Sixteen
"Hello, Laura. Look who wanted to come and visit you." She opens her eyes and smiles at the pair entering her room in the infirmary. It's Teyla with Torren in her arms. She wants to sit up, but her broken wrist is still giving her troubles and for some stupid reason even after three days it's taking her quite some effort to do such simple things as sitting up or keeping her eyes open for longer than a few minutes.
Teyla knows of her troubles and sits down beside her bed, without saying something. "Did Evan send you to keep me company while he's away?"
"Denial is not an option, I take it?", Teyla asks and smiles a little ruefully. "Do not be cross with him. And do not think I need someone asking me to visit you."
"I don't. Honestly. It's nice of you to come around. Although I'm a little sad to say holding Torren is still out of question." And she actually would love to do that. After her first try she'd found that it wasn't as bad as she thought it would, and she had really wanted to give it a second try.
"Do not worry. And look at that instead." With that, she seats Torren down on the bed, where the little guy actually… stays sitting on his own. She manages a bright smile at the baby's improvement.
"Oh, that's great, isn't it? Your baby is growing up! Turn around and before you know it he'll introduce his first girlfriend to you." Teyla smiles the knowing half-smile.
"You mean the one he just "holds hands with"?" She has to snort and then giggle. Meyers should never have told them that. It'll be forever subject to teasing and laughing.
"That's the one." Torren smiles at the sound of the two women laughing and then moves to crawl a little towards her. Obviously, growing up didn't diminish his interest in her hair as he already reaches out to touch it. Teyla reacts fast and pulls him back.
"Oh no, young man. I know someone who would not be amused at you touching his lady's hair." That makes her snort again.
"Actually… I think he'd let it pass. Evan loves kids." She rolls her eyes. "Should hear him talking about his nephews."
Teyla smiles and tries to distract Torren with a toy from crawling up to her again. "I did." Then she looks back at her, with earnestness and happiness for her in her eyes. "He will make a great father."
A great father. Yes… yes, that he would be. She just isn't sure if she would make a great mother. She looks away. "I think it's a little early talking about that." Teyla obviously senses that this is something she doesn't want to think about right now.
"I agree. You should really take your time with it. And you should be patient with your injuries as well." She makes a face.
"That obvious, huh?" Teyla shrugs apologetic.
"You are a soldier, Laura. Soldiers never like being held down by injuries." Too true. Still doesn't help her much with her current situation. But at least this is the first day where she's able to hold her eyes open for more than just ten minutes and doesn't fall asleep every two hours. Baby steps, she thinks. Be satisfied with small improvements.
"Yeah, that's what we've got doctors for. To tie us to our beds if they have to." Not that she needs any tying down at the moment. The grazes on her thigh may be healing fast, but that broken ankle is going to bother her for longer than just a few days, like Jennifer already predicted.
"Ah, look who's awake enough to complain." Teyla and her turn around to see Colonel Sheppard enter the room. She thinks she remembers him coming around once or twice in the last few days and him having some conversation with Evan at her bedside about both of them being wrong about something concerning the mission… and something about "finding him, no matter how far he runs", but that could have been her imagination as well. She's been on heavy medication to counter the effects of the bacteria she caught on M5K-758, and that's been messing around with her head.
"Not complaining, sir. Just stating a few facts." He smirks.
"Sure." Then he turns towards Teyla and Torren who's still sitting on her bed. "But I see you have some entertainment to keep you from becoming too miserable." Teyla smiles back at him, and once again she has this feeling that there's more to the two of them than they all think. One day, she thinks, she's going to get up the nerve to ask Teyla straight to her face what exactly is going on… just not today.
"Yep. Nothing like a baby to take your mind off the fact that you'll have to stick to computers and lab experiments for an extended period of time." Which is exactly what will await her once the after-effects from the infection have subsided enough that Jennifer or Carson will clear her at least for light duty.
"Oh, again I know someone who will not be too disappointed about this.", Teyla chimes in and that makes her roll her eyes and smirk back.
