of the itching worry.
Until it occurred to him to look up.
Sweeping his eyes upwards, the fog thinning the higher he looked, the mists parted around the dark hanging underbelly of a Wraith Hive ship.
He stumbled backwards, panic racing up his throat at the sight, and he tried to both run away but still keep his eyes on the ship. Almost falling over though, he quickly dropped his panicked stare from the ship and raced forward, uncaring now about what could be in the fog ahead of him.
How long had the Hive been tracking him? Had it been hovering over the landscape all night as he blindly searched?
The whiteout ahead finally started parting, revealing that he'd reached an edge of the field, where a full of thicket of overgrown shrubs rose up a slight incline to another thick hedgerow. He pushed quickly through the thicket, sharp edges of bracken scratching at his bare arms and his lower belly. The scratches tore deep on his belly though, forcing him to stop in the dense thicket and look down to find blood staining the lower part of his shirt.
Had he been injured?
He couldn't risk delaying to check – he just needed to find the safety of the field; he'd be okay if he could just find the field. Warn everyone else about the Hive.
He pushed on, puffing out his breaths through the nagging pain until he worked his way up through the bracken, gripping hold of a thick-stemmed shrub to help haul himself up the incline to the hedge at last. There was a single tree up here, having managed to grow up through the thick hedgerow to the light above, and it now provided some limited cover. He pushed into the hedge, sliding up against the tree's rough bark, and finally risked peering back up and out towards the Hive's hull.
Only, it wasn't there anymore.
Where had it gone?
Up into orbit? To blast him and everyone else from up there?
He quickly shoved through the rest of the tightly packed hedge and stumbled out into the next field. This was more promising, but still not the one he was looking for. A wooden fence stretched ahead and there were large sleeping cattle scattered across the grass. He headed towards the fence and followed it down the length of the field, spying the promising shapes of rooftops ahead through only a faint mist here.
Glancing up again, the sky was still free of the Wraith, but he hurried on faster.
He had to warn everyone. Get help.
Find the field.
The fence-line finally reached level with two large barns, so he clambered over the fence onto the gravelled surface of a farmyard and hurried towards the closest barn, glancing worriedly up and back again to check the sky.
At the barn, he rushed inside, but is was empty save for some cattle stalls, so he hurried back out into the cool air, crunching over the gravel as he dashed into the barn opposite. No one was here either.
He shouted out, hoping maybe someone would hear him, but there was no reply.
He looked hurriedly around the barn to find a useful weapon, but all he could find was a shovel and a length of chain – hardly the best weapons to use against the Wraith.
Clutching the shovel's wooden handle, he stepped back out of the barn and peered up at the sky.
Nothing.
In fact, he realised, there were no sounds at all. Not the stirring of tree branches, no shifting of the worryingly still cattle, or the chirp of a bird anywhere.
He headed slowly back to the fence-line, his boots' soft crunches on the gravel the only whisper of any sound in the thick silence. Looking back up the length of the field towards the hedgerow with its single tree, he saw the fog was now rolling in from the previous field, slowly sweeping down over the cattle, covering everything.
No one was here. No one could help, and he had no idea where to go or where to find the field he was looking for.
He was all alone.
The silence broke with a sudden flutter and he snapped round to the right, shovel raised, only to see a black-winged bird had landed on the fence near him. He lowered the shovel and watched as the bird stared back at him with dark intent eyes.
He carefully edged away from it, but the bird simply sidled sideways along the fence to keep up with him, tilting its head as if she was finding him amusing.
He glanced away from the staring creature to check the sky again. If the birds were coming out of shelter then maybe that meant the Wraith had gone?
The bird let out a sharp croaking squawk, the sound almost like words.
Whisperer.
Oneakka woke up, blinking hard against the sleepy fog, his neck aching from the position he'd fallen asleep in with his head hung down against his chest. He quickly lifted his head, his neck protesting, but he could see the familiar Healing Bay room round around him. A quick visual sweep of the room confirmed that she wasn't here though.
No one was.
The lighting level was lower, telling him the Facility was in its evening cycle, and he glanced to the right where the time was displayed on the wall panel. She was normally here by now, so it seemed Raven had kept to her threat not to visit him this evening.
It didn't matter anyway.
It was nice to be actually left by himself for once. He didn't need to be constantly supervised, everyone looking at him with pity in their eyes.
His neck was still complaining, as were his shoulders, so he cautiously stretched his head to the right and then to the left, trying to get the muscles to relax. It didn't really work. It wasn't like that was anything new. His arms hurt, his back hurt, and his backside ached from the minuscule amount of time in which he'd been able to actually stand up today, and that had been with the Physical Therapist and Halling basically holding him up. His legs had felt almost foreign to him, and they had started shaking the second he'd started putting some faint weight on them.
At least his legs didn't hurt, but the restlessness he kept getting in them, like right now, was a twitchy irritating sensation. He wanted nothing more than to just kick and shake his legs out, get some blood moving through them and use the muscles some more, but just the idea of what that would do to his wound... He tried flexing his feet gently and then circling his ankles under the annoying weight of the blankets, but even those stupidly tiny movements started pulling at his belly.
He froze as the pain threatened, forcing himself to breathe steadily and keep his belly as relaxed as he could.
