oOo
" ...which are even more indicative of the modern style."
Teyla sighed and lay down the heavy book. She looked across at Ronon who reclined in a chair that was woefully inadequate for a man his size. His long legs were stretched out and his arms folded. His eyes were closed.
"I hope this is helping...", she murmured to herself, feeling rather discouraged.
"He's asleep, Teyla. You could... I dunno... wait till he wakes up", growled Ronon.
She looked sharply at him, surprised at his flippancy, and then gave him a hard stare.
"You, Ronon Dex are picking up the habits of our team mates... and it does not suit you."
She pointedly picked up her book, cleared her throat and continued.
Ronon smiled, satisfied, and went back to his dozing.
"In this work, as in many of his others, sharp lines and jagged forms are thrown into contrast with unbounded and unquantifiable space, leaving us with a sense of loneliness, war and apocalypse..."
oOo
"What are you trying to do? Give him a relapse?"
Rodney and Sheppard arrived just as Teyla was reaching the end of post-war modernism, and McKay felt sure that apocalyptical images were the last things Lorne should be thinking about.
"Dr McKay, I am unsure of what I am reading. The words are... difficult for me, as you can imagine. But I was assured by Dr Biro that this was a book Major Lorne would enjoy. She had heard of his interest in painting."
She held up a huge, dusty tome, bound in gray linen and faintly embossed with silver lettering. What it was doing on Atlantis, Rodney could only wonder at.
"But... I also have this-", and she lay down the book and held up a glossy magazine. "It has many tasty food items and interesting points of view"
Rodney quickly scanned the highlights: "Lose 10 lbs eating Cabbage" , "100 ways with Muesli" and the promise of a ten page pull-out on the menopause.
He made a face and discarded it hastily onto a nearby bed.
"Oh... no... I think not. We don't want to turn him into a woman..."
"Well, what have you brought doctor?", she challenged him, sticking on a sweet and very fake smile.
Rodney beamed proudly and displayed a blue and white pamphlet.
It was snatched away by a very quick John Sheppard, who danced it around the room with McKay in pursuit.
""The Spread of Malaria in Temperate Climates: A Study"?", he read with difficulty, "Who would even own a thing like this?", Sheppard chortled.
"I think you're forgetting Major,", answered McKay, snatching it angrily back, and smoothing out the wrinkles against his chest, as he hugged it tight.
"Half the scientists here are biologists, many of them my personal friends..."
Sheppard rolled his eyes at that and Teyla grinned.
"... I simply want to finish our argu- discussion on biting insects."
"What about you Ronon?", asked Sheppard, and they all looked expectantly at the big man.
He shrugged, "Don't look at me. I got nothing"
Sheppard pulled up another chair, plonked himself in it, and withdrew a book from his zippered jacket.
"You just take your little offerings away. What he needs to hear about is outdoorsy, manly stuff... like-"
And he thrust a small paperback at McKay, who tilted his head to read the title.
"'Improve your Back Swing with Lee Trevino'" How old is that thing?", scoffed Rodney.
"Tried and tested, McKay... tried and tested", he crowed.
Before McKay could get off a suitable reply, a single breathy word arose from the blanket-draped figure in the bed, "Hey..."
Immediately, they all gathered closer. Their relief and pleasure at seeing the major awake, was palpable.
"Are you - okay?", and Sheppard grinned, gave a thumb's up and threw the major a questioning look.
Lorne sank down onto his pillow, closed his eyes for a moment and then came back with,
"I'm fine, sir. Thankyou"
"What did he say? He's fine? Do you think he really is?, asked McKay, in a loud whisper.
"McKay! He's right in front of you, you know.. did you not hear him?"
"Yes, but do you think he even knows what he's saying? He looks a bit out of it...", he looked dubiously at the major, whose eyes were closed again; he was breathing heavily. Rodney thought, though, that on the whole he looked better; certainly, he looked good for someone who'd been at death's door only days ago.
"He's just tired, is all. Maybe we should.. you know... start.", Sheppard suggested
"What if he doesn't get what we're doing? He'll think we're crazy... sitting around spouting 'roobarb, roobarb' like Mr Rogers on dope."
"We have to try, Rodney. It's for Lorne, right? He'd do it for us.", said John.
"I guess you're right..."
A wicked grin suddenly appeared on the scientist's face, "You know we could say anything we wanted to him... he wouldn't know..!"
The colonel's sigh was long-suffering, "McKay, you are so juvenile..."
Rodney drew himself up to come back with a biting retort but Sheppard beat him to it.
"Also, McKay, Mr Rogers would never do dope. King Friday wouldn't let him..."
"Oh, 'Ha!'... funny..."
"Gentlemen! Please remember why we are here", pleaded Teyla, as she helped Lorne sit up against a stack of pillows. He was still looking bewildered, absently he started picking at a loose strand of bandage at his ear.
Rodney saw it and immediately advanced on the bed.