"Believe me, if he could he'd have me back on full duty tomorrow. He knows he's the one going to having to live with an explosion-deprived Lieutenant." That prompts a chuckle from Sheppard. The Colonel probably just had an image in his mind of how much poor Evan has to suffer from her crankiness. But that would just be decent payback for Evan's own attempt at working himself to death.
Before Sheppard can answer, they are interrupted by Kanaan radioing Teyla about some problem or other. She excuses herself, and for a moment there's this strange look of disapproval on Sheppard's face again… and is that guilt or maybe shame in Teyla's eyes? What the hell's going on here, she wonders. She always thought that if there were any feelings in this, they were purely on Sheppard's side and that Teyla was happy with Kanaan, but that… looked like a whole different story. Better not think too deeply about this, she advises herself. That would just get her some really unpleasant headaches.
When Teyla is gone, Sheppard clears his throat and says: "Well… there's a reason I came here." She raises her eyebrow. What the hell is this about? "Mr. Woolsey and I… we just finished analysing the video footage from your cell." Oh no. Alright, so theoretically she knew they were of course having a look at that, but… God, this is just this side of embarrassing. "And that was… one hell of a performance." Huh? Where does that come from? Did they see something completely different than she remembers? "Which made us put your file on top of those we just sent back to the promotion board for recommendation."
That… throws her a little off-course. Usually, she has every confidence in her own skills and knows how to evaluate her performance correctly, but obviously… she made a huge mistake this time. "I… thank you, sir."
He shrugs and gives her a friendly smile. "You're welcome. You earned it, Lieutenant."
She knows she's probably blushing, and that irritates her. It's not like she's ever had difficulties accepting praise from superior officer, but somehow… the tone in Sheppard's voice isn't just that of a CO congratulating a junior officer… it sounds a bit like that of friend as well. She swallows. "Oh, that… that means a lot coming from you, sir."
Sheppard looks a little taken aback now. "Huh? Who the hell are you and what have you done to Lieutenant Cadman?"
She wants to answer, but a voice from the door beats her to it. "Don't worry, John. I'm sure she'll be back to her usual disrespectful self in one or two days."
That statement is followed by a relaxed-looking Evan sauntering into the room with his hands in his pockets, so very different from the man from before that last mission. Involuntarily, she has to smile, but she still needs a comeback for that. "Just wait those one or two days and I'll give you disrespectful."
He grins at her. "Can't wait for it. Although I think the docs won't be very partial to that." As he comes to stand beside her bed, he takes the liberty of bending down and giving her a soft kiss on the forehead, quietly saying: "Good to have you back, Buttercup." Immediately, she wants him to wrap her in his arms, like he did back in that cell when they had finally found her. She doesn't remember much from that, but she'll probably never forget the relief that her absolute certainty that her farm boy would come and rescue her hadn't simply been born out of her fever.
But there's still their CO standing in the same room with them. Who just cleared his throat. "I'll just pretend I didn't see that, because I've got one of my generous days today."
Evan at least has the decency to blush. "I appreciate that."
She feels compelled to add something. "We appreciate that, sir."
"Yeah, well, I think I should go now, so I won't have to pretend seeing any more PDAs or… other improper stuff. Oh, and Evan, don't forget to give me those performance evaluations on Walter's and Teldy's teams tomorrow." That was a low blow, reminding Evan of his work when he's just about to spend little spare time at the bedside of his sick girlfriend. But they both know that he deserved that.
So he just says: "Will do.", and she's sure he means that. Hopefully he's already done with the reports, because otherwise it'll probably mean another working night.
Sheppard simply nods and exits the room. When he's left, Evan sits down beside her, and she makes the effort to take his hand. "That, Major Lorne, was mighty stupid."
She's already prepared for him starting a fight about this, stating he could very well decide when to kiss his girlfriend himself and telling her off for calling him stupid… but he simply takes up her hand in his, leaning his forehead against it and then pressing a short kiss on it. "I know. But there's almost a week of worrying for you behind me."