When it did choose to strike, the pain was at least less than last week, but it had also morphed into a deep grating sensitive soreness that was always there now. The latest stage of his medication plan had moved off the sedating stronger pain killers and onto a new mix of deep tissue healing drugs that, though effective, didn't agree with his stomach. The near constant nausea was wearing him down. He hadn't thrown up, but he felt always on the verge of it.
And his damn head itched! His hair was starting to grow, his entire scalp now a layer of stumble and it was constantly irritating. He reached up to it now and rubbed the flat of his palm over his scalp, trying to stop the irritating itching. At least the long wound on the top left side of his head had finally closed, but it too had an itchy sensation to it. The urge to scratch at the healed scab was overwhelming, but he knew it would be stupid and counterproductive.
It was just all too much.
He dropped his arms to his sides and rested his head back against his pillows, staring up at the white ceiling overhead. He really wanted to punch something, hard. Or maybe just go curl up somewhere alone in the dark and just sleep until all this was over. Until he could stand on his own damn feet by himself, as a warrior should.
He closed his eyes against the inner raging frustration and vulnerability.
He hated feeling like this, being useless and helpless, and having to fight against the overwhelming urge to just scream out his anger until the very walls of this tiny little room that he was stuck in collapsed and he could be free again.
But that wasn't going to happen and screaming wouldn't help.
Instead he just had to be here, lying pathetically and so uncomfortably that he just wanted to cry.
But that wouldn't help either, and it certainly wouldn't keep the dark thoughts at bay. They were an old and well known enemy, and one that all Elite knew could never be truly defeated, only starved. Dark thoughts that whispered that he'd be stuck this way for the rest of his life now, always suffering. That he should be doing better than he was but they were keeping that fact from him. That he'd never fight again.
That no one wanted him around.
That he should have stayed in that field with his family.
He snapped open his eyes and frowned up at the perfectly white ceiling above him. The dark thoughts were just a natural depressive reaction due to severe injury and confinement.
And a traumatised soul.
Halling had skirted around that during their recent discussion, as had plenty of Elite assigned Mind Healers who Oneakka had been forced to talk to in the past. 'Extreme physical and emotional trauma' and 'repressed feelings of survivor's guilt'; he knew his enemies; he didn't need other people to define them for him.
And he didn't need Halling's tempting Athosian religion that whispered the possibility that what he'd experienced had been real.
The dead don't talk and he wasn't going to get some sign from his dead family.
It had been a hallucination concocted by his near dead, blood-drained brain in the last moments of his life. But, he'd come back from that edge and now he couldn't find a single moment of peace. Everything hurt, ached, itched, and twitched.
And he was here all alone.
Not that he cared.
He was used to it, being an orphan. The last of is people.
The sound of soft footsteps caught his attention from the corridor outside, but they were the controlled steps of a Healer moving around the quiet evening of the Bay. It wasn't Seeal. She strode out as she walked, with each step hyper-efficient and hurried.
His stomach turned a little, threatening to empty itself.
"Honoured Elite?" A soft familiar voice interrupted his self pity.
He looked round to find Healer Meiyo walking towards him through the open door. She didn't usually visit this late in the day.
"Healer," he greeted her, attempting to smile at her.
As she approached, he saw her eyes run over his face with that motherly assessing way that only she could do and not leave him feeling annoyed and transparent.
"I heard that your physical therapy was very successful today," she smiled as she leaned one hip against the side of his bed, as she always did.
"Stood by myself," he confirmed, wishing such a simple thing wasn't an impressive feat for him right now.
"As always, you are making amazing progress."
"Doesn't feel that way," he told her.
She nodded. They'd had a version of this conversation many times, which at least meant that he didn't have to hide anything from her. He'd learnt that was only counterproductive.
"Still, slow and steady exercise is the key," she advised, which was encouragement but also a gentle warning about not overdoing things. As if he could. Well, maybe the arm exercises earlier; he could feel the heavy aching hurt in his arms from that. As if pulling on long stretchy bands and ropes had ever been close to a workout for him normally.
"Do you need any additional pain relief following the physical therapy?" She asked.
That transparent feeling settled through him. "I'm alright."
She angled her head pointedly.
"My stomach can't take any more of it," he admitted.
"We can add the additional Antiemetic to settle that," she reminded him.
He was already on one of the anti-nausea drugs as part of the medication cocktail, and the only additional med that could be added usually made him feel horribly drowsy and confused. If the nausea got too much then it might be worth it, but right now the nausea felt more manageable than the confused stupor option. "Maybe tomorrow," he decided.
"Alright, but remember, taking additional medication will not slow your improvement," she told him and he nodded that he understood. "In case you do decide that you need additional pain relief tonight, or the anti-nausea support, I'll leave instructions with the night team as to what dosages they can give you."
"Thank you," he replied, managing a small smile for her help.
"I took a look at your scan from this morning," she continued, "and I am very pleased with the progress of your healing, but there is a small build up of fluid in your lower belly, most likely from being in one position for so long. So I would like for you to start lying on your sides as well as reclined, alternating as much as you can, just so we do not put too much pressure in one area."
He nodded at the plan. What position he was lying in was the only control he had in his life right now anyway.
Meiyo's warm hand patted against his arm. "You are doing very well. Don't be discouraged, Honoured Elite."
