Chapter 16
Come Down in Slow Motion
He growled at the screen because she had tricked him. The lab, she had created a second transmitter and had placed herself in the drone guarding her. She was not an it, but a cunning adversary Then, she simply stole a dart (along with the drone) and flew away before they entered hyperspace. She had waited like the practical predator to leave the ship unnoticed and had used the Ring on the planet. Unfortunately, she took with her the knowledge of Michael's little colony, and that was inexcusable. Such a blunder was deadly for him and his kind.
He had proven himself a survivor, though, and his brethren agreed at the need for separation from the queens. Now, his brothers saw their self-serving behaviors and tendencies. It was an easy sell. Now, he was master of his own Cruiser. One day, it would be a Hive. Not in the traditional sense, of course.
On the bright side, she was also a tainted thing and an outcast because of her situation. She had also failed and that was a big sin in the collective's eyes. She too would have to lay low for awhile. Too bad, so sad-- and there was the taint poking out its head.
For now though, he would take what he could get and keep his eyes and ears open. He had a working cloak and time to plan his next moves. He would survive with his little colony intact and do whatever was necessary.
And, maybe, just maybe-- the queens would be dealt a mortal blow.
Then, it would be his turn to lead.
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Elizabeth stood behind Rodney and Radek as they clicked to another screen on the computer.
"We're sure Elizabeth, all simulations point to a sustained response when the implant came in contact with Wraith technology. A specific impulse and reaction occurred when the two mixed." Rodney handled the presentation of the results. She was sure it was because of his friendship with John.
"What kind of response or reaction?"
"The implant, anytime it was near anything Wraith, it would stimulate certain areas of his brain. This part is just a guess though…we think he experienced hallucinations or something similar for months after his time on the first Hive ship. We can't decipher all the lines of code and we may never want to for our emotional benefit, but he definitely had something going on since his return from Earth."
Elizabeth wrapped her arms around her torso. "He lied about his progress with Kate and Dr. Meeks?"
"Yes, no, maybe? Our consensus was that he may have been too preoccupied to actually realize that something was wrong. He may have…"
Elizabeth interrupted unwrapping one arm and holding up her hand. "Enough Rodney. Don't try to make excuses. I think, we'll put only what we can verify in the report and save the rest until it too can be either verified or denied, and not just by John Sheppard."
"Dr. Weir," Radek cut in, "He might not have known or remembered anything about them."
"Yes, I know, but that doesn't seem likely." Elizabeth wrapped her arms tighter. "I'll talk to him, but not here and not now." It was too soon to confront him. As a leader, she had to know when to pick her fights and not just with whom.
However, Elizabeth had noted small differences in John's demeanor in the two weeks since the whole Michael thing. He seemed less moody, edgy, or maybe, he was just un-weighted. Whatever it was, it suited him, and she would give him time to fit into his own skin.
Radek and Rodney nodded their heads in acquiescence.
"There's something else we called you down here for." Rodney turned back around in his seat to face the computer once again. "It's about the information Michael gave us on the queens."
"Yes," said Radek, very excited. "It presents a whole new perspective and understanding of the Wraith."
"Well gentlemen, what did he give us?" What did he give us that was worth such a price to him? is what she meant to say.
"A nursery," Rodney smugly provided.
She blinked not comprehending for a moment. "What? Like with cribs and mobiles and changing tables?"
"Sort of," answered Radek. "Whether they use diapers or not is now a betting pool in labs, but we do know it's where all of the queens are incubated until they're ready to…"
"…take over their own Hive ship or become caretakers," Rodney finished smugly under Radek's mutinous glare.
She stepped back from them for a moment and pondered the information just dropped on her. Now it made sense why Michael had let them live. Now she knew why he handed over John with a queen still in his head. He truly hated the queens.
She laughed because Michael in his twisted way had told them, "I own you."
He had just presented them with a challenge and an apparent mission of his choosing. You will do this because you owe me. He probably figured, if they could kidnap him and could take down Hive ships as a hobby; this should be easy.
She also knew that they would most likely take him up on it.
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Tables lined the large, common area of the Athosian village. Electric lights were strung over the tables and powered by generators from the city. This celebration had become a collective effort.
Teyla stood at the head table, spread her arms, and with gladness in her heart, proclaimed, "As the Ancestors have always provided, let us share our bounty and eat." Her shoulder only twinged for a moment in consequence of the movement. She would live.
The process to reach this night had taken awhile, but here she stood straddling the two societies with the tip of one boot in the past and the tip of the other in the possible future. She understood as the Cornerstone communal meal began that her place was as a link, an ambassador of sorts. She was of two worlds, but her allegiance would always be what was best for the Athosian people. She was now a leader of both and had taken the mantel with resistance. Somehow, as fate usually delivers, what was best for the Athosians turned out to be what was best for the Atlantians. Not always, but mostly, and it was her vocation to decipher it.
She looked at Halling to her right and Dr. Weir on the other side of him, and then she turned her head to look at Seirka, an elder of the community, on her left and Col. Sheppard on the other side of her. While everyone else had sprinted to the Jumpers, she had to practically drag him kicking and screaming through the hallways of Atlantis to come to the feast.