It touches her and she moves to lightly run her hand over his hair. In an effort to soothe him, she says: "Hey, you'll get used to it."
But it doesn't have the desired effect. Instead he shakes his head and states firmly: "No. And I don't want to."
The conviction in that startles her a little, and she gently reminds him: "You've got a job to do, you know."
He leans back, her hand again on the bed, but still covered by his. With the other one, he rubs over his face and finally answers: "Yeah, and I can push it back, stamp it down… but I won't get used to it. The day I get used to being worried sick about you whenever you go off-world… I know something's seriously wrong."
She's never seen it like this. To her, his tendency to brood and worry and simply think too much has always felt a little like patronizing when it was about her. Like he thought that as the older and more experienced one he had to take care that she wouldn't get into too much scrapes with her youthful enthusiasm. But she never even got the idea that it was rather an expression of his feelings for her.
She sighs. Suddenly she wants to know if this was the case with his paperwork as well or if there was yet another reason. "Why didn't you let me help you, Evan?"
If he's startled by the sudden change of topic, he doesn't show it, simply says: "Because… if this doesn't work… I don't want your career to be on the line as well. If Sheppard and I don't get Woolsey to convince the I.O.A… there might very well roll some heads, and I don't want yours to be one of them." Ah. So that really was about protecting her. But somehow it doesn't aggravate her so much anymore, because she now has the feeling that he's doing it because he cares for her and doesn't want to see her unhappy, not because he thinks she can't take care of herself.
Still… "That's all very noble and stuff… but I'm a 28-year-old Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. Don't you think I earned the right to risk my career wherever and whenever and for whomever I bloody want to? Evan… don't fight my battles, and don't make my decisions."
At first, he wants to contradict her, she can see that. But then he realizes that she's right. Probably, because deep down he's known this all along for quite some time now. "Alright. I just… I won't, I promise. If you promise not to try and fight out everything with yourself."
Well… and deep down she's known he's right with that for quite some time now. She does have a tendency to keep things to herself, not let him in, sidestepping serious issues bothering her… and wanting to solve everything on her own, no matter how high the odds are. But if there's any mission that ever taught her she can't always do that, it was the last. She shortly closes her eyes. "I promise." Then she's finally fed up with serious talking for today, and she adds: "So… by the way… did you already pay the round you owe Meyers?"
He already looks a little grumpy, probably because he has a suspicion where she wants to go with this. "Of course. And I wrote him a hell of a recommendation. Satisfied?"
She nods. "Absolutely. Although you might probably have to pay him another round. I don't think it would be too good for you if he happens to blab about zoomies who doubt a Marine's natural invincibility."
"We'll talk about that "invincibility" next time we're in the work-out room." Despite his slightly haughty tone, he looks like he knows very well that she's right.
She knows she should be stopping here, but she can't resist the temptation and has to rub it in even a little deeper. "You know what I've been wondering about for the last few days… isn't Meyers a medic? Did someone teach him all that explosives stuff?"
Now he looks more than just a little disgruntled, because she hit right home. "Alright, Lieutenant, you made your point. No reason to be so smug now."
She grins. "Oh, there's every reason to be smug."
"Okay… say it.", he concedes rolling his eyes, already knowing what'll come now.
And she says it with all the smugness she deserves. "Marine instructors are simply the best."
"Laura… this might come as a shock now, but… you have no idea how much I wanted to hear you saying that." Oh, now, after everything, she thinks she has every idea how much he wanted that. But she refrains from telling him, because what she really wants to do now is kiss him. That will have to wait until sitting up stops making her dizzy and short-breathed, though, and so she changes the topic again.
"Well then, now that you got your wish… how about getting me my wish and keep to a dear old tradition?" He chuckles and pulls out a book from the stack of documents he left behind on her nightstand.
"With pleasure." With that he opens the book she isn't quite sure how it found its way to her bed in the infirmary, and the sound of his voice reading makes her forget all about ankles and cells and fevers.
A/N: I just betI know who had some difficulties with this chapter :D And don't forget, there's still the epilogue to come.