He wondered if the reason for her unusual evening visit was because he was by himself this evening, or, perhaps, she'd somehow known that the dark thoughts were getting the best of him.
He nodded back, his scalp itching intently.
Meiyo patted his arm again and turned to leave, revealing that someone was waiting outside the open door.
She'd come after all.
Seeal pushed away from the far corridor wall, exchanged a polite nod with Meiyo as the Healer passed by, and then moved into the doorway.
He wished he didn't feel so desperately relieved to see her.
"Are you still grumpy?" She asked, holding at the threshold of the room as if she might still leave.
He crushed the urge to apologise to her. He didn't need to. He was a grown man and didn't need ordering around by anyone.
She should be the one apologising to him.
"Yes," he stated back frankly.
"Thought so," she simply replied as she headed into the room. She had her large computer pad tucked under one arm, her completely unnecessary jacket draped over it, and her usual tall cup of Athosian tea in her other hand.
She was heading away from him though, moving down the room to circle the foot of his bed, clearly intending to sit on his left side. That wasn't where she usually sat. She sat on his right, Halling and Massa sat on the left side. He narrowed his eyes, suspicious at the sudden change of behaviour and saw that she was focused on the chair by his left elbow. He frowned down towards it, only to realise the target of her interest – Sheppard's gift was on that chair.
He glared at her as she started up his left side; clearly she was far more interested in the Earth gift than him. "I'm always grumpy anyway," he added.
That made her look up as she arrived by the chair. "That's complete Wraith shit, Oneakka," she stated, looking him directly in the eye. "You're grumpy because you feel rubbish."
Well, that was true enough.
"You were impaled by a Hive ship," she added, which was hardly something he needed reminding about.
"It wasn't a whole Hive ship," he repeated what had become his part of their standard back and forth on the subject, and he felt annoyed that he'd so easily fallen into the banter, as if that made everything better.
Though it sort of did...a little.
He didn't need to apologise to her though.
"You're stuck in this bed all the time, in pain, can't move properly, and probably all crabby from the medication you're on," she summarised as she set her tea and pad down on his side table.
"There's nausea too," he added to her list as she picked up Sheppard's gift, sat down in the chair and set the Earth box on her lap.
He realised he hadn't checked the front of his shirt in case he had dribbled on it in his sleep, but he refused to check. It wouldn't matter even if there was something there.
Seeal settled her hands on top of the colourful Earth gift and gave him a strange sort of smile. "You're not grumpy all the time. You were laughing not long before that Hive ship turned up in the Arkinian system." She lowered her attention to the box, looking at it properly.
Laughing?
Oh yes, the river.
It wasn't like he had forgotten what had happened, but he just hadn't thought about it with all the pain and near death. But he remembered now and was a little surprised that she'd willingly reference the moment in which he'd so successfully tricked her and she'd screamed and climbed him like a tree in an attempt to escape some tiny fish.
"I remember you're afraid of water," he baited her.
"No!" Raven protested instantly, just like she had by that underground river. "Not water. Fish."
"Because that's more logical," he returned.
"Is it any more logical than willingly walking into an irradiated collapsing Hive ship?"
"Fish is weirder."
"No, it's not weirder. Fish can kill people too."
"Not the tiny ones that clean the swimming pool water here," he recalled. He had no idea how this woman who had fought off slug robots, killed a Wraith Queen, and had worked as Security Lead on the most dangerous station in the galaxy could be afraid to swim in the Facility pools because of the tiny fish in the meshed off side tank.
Still it was kind of funny though. Raven so afraid of something that she wouldn't go near it.
She sighed. "I said I would go use the swimming pools and I will."
"When?" He pushed.
"Well, you're not exactly in any position to go right now, are you?"
"Is that because you need me there to defend you against the tiny little fish?"
She narrowed her eyes with a deadly looking glare. It just looked funny to him.
Her glare became surprise. "See there you go, you smiled." Had he? "No Cuddly Bear of Moor this evening," she added as she looked down at the Earth box with more focus.
Damn Halling.
"So, this is a traditional Earth gift, huh?" She asked as she ran her hands over the surface of the box with its large picture and the indecipherable Earth writing across it.
"Apparently for sick people."
"And for something called 'Christmas', according to Sheppard," she added. Of course, because she'd been at the Late Meal social in the canteen with everyone else but him.
He wanted to ask about the meal, what everyone had talked about around the shared table, and where she had sat.
He frowned at that bizarre thought. Where she sat? Why did that matter?
"This is from a whole different galaxy," Raven uttered with apparent awe as she lifted the box.
"So are Sheppard and his people," he pointed out the obvious.
"Yeah, but they're people. This is a thing, made from tree pulp presumably, processed and formed into a structured shape, and then printed with this imagery and words. It's a whole process of events and planning. Sheppard says there are thousands of these made every day on his planet. Think of the manufacturing requirements, the different skills involved so that thousands are traded regularly every day. Then there's the culture of it, the amusing drawing," she lifted the box higher to study it more closely. "Showing what looks like a large series of gardens full of people, also vehicles I think, and small animals. These two are fighting over a bucket," she grinned as she pointed to one part of the picture.
He hadn't really taken much time to actually study the gift from Sheppard, just appreciated the thought and the vaguely interesting fact that it was from another galaxy, but he had felt too rubbish to think any further. Now she was holding it up, he could see the little drawn colourful figures.