"You threw a knife at me; you owe me; you're going," she demanded righteously.
Yeaaah," he admitted, "Buuut it wasn't meee!"
Teyla knew it had not been and it did not matter. She had learned how to get under his skin from Dr. McKay and decided to use that skill to her ultimate benefit. He owed her anyway.
They had discussed his attack of her at length the morning of his release from the infirmary. The downcast, sorrowful eyes, filled with remorse in failing to recognize his own problem, begged for forgiveness even though she felt that he needed none from her. She (Lucy) had done this to Teyla and him, not the other way around. He was going to apologize; she stopped him with a single finger to his lips.
"I understand," she said instead of him saying anything.
The smile reaching his eyes thanked her and, maybe, even allowed for him to forgive himself, just a little. Now, he could joke about it. Then, he needed her to say exactly that. Plus, he would owe her even more. She had learned a thing or two as leader of the Athosian people and from poker.
Regardless, she did not think that the Colonel needed to invoke such a nasal whine to answer, but he was trying his best to backpedal. She understood. He was on display here at the head table. It went against his nature, but her people needed their heroes, just for one night. She was not above using a guilt trip and Ronon's strength to push him into the loaded Jumper.
Rodney sat with Ronon at another table with Jinto and Wex. Rodney had complained about being at the children's table upon seeing the young men. Sheppard offered to change seats, but her glare sat the both of them back down in their correct seats with comments quashed. Finally, Carson and various Atlantis residents were seated amongst her people and others who had come to live on the mainland.
The Cornerstone would be living up to its true symbolism this evening. She had given her opening invocation reminding them of their past tribulations. It had reminded them of their reinvention of the Athosian people and how they dwelled on the positive instead of the devastation that had encircled them. They were living proof that perseverance accounted for something; hope would see them through the long night.
She had told them that even though traditions may be altered…
She had been unsuccessful in getting the guarve, but Atlantis had come to her assistance. Rodney had said that guarve resembled an Earth fruit called mango. It could also pass for guava. He then went off on a tangent about maybe it was a hybrid of the two as he led her to the kitchens. They had frozen bags of assorted fruits and recipes to go with them. She accepted them with the graciousness in which they were given.
She liked the hybrid theme and had said now was time to be malleable enough not to forget the ways of old, but not to fear the embrace of the new. The past teaches, the present reminds, and the future learns. As life often presents, they were doing all three.
Col. Sheppard had requested extra bags of fruit on the Daedalus' next run thinking that would be his only contribution. Her people had supplemented with other trading finds. It was a glorious communion.
The bonfires were lit so the stories of her people could be told. The people were eating and sharing the goodwill of many. The conversations were happy, creating joy in the air. She was surrounded by those that meant everything to her and it filled her with an all too fleeting peace.
Teyla felt complete for the first time in awhile.
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Elizabeth found him at a lone fire with Rodney and Ronon. As the stories wound down and the songs quieted, they chided one another quietly. She stood back, watched, and listened.
"Well Priscilla, Queen of the Wraith…I think, all we need is a giant, pink, high-heeled pump to place on top of the Jumper to complete your experience." Rodney nudged Sheppard with his shoulder and Ronon snickered quietly.
He obviously understood the reference. Elizabeth guessed Ronon had seen a few movies during their assorted down times and she would have loved to hear the explanation for that one upon his initial viewing.
"Yes, Ronon, they're men, but…but…" She stopped herself from going any farther and shook her head in amusement.
"McKay, I swear if you don't let that drop…"
"You'll what? Shoot me? Already allowed you to do that to my leg. Not my fault if an impenetrable barrier stopped it. No take backs!" Rodney sneered.
She really was working with misfits.
The settlement was quiet. The children were all in bed and the few people that remained were cleaning up the leftovers of merriment. She decided to step in and have her own conversation with her second.
"I have a bone to pick with you, Lieutenant Colonel," Elizabeth said quietly as she ambled towards the fire with her arms clasped behind her back.
He flinched and scrunched up his face in a got-caught-by-the-nuns-smoking-in-the-bathroom sort of way. "Just one?" John asked.
"There's time enough for all grievances to be aired, John. But, for right now, just one." She eased herself down next to him on the log serving as a bench. Ronon and Rodney scooted over to make room so she could sit next to him.
They made no move to leave, and John did not ask it of them, and neither did she.
"Shoot," he said after everyone was situated.
"You lied to us. Consciously or subconsciously, I don't know. But, you lied about how you were doing after your return from Earth."
He drew in a loud breath through his nose before answering, "I knew that I shouldn't still be seeing things, but there they were. I thought maybe it was just tricks by the Wraith or just left over Post Traumatic Stress or…hell, I don't have any excuse. I just couldn't get sidelined, not yet. I've got a job to do and I'm sure as hell gonna do it."
There is was in a nutshell-- his duty to Atlantis and them. She figured as much. Whatever had been tormenting him had not stopped him. It had not even really slowed him down…but still.