"No.. no... no...", he said loudly, with vigorous shakings of his head.
"No... Bad... for... head... BAD!", and this time he waggled a disapproving finger at the major, who seemed to sink further back into his deep pillows.
"McKay!", snapped Sheppard," He's not a dog!"
Rodney shrugged apologetically, and said, "Sorry..."
"Now, everyone..", and Teyla beamed sweetly around the gathered team mates.
"Who will be first?"
oOo
"Ooh... this is a good bit... "da... dee-da, dee-da... and this would constitute the ideal environment for the species to proliferate, as shown by- da, da, dee-da - and also by the mean values, suggesting that non-standard growth factors, due to differentials in the UV spectrum, produce-"
"Oh, God! Kill me now...", Sheppard whimpered, his head in his hands.
Ronon was sitting cross-legged on the bed adjacent, shoulders hunched and bowed over, obviously reading something to himself... he had two fingers stuck in his ears.
Rodney had been reading for only twenty minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. Teyla was fetching fresh water for the patient, a job that was taking her a very long time... so long in fact, that one could have thought she didn't want to return. Evan was dozing, in and out, and it wasn't clear if he could even hear what was being said. But he looked up with a weak smile when Teyla returned.
Rodney droned on about 'insect larval forms' and 'average rainfalls', and Sheppard was glad when Ronon took the fingers from his ears and threw him a question.
"Hey...Sheppard... 'Brazil'? ...on your home world, is it?"
"Yeah, it's a warm place.. they grow coffee there."
"And they're strong warriors... the people of Brazil?"
"I guess so... some of them, anyway", John looked bemused.
"Well, next time we're on a mission, I need to get one."
"Get one what?"
Ronon stabbed a finger down onto the page of the magazine in front of him, "Listen: "When going on a trip it is now becoming popular and desirable to get a Brazilian..-""
There was a huge spluttering cough from Lorne and his arms and legs flew up, the bed sheets in disarray. Teyla quickly went over and tried to calm the man, who looked like he was choking. She offered him a beaker of water with a straw.
Once he had made sure Lorne was okay and not having some kind of seizure, Sheppard gave Ronon an amused look.
Ronon just dead-panned, "What..?"
"Tell ya later, big guy...", John assured him, with a chuckle.
McKay, though, had stopped reading and was tapping at his chin, deep in thought. A moment later he rose, kicked back his chair and stalked up to the bed; he glared at the major, who just blinked up at him, his face still flushed, his mouth twitching...
Rodney stood back, folded his arms, and said,
"Okay, how long have you been able to understand us?"
There was a collective gasp, and all eyes turned toward the man in the bed.
At first it seemed as though Rodney was mistaken. The major looked puzzled and had a 'who me?' kind of expression, but he obviously couldn't keep it up and so, after a long moment, during which the faces of everyone present grew ever more suspicious, the facade collapsed and he gave a sheepish smile.
"Well... long enough. I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you, but then I got so I was kinda enjoying it. And it did help me get through the afternoon."
There was an uncomfortable silence; McKay was trading sideways glances with Sheppard, obviously wondering if he'd said anything incriminating; Ronon was swinging his long legs over the side of the bed, looking amused; Teyla just looked relieved.
"Sorry, guys", Lorne tried again
"Well... I for one am glad that you are recovered, Major...", Teyla assured him.
"...and I'm sure that's how everyone else feels too?"
"Yeah... sure..", John smiled, nudging McKay in the ribs, when he saw the scientist resume his poisonous glare.
"Besides, it's good to know you have a sense of humour, Major. It will most likely come back to haunt you on our next mission", said John winking, knowingly.
oOo
"Hey, Teyla... "
Evan yawned widely, and rubbed his eyes. The infirmary was quiet. The rest of his team mates had gone.
"...still here?"
"I am", she answered simply. The art book was lying open on the bed at Evan's side, and Teyla, perched on the edge of an infirmary chair, was bending over it.
"I must have dozed off - again.", he muttered.
"You need your rest.", she said, and her tone was understanding.
They both looked down at the book.
"What do you think?", he asked, hesitantly.
Teyla drew a hand across the image on the page; it was a painting of a night time scene, and Lorne knew it well.
"This is a picture of your world?", she asked.
"A part of it... many years ago" ; Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks', was one of Lorne's favourites.
"It is about loneliness, is it not?"
His eyebrows lifted, and he nodded.
"Impressive... we'll make an art critic of you yet. It shows the loneliness of modern life that we all suffer, I guess"
Teyla considered this for a moment, then said,
"We would have stayed, you know."
He met her warm gaze with his own.
"Yeah, I guess I know that now"
For a few seconds they regarded each other in silence, then Teyla said, turning the book to face him,
"Show me more..."
oOo
The End
Thankyou for your patience! Your reviews have been so great, I'm obviously not the only one who craves Lorne fic... xxx