"You're interested in culture?" He asked doubtfully.
She rolled her eyes as she pulled the lid up off the box. "I'm interested in different cultures, especially if it's from an entirely different galaxy." She pulled out the transparent bag that held all the pieces to form the large copy of the picture on the front of the box. She turned it in her hands, peering at the little pieces inside.
He switched his gaze from the bag to her. She had what looked like a piece of dried grass caught in her hair. It was probably from the goat hut during her daily visits to see Belka and her young.
There was a new smell around her recently, and he drew it in now. It was just faintly flowery in the air around her as if maybe it was something she had rubbed into her skin or on her hair. He had wondered if she'd smelt of it when she visited him in the evenings because she showered after her workday, but she'd smelt of it earlier today when Massa had called her in to force the point about the bed.
Dark eyes snapped to him, sensing his focused attention. "What? Why can't I be interested in Sheppard's world?"
"I didn't say you couldn't be," he quickly countered.
"Did Inifee visit you today?" She asked the sudden random question.
"Yes, he did," he answered with a frown. "How did you know?"
"He said he did, but I wasn't sure if you were awake at the time."
He felt somewhat insulted by that comment, but also why was she talking with Inifee about him? How much contact did she have with the Sythus pilot since the Arkinian mission? "When did he tell you he'd visited me?"
"He joined us for Late Meal in the canteen," Raven explained as she set Sheppard's gift aside and reached for her tea.
"He did? Why?" Oneakka asked.
"Because, like everyone else linked to the Elite, he'd heard that Sheppard was visiting today and dropped by the canteen after he'd visited you. Emmagan invited him to join us and he and Sheppard jabbered away like the two 'Fly Boys' they are, which is an Earth term for pilots according to Ford."
Clearly it had been a very social gathering then. "Glad the meal went well for Sheppard," Oneakka muttered glancing away. His legs were feeling restless again, so he carefully tried flexing his feet under the blankets.
"It did but," Seeal paused as she drank some tea and he looked back round at her, "I can't be the only one who sees what's going on, right?"
Oneakka frowned at her. "What?" Sometimes the woman could jump around subjects like there were wormholes linking them that only she could transverse.
"Sheppard and Emmagan's 'political' marriage," Raven said sarcastically. "Please, there's nothing chaste about that marriage!"
Well, it was only obvious to those who knew Emmagan, though Raven was very good at reading people and situations. Except when to keep out of decisions regarding how he set the head of his own bed.
"Some Political Marriages are sexual," he found himself arguing for some reason.
"That one certainly is," Seeal stated with feeling.
"That's their business and no one else's," Oneakka pointed out, feeling oddly defensive about the whole subject. What Emmagan and Sheppard did in their own time was their private business not hers or anyone else's.
"True," Raven conceded with half shrug.
Wriggling his feet had actually helped the restlessness in his legs, so he relaxed a little more, only now realising that he had his arms crossed over his chest. Annoyed at his defensive body language, he forced his arms to relax and laid his hands on his lap, while trying desperately to ignore his itching scalp. Maybe Meiyo could give him some ointment or something to sooth his scalp tomorrow.
He dropped his attention to his hands as he flexed them to try and ease the overworked ache in his forearms.
He realised that Raven had fallen quiet, so he looked round to see that she was brushing at something on her leg. Maybe she'd been to see the goats just before coming here, which would explain the grass in her hair and presumably the dust she was brushing off her dark trousers.
"Anything else interesting happen at the meal?" He asked.
Seeal looked up from her trouser brushing and pulled a thoughtful expression. "Not really, except Inifee is joining my group from the Sythus for our visit to Myrtle's next week," she supplied.
Ugh, Myrtle. Oneakka had almost forgotten about his last encounter with the preened twat.
"Go on then," Seeal waved her hand in the air as if encouraging him.
Oneakka frowned at her and her waving. "What?"
"You're going to tell me to stay away from Myrtle," she said.
"No, I'm not," he argued.
"And then you're going to say that I'm to behave myself and not get into trouble," she rocked her head from side to side as if reciting something boring that she'd heard too many times. "Not to start any riots."
"I wasn't," he insisted, honestly enough. In fact, now he thought about it, she was right that he normally did. It hadn't occurred to him now though. That felt significant for some reason, but he had no idea why. "You do whatever you want to do," he quickly added into his confused silence. "It's not my business."
Both her dark eyebrows lifted with almost comical surprise. "There's a change. Maybe getting impaled by a Hive ship has helped."
"It wasn't a whole ship," he corrected her again. "And it never helps anything to be impaled." He was feeling annoyed with her again, but not entirely sure why. "Whatever you do with your Strays is your business," he repeated.
"Well, I'm looking forward to all of us 'Strays' being together again," she continued completely uncaring about his comments.
"Together again?"
"I've not been on an evening out with them since you were impaled," she explained and he felt his shoulders tighten. Now his near death got in the way of her social life? "And Ru has been temporarily reassigned to the secret work on the Skerti drive," she continued, "Toj was at some competition on Sateda, and now Inifee's going to be joining us for the first time."