"John, it's time to pass a little group forgiveness around. It's time to release the blame and embrace the now." She turned to face his profile as he studied the firelight. "I haven't got a clue as to what happened in our heads when we were unconscious, but I think all three of us shared more than what was comfortable. John, since we got you back from Michael, you've changed. It's good. It's nice to see."
He squirmed next to her clearly uncomfortable. Good, she thought.
"It's time to reaffirm ourselves. Every one of us is here to do that job, John. It's time to share the responsibility." The IOA had tried to bully her into following their narrow-minded line, but they left her in charge. She was going to make the most of it before they discovered the error of their ways.
His head slowly turned to face her and she looked right into the shaded eyes. Out of the blue, Nipsy Russell assaulted her ears asking, "So…you flew helicopters in Antarctica? Who were you before hand?"
She, all of a sudden, did not need the answer. She looked at him and saw the charade falling from his very being. The phrase, hiding in plain sight, drifted into her mind-- once again, as if out of the blue. No one ever knows someone truly, but the earnest look in his face surprised her.
With that look, Nipsy took a guess at the man sitting on the log next to her.
In reply, the real John Sheppard figuratively stood up and all affectations fell away. The man who was a tactician, a goofball, her right arm, a frightened human being, and a deadly predator slithering in the tall grass and shaking his rattles in warning sat next to her, and she knew him as well as she ever had. She trusted the chameleon implicitly and needed nothing else.
Maybe, the firelight played tricks with her eyes, but she did not think so. Sentimentality overtook her stoic reasoning and she knew what she had to do.
Then, Elizabeth thought of her Aunt Sudie rooting from the sidelines with pom-poms because the old barracuda was a sucker for sentimentality. It was another surprising image striking her out of the blue and it only reinforced her next action.
As Teyla and Carson came over to join them, she held out her hand. "Hello, my name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. I have an opportunity that I'd like to tell you about. It's a trip into the unknown. There's danger, excitement, and a chance to meet new people. You might even die once or twice, but I'd think you'd enjoy it just the same. Interested?"
A few left over personnel and curious Athosians sauntered over their way, interested in hearing his answer to her invitation. Embers in the fire popped heightening the gathering silence. Warmth spread from the flames or so she thought. She realized the man sitting next to her was radiating a warmth all of his own.
Without hesitating, John Sheppard gave a lazy half-smile and firmly took her hand in his. The smile increased to include his eyes as he confidently replied, "Sure."
The End
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A/N: Well, that's it. Yes, a little cheese on the end, but a little reaffirmation of the mission was warranted after all the crap they went through. Now the one thread I left dangling about the nursery will become a story when I can figure it out so don't you worry. I'm sure the queen will make another appearance…just got to figure that out as well. The next one will be just a good old fashioned adventure yarn…I think. Hope you enjoyed and felt I wrapped it up enough. Not too tight though, gotta leave room for more angst in the future. Don't' you worry, I'll break them again! ;)
Thanks Autumn Leaves for allowing me to borrow the Priscilla reference. Also, Reyson, there are the pom-poms!
Thought I'd better give credit to the titles of the chapters. Now you too can have these songs rattle around in your head and never giving you a moment's peace. Just thought I'd share. :)
Summary: Got a feelin' something ain't right. Clowns to the left, jokers to the right...Here I am stuck in the middle with you-- Title: Stuck in the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel ( A/N: and yes, Michael Madsen dancing around his victim in Reservoir Dogs replays every time I hear this song.)
Ch. 1: Beautiful Dreamer-- Title: Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster
Ch. 2: Little Drop of Poison-- Title: Little Drop of Poison by Tom Waits
Ch. 3: Are We Ourselves-- Title: Are We Ourselves by the Fixx
Ch. 4: Dem Bones, Dem Bones Gonna Walk Aroun'-- Title: Dry Bones by Unknown
Ch. 5: Third Verse Same as First-- Title: Henry the VIII, I Am by Herman's Hermits (A/N: I don't think it's actually in the song, but that's where the idea for the chapter name came from and since it was Michael's and Atlantis third meeting…)
Ch. 6: Climbing Cathedral Mountains-- Title: Rocky Mountain High by John Denver
Ch. 7: God Save the Queen or (Potential H Bomb)-- Title: God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols
Ch. 8: When Logic and Proportion Have Fallen Sloppy Dead-- Title: White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
Ch. 9: I've Given Up, Stop-- Title: Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty
Ch. 10: Shock, Shock, Horror, Horror-- Title: Female of the Species by Space
Ch. 11: So Let It Go-- Title: Bang and Blame by R.E.M.
Ch. 12: No Time to Wallow in the Mire-- Title: Light My Fire by The Doors
Ch. 13: I Howl and I Whine-- Title: Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran (A/N: Cuz they were my first fandom. Long live the '80's British invasion!)
Ch. 14: Is There Anyone Home? -- Title: Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
Ch. 15: Put the Lime in the Coconut-- Title: Put the Lime in the Coconut by Harry Nilsson
Ch. 16: Come Down in Slow Motion-- Title: Jump in Line (Shake, Shake Senora) by Harry Belafonte
Have a safe and blessed Holiday Season!