Oneakka frowned at her information dump. Ru was back on the Sythus? Surely Ru had enough to do helping as part of Silvar's research project? Unless, now he thought about it, Halling had said something today about accelerating the Sythus' repairs. He hadn't really been paying much attention to Halling's near constant talking earlier.
"Ru' back on the Sythus?" He checked with Raven.
"Apparently he will be for the night out," she shrugged, back to brushing at her trouser leg again.
Mmmm Ru certainly wouldn't miss a chance to go on a social outing with Seeal. The Lead Engineer clearly had intentions.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone," she repeated.
"Clearly," he looked away. She could go enjoy her new friends all she wanted. He'd stay here and try not to move too much.
His scalp was really itching now, so he reached up to scratch his head a bit to relieve it, the annoying rough stubble grating against his fingertips.
"And when you're better, we can go see the stupid swimming pool fish," Raven added.
He looked at her in time to see her reluctant eye roll. "And you'll go in the water?"
"Not with the fish," she stressed. "In the main pool away from the fish, yes."
"The fish are harmless," he stressed.
"So are knives until someone stabs you with one."
He frowned at that bizarre logic, but she had agreed again to the pool visit, so he let the line of discussion drop. A warrior should always face their greatest fears, and hers was simple enough to address.
"And I promise not to start any riots in Myrtle's," she added.
He nodded, though the subject of his former lengthy instructions on her behaviour lowered his mood again. He'd only meant it to help her learn how to behave in the Alliance, so that she'd not get into trouble.
Or was that a lie? He'd used to mean those warnings, worried that she would cause problems for the Elite and within the Alliance. Now though, now it felt different. It felt like...he would be insulting her if he said those things to her now. He had no idea why or how that had changed. Maybe it was just a reaction to all she had done to help save Halling and him on that broken deadly Hive ship.
Or perhaps it was because she was one of his Whisperers, her circling bird having helped call him back to his life.
And she'd been sitting at his side every evening since, even when he'd snapped at her.
"I'm sorry I'm irritable today," he apologised on impulse.
She was clearly as surprised by his apology as he was, but she smiled at him. "You can be grumpy if you want, Oneakka, just don't expect me to tip-toe around you like the others do. Believe me, I've heard far worse insults than you can offer."
He guessed that had to be true, considering how the Glisi had treated her and the many criminal scum she had used to police.
"That's not an invitation for you to try, though," Raven quickly added with a forced glare and a pointed finger.
He couldn't help but reluctantly smile at that, and he promised not to try.
It was the least he could do for his Whisperer.
00000
The bathroom attached to Teyla's quarters was pretty fancy, with plenty of Elite tech to use, though the room was clearly out of proportion to attached the tiny main room.
It had taken her all of two seconds to show him round her Facility quarters. The main room was narrow, with her single sized bed lengthways against the wall opposite the door, and there was a waist high side unit stood against the wall to the left of the door and a wooden chair to the right of the door. That was pretty much it. The right wall of the room was a series of built in wardrobes and cupboards, same as she had in her Sythus quarters, and the left hand wall held the door into the bathroom. Still, the place still had plenty of 'Teyla' vibe to it. There was the familiar scent of Athosian incense in the air, a bright throw and cushion on the wooden chair, and there were several Athosian drawings hung on the wall over her bed, similar to the one she had hanging up in her Tjaru quarters. Her bedding was the same colourful patterns she had in Tjaru, and tucked under her bed there was a large cushion that was Ketra's bed when she was here.
Whereas, here in her bathroom, there was far more space and tech. There was a large shower stall that doubled as a real decent sized bath, there was a three tiered heated towel rail on one wall beside one of the Elite tech hair/body hot air drier things, a thick pile rug under his bare feet, and real large sink set in front of a mirror and a wall-fitted computer panel. It seemed then that the Elite put far more attention into designing their bathrooms than they did their bedrooms. She'd told him to use anything in the cupboard under the sink he needed, the contents of which had provided some more insight into the life of an Elite bathroom. The top shelf of the large cupboard had stocks of Athosian soaps, toothbrushes, their version of toothpaste and shaving cream, several hair brushes, and the biggest first aid kit he'd seen outside of an Infirmary. The larger bottom shelf was stacked full with clean folded towels. There had to be at least thirty. Clearly towels were important here – he was going to have to ask her about that.
He closed the cupboard doors after pulling out one of the towels. It was faintly warm which suggested there was a heating panel under the cupboard. He dried off his face with the surprisingly large fluffy towel and hung it on a free spot on the big towel rail. Shaved, teeth brushed and dressed ready for bed, he considered the array of bottles she had on the side of the sink. He could recognise most of them from her other quarters, but there were two big bottles of something new here. He couldn't read much of the Alliance language yet, outside of some basic words he'd learnt on the Sythus to do with piloting and stations on the ship, so he picked up one bottle and popped open the top to take a whiff. The smell rushed up his nose and, with it, plenty of flashbacks to his training days. It smelt like the eucalyptus muscle-relaxant stuff he'd used to use on bruises and sore muscles. He put the bottle back and decided to save his nose from trying out the other bottle just in case.
He looked back at himself in the mirror to check on his hair before heading back out of the restroom. He tried shaping the top of it, but, as usual, it didn't really help any. He reached out to the wall computer panel, tapped its lower right corner and it lit up with the Facility's time display. He might not be able to read Alliance yet, but he had gotten the hang of their numbers and the way they set up their clock. The 'Alliance Standard' the Elite used meant each day was divided up into 'quarters', then each quarter into eight 'hours', so the standard was thirty-two hours in a day. They then broke down each 'hour' into 'hour-quarters' each made up of ten minutes. He could go along with that, but the days were much shorter on Athos, so he'd just started to get used to the Athosian time-zone this past week, so now his body had no clue what time of the day it was. All he could tell was that he wasn't hungry and was starting to feel tired. The screen showed that in the Facility it was the last quarter and just past the seventh hour, so pretty damn late here.
They'd sat in the canteen for hours, the room having filled up around them and then emptied, though various new Elite had occasionally appeared and introduced themselves, all while giving him the standard Elite intense stare and assess routine. Some of them were clearly no longer on 'battle rotation' and the reason was usually pretty obvious; most of them were missing a limb or were in wheelchairs, and there were a few missing eyes.
Teyla hadn't been exaggerating when she'd told him that Elite came in all shapes and sizes. There had been Elite of every colour, height, shape, and some indeterminate genders, all sporting a wide variety of hairstyles and body armour. The only common denominator that John had clocked had been weaponry. All the Elite seemed to carry at least two sidearms and a selection of knives and/or swords. Oh and, of course, the distinctive tattoos. Clearly there were no set rules as to how an Elite should look, but most of them showed their ink on their hands, necks and upper chests visible around their armour. A surprising number had tattoos on their faces like Oneakka, and one guy had his over his ears and down along his jaw so he had a beard of tattoos. Though none of them – assuming all their tattoos were visible – had as many as his Teyla. Though, he had privileged information there, having counted them all personally...several times.
He liked the Facility, but it wasn't anything like he'd expected. He'd predicted more of a military bunker with maybe some Star Trek style corridors and panels, but instead it was more of a mix between the busy wide corridors of a mall, the clean whiteness you found in hospitals, and the atmosphere of a training academy. In fact, as the evening had progressed in the canteen, he'd seen various teenage Recruits sitting alone around the big room bent over tablets that suggested they were studying. Then at one point a column of Recruits had jogged into the room in formation, ran a lap of the room and jogged back out again. No one had batted an eye, so presumably that was pretty standard here.
He kind of wished he didn't have to leave tomorrow and could stick around here a bit longer. Yeah, because it was the training academy part that he would miss! He'd loved the last week with Teyla, spending so much time with her, getting to know her family better. Her quarters in Tjaru had started to become real familiar and she'd left him there alone a few times while she sorted some Elite work over their links network.
He was going to miss her so much. At least when she'd stayed with him in Atlantis, his quarters had still smelt of her, her tea, and her incense for days afterwards. Tomorrow he was going to have to go back to his empty quarters by himself again. He was gonna miss Ketra too. The dragon had stared up at him with such a forlorn look when they'd left her with Torren back on Athos.
It was feeling a little harder each time he said goodbye to them.
He shook his head. He was being stupid. It wasn't like he wasn't going to see them real soon – hell, Woolsey would probably be wanting to visit Athos in the next couple of days anyway, and hopefully Teyla would there.
He brushed his hands over his hair one last time and straightened his Air Force bed shirt. He still had tonight and tomorrow morning with Teyla and that was what he needed to focus on, though her bed looked pretty small out there...
Turning from the superbly lit mirror, he triggered the door control and headed into her tiny main room. Missing her tomorrow could wait, because he was gonna enjoy every single minute he had until th-
He pulled up short. Teyla was stood in the middle of the room, completely naked.
"Take off your clothes, John," she told him.
"O-kay," he readily agreed, all plans of some romancing no longer required as he headed towards her, pulling his shirt quickly up over his head.
She was grinning back at him as they met in the centre of the little room, her hands sliding up his chest while he shoved the waistband of his pants down off his hips and quickly kicked them off his legs the rest of the way so that he could get his hands on her as quickly as possible.
She pressed up hard against him as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling them tightly together as her mouth met his.
God, she felt and smelt good, her hands sliding up his neck, clutching at his hair as he tangled his tongue with hers. Aware that he was already breathing hard through his nose, he slid one hand down to her backside, cupping her up hard against him and she moaned into their kiss.
Oh, yeah. Hot and heavy it was then.
He slid his free hand up into her hair, which she'd let down out of her braids while he'd been in the bathroom, so that it was a long tangled sweetness in his hand as he supported the back of her head and pushed the kiss even deeper. She moaned again, one of her hands now squeezing in between them. She'd never moved things along quite this quickly before, but he was in no way complaining as her fingers slid around his already throbbing shaft. He released the plump fullness of her butt to reach down further, down between her legs to find the lips of her flesh already swollen and parted for him. Despite the angle, he had enough reach to press his fingertips up into her wet opening.
Her lips parted from his with a loud pop as she tilted her head up and back with a loud moan, stretching the length of her neck for him. He pressed his mouth into the invitation, licking up her throat, just how she liked, tracing up the edge of her tattoos to her ear. Squeezed in tight between their bellies, her hand slid down his shaft and up again, and he panted into her ear as he circled his fingers up into her as much as the angle would allow him.
"John," she groaned, her hand pulling out from in between them up to his shoulders.
Still breathing into the sweet musk of that space between her ear and her throat, he followed her push and pull on his shoulders as she turned them and he felt the hard edge of side unit bump against the back of his arm down around her backside. Understanding what she wanted, he pulled his fingers free, set both his hands around her hips and lifted her up so that she could slide her backside onto the top of the side unit. Her legs parted wide, providing him the best view ever before she pulled him roughly up against her again. He didn't protest as he reached around her to cup both her butt cheeks, their mouths meeting hard and fast.
Her tongue performed a long smooth stroke around his and she sucked hard.
Oh yeah.
When she broke the kiss, he pulled back enough to stare down at her full lips, listening to her fast breaths that included his name. Her hands were on his shaft again, sliding teasing, so he reached down blindly and pushed two fingers slowly up into her parting wet flesh. She groaned long and loud and he lifted his stare from her mouth to her eyes. They were deep black as he drew his fingers out and then back into her again.
"Yes," she whispered with delight, her eyes sliding closed. "More, John."
He sped up, sliding and massaging up into her, the front of his legs flush against the side unit as he buried his fingers right up into her and then held still, feeling her squeezing tightly around him as her orgasm hit her. She groaned loud and long, her head hanging right back so that the top of her head almost touched the wall behind her. He just watched as much of her as he could and gloried in the soft yet hard squeezing of her around his fingers.
All because of him.
Her head righted, her eyes meeting his again. "Drawer," she told him.
He frowned, not quite understanding the context of that word right now. She smiled at him and, one of her knees lifting up against his chest, she leaned sideways.
He watched as she reached to the front of the side unit, just beside his right hip, pressed a control and a small drawer slid out of the unit. The box of Alliance rubbers was a familiar sight just inside and he watched her pull out one of the little packets and she pushed the drawer closed again with her heel. He became distracted by her golden knee bumping up against his chest again, as well as the tempting thigh attached, so, while she slid the Alliance sheath onto him, he focused on trailing his wet fingers up and down the delicate softness of her inner thigh and pressed his nose and lips to her inner knee, drawing in her smell.
Her hands where on his hips quickly though, pulling him towards her, her knees parting wide again. He watched as she reached between them, directing his covered tip to her and he slid up into her with a long groan. He had to close his eyes tight to try to control himself from coming as he filled her, her flesh tight around him, her arms around his shoulders, her hands in his hair and her thighs around his hips. He gripped onto one of her thighs with one hand, holding her to him, while he reached round her and filled his other hand with her full backside, and started pumping.
She was moaning now, her nails digging into the backs of his shoulders, her mouth panting his name right in his ear.
She was so wet, so tight. She wanted him so much.
He couldn't slow down, couldn't stop obeying her repeating orders to move faster, harder.
He let go of her thigh to reach out to the wall behind her, providing them leverage as he held her butt and she thrust hard against him, one of her hands now digging into his backside.
He came hard into her, heard himself shout with it, and he had to press his face into her shoulder as he ground into her now flexing and spasming squeeze.
She groaned a deep pleasurable sigh, her hands tight on him, the scent of them together all around him, and he had to let go of her backside to press both his palms to the wall to keep himself upright as the pleasure washed every last ounce of his energy out of him.
Panting loudly into the soft, warm and sweet smelling space where her neck met her shoulder, he worked to keep standing, aware he was leaning hard against the side unit and the wall.
Her hands slid long caresses up his back, her mouth loud with long in and out breaths against his ear still.
He swore he was close to passing out he was breathing so hard, but he managed to get his mouth working enough to speak. "Tell me...these walls...are...soundproof..."
She made a deep chuckle that was super sexy as her hand slid up to the back of his neck. "Yes," she replied. "They are."
"Thank God," he whispered into her neck as her arm slid around his shoulders, hugging him to her.
With a long sigh, his breathing started calming, but a wave of sleepiness followed it and his legs were feeling weak.
"Think I need to sit down," he admitted against her skin.
She did that chuckle again. "The bed is just behind you," she replied.
He lifted his hands from the wall and shifted back from her enough that she could shuffle her butt to the edge of the unit and her delicate toes slipped to the floor.
His legs were definitely feeling like jelly now.
Her palm pressed against his chest and he took the hint to move backwards and felt the edge of her bed against the back of his knees. He sat back and down, letting out a loud sigh at the beautiful sensation of sitting and all the bliss flooding around his system. At another instructional push against his chest, he shuffled backwards, the wall meeting his back and Teyla sat in the space between his legs, nestling up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight to him, and worked on letting his breathing slow while enjoying all the skin-to-skin snuggles.
He drifted his eyes closed and just enjoyed every second, each of her breaths against him, her cheek brushing against his chest, her fingers caressing along the top of one of his thighs.
Yeah, this was the way to spend his time. If only they had more time together, that he didn't have to go back to Atlantis tomorrow, especially not knowing when he was going to see her next.
She shifted against him and he opened his eyes to see that she had a hold of the bedding and was curling it up both sides of them. He pulled his arms from her, his skin slightly clinging to hers, and reached to help. He caught the two ends of the bedding and wrapped it up and around her, cocooning them in together. She let out a murmur of pleasure and started snuggling back in against him, her body twisted towards his so her breasts were flush against his chest, her hands on his hips within their cocoon.
"Thank you for agreeing to the Beacon fitting today," she said quietly against him.
"Sure," he had no problem with being tagged, and the Powers That Be back home had agreed surprisingly easily. He had to wonder though that if Kolya hadn't done the whole kidnapping thing whether everyone back home would have agreed so readily, but he was more than happy to have some advanced tech that meant he couldn't be lost again.
"Is it still sore?" She asked.
He hadn't even thought about it. He'd taken the bandage off when he'd used the bathroom, but all there had been was that same small red line. He slid his arm up her back just enough so that he could peer down at his wrist. "A little," he realised. "Probably all the heavy lifting just now made it worse," he couldn't help but tease.
"Heavy?" she objected as she swatted at his thigh with a hand.
He just chuckled and hugged her closer.
"Do you like it here?" She asked.
"Oh yeah," he confirmed as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
She let out a laughing breath and started tilting her head back. He watched as she adjusted herself against him, reclining her head back against his right upper arm so she could look up at him. He let his eyes follow all her exposed skin.
"I meant the Facility," she explained as she settled. "I already know that you enjoy it here," she added with a smile as she stroked a hand down his chest.
"This place is cool," he confirmed. "Bed's a bit small though." Not that sitting on it widthways was the best test though.
She smiled wide, her full lips begging to be kissed, but he held back because she starting talking. "There is not much space in here for more."
He nodded. "I suppose you don't sleep here much if you go back to Athos at night?"
"Not often, no," she confirmed. "I always try to go back to Athos if I can."
"But you use the bathroom a lot, right?" He asked, indicating the bathroom door barely a metre away from them. "Because that's a well kitted out bath and shower."
She smiled. She was looking pretty comfy in his arms. "Most bathrooms here are the same. Many of us return here from battle so it is good to have a hot bath, or showering after our daily sparring and gym sessions, and tend to small injuries."
"That explains all the towels and the mega first aid kit in there then. You get hurt a lot sparring?" He asked. He'd never seen her get hurt during Bantos training, but he could also remember all the blood stains across the floor of the Sythus' training gym.
"When one is sparring against some of the greatest warriors in this galaxy, it does happen," she replied.
"But you kick their asses back, right?" He checked.
"I do," she confirmed with a nod and a smile that felt like she was trying to make him feel better.
He didn't like the idea of her getting hurt so often that she had her own Infirmary-size kit in her bathroom. Shouldn't she be going to the big fancy hospital where Oneakka was when she was hurt? Not treating herself.
"I thought Lieutenant Ford seemed very interested to try the last training gym I showed you today."
"Yeah, you show that kid somewhere with that much weaponry and training gear to use and he'll light up like Pavlov's dog," he joked, only she frowned. "He's super excited," John translated quickly. "At gadgets too, and any mention of that lady, Nevaeh, on the Sythus he's got a crush on," he grinned.
"Yes, I heard you, Seeal, and Inifee teasing him about his crush during Late Meal."
"Speaking of which," he remembered, "why didn't you tell me about Oneakka and Seeal? That's some serious gossip." Seeal had been real tight-lipped about it and had changed the subject every time he and Ford had tried to get some info or tease her.
"Apparently there is nothing going on," Teyla explained, but she didn't look like she believed it either.
"'Nothing going on' like how there's nothing going on between you and me?" He asked.
She grinned at that from her reclined angle, her fingers sliding along the edge of his jaw now. He saw her eyes drop to his mouth, but lift back up to his eyes again. "According to Oneakka there is nothing at all going on and there never will be," she supplied. "However, Massa believes it is just a matter of time."
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to side with Massa on that."
"Massa is famous for being an optimistic romantic," Teyla added.
"Well," he grinned as he angled his head down towards her, "I'd have to agree with him on that too." He pressed his mouth to hers, her soft, still slightly swollen lips moulding to his. Her fingers caressed up from his jaw and across his cheek as the kiss deepened and then morphed into another. When the slow, relaxed kiss finally ended, he lifted his lips from hers just far enough so that he could look at her eyes. The angle was starting to hurt his neck, but it was worth it for a little longer.
"I'm gonna miss you," he whispered to her.
Her smile faltered just for a second, but she lifted her chin and pressed her lips back to his. "I will miss you too, my love," she whispered back as their mouths parted.
His neck now screaming at the angle, he had to straighten up again, but he kept his eyes on her, happy just watching her. The light in here glistened over her golden skin, her eyes dark and warm.
"Hopefully you will be visiting Athos very soon," she added, her fingertips now moving across his chin, as if she were trying to feel the stumble he'd just shaved off.
He nodded. "And there's gonna be Halling's big Skerti briefing," he remembered. Halling had given him an Alliance pad to pass to Colonel Carter that detailed the briefing's agenda and a series of possible dates for it, as apparently the Elite were waiting for some final research data before picking a day. "You'll be at that, right?"
"I will," she confirmed. "But we still have the rest of the night and tomorrow morning together."
"True," he nodded. "So, what do you think we should do with all that time?" He asked, trailing his gaze down her throat and across to where he could see one tight dark nipple.
"Mmmm," she pretended to consider her answer. "I am not sure." She shifted up from his arm, kneeling up between his legs and her hands cupped his face. "Perhaps...nothing?" She smiled seductively as her mouth descended to his.
00000
TBC