Thanks to everyone whose reviews so far: it's nice to know I'm doing something right.
Life Goes On
Part 3: What dreams may come
Sam stood on the balcony attached to their room, looking out across the city and the sea beyond. It was getting late, with the still un-named star sinking towards the horizon of the likewise un-named planet that was home to Atlantis. A soft breeze blew across from one side, leaden with the fresh sent of the open ocean. The room itself was more than enough for just the two of them, but Sam would have happily live in a bunkroom if she could keep the view.
"Hey beautiful." Chloe appeared in the doorway, her robe only just covering her, "What you thinking about?"
"Whether or not they'll let me move out here permanently one day." Sam admitted, "I could be very happy here."
"Hell of a long commute to work." Chloe smiled as she wrapped her arms around her lover, "Unless I can convince them to move the SGC to Metropolis, or set up a newspaper here..."
"I'm talking about..." Sam felt the words almost choke her, "After you're gone."
"Gone?" Chloe blinked, "I'm not planning on going anywhere?"
"Chloe, I'm almost exactly twice your age: in ten years time, I'll be almost 50, when you'll be in the prime of your life." Sam did her best to hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her, "In twenty, you'll be middle-aged while I'm getting ready to collect my social security..."
"Hey!" Chloe turned Sam round so they were facing each other, "I'm not going anywhere. I knew full well going into this relationship that you are older than me: it didn't bother me then, and it doesn't bother me now. Hell, I'd never even LOOKED at another woman sexually until I met you. That the effect you have on me!"
"But it's going to become more of an issue..." Sam almost sobbed.
"You don't think that I'm a little scared about the age thing at times?" Chloe asked, drying the tears from her partner's eyes, "You don't think that I sometimes wound 'why is this intelligent, articulate and sexy woman interested in me?' You don't think that I'm worried that someday you'll meet someone who's closer to your level of maturity? Who knows about physics and computers and other things I wouldn't know how to even begin to talk about? That's what terrifies me, what keeps me awake at nights when you're sleeping next to me."
"You never said." Sam smiled weakly.
"I was scared that if I mentioned it, you'd see the folly in being with me and leave, and I didn't want to risk that." Chloe admitted, "Now, are we going to get dressed and go join the others for dinner?"
"In a minute." Sam pulled the young woman inter her arms, holding her close, "I just want to enjoy the moment."
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"I'm telling you: the technology is crystalline-based!" McKay was standing, his hands resting on the table, "How can you even doubt it?"
"Just because the technology developed by the Ancients and the Asgard is based on the manipulation of specially grown crystals, you automatically assume that everyone else is the same!" Dr Zelenka countered, "We have no evidence that the people who built the outpost used crystals for anything other than construction. And until we are able to get a team past the wreckage that stopped you last time and find out for sure, I think we should keep an open mind."
"An open mind?" McKay laughed, "You just need to...I mean you should..." The scientist stopped dead in his tracks: all of his planned arguments would require him to tell his colleague that Clark was Kyrptonian, and that was still highly classified.
McKay wasn't sure why the fact that an alien was living on Earth was such a big secret: he'd met Cassandra Fraiser and a few others who had been granted sanctuary by the SGC. Two of his team-mates, Teyla and Ronon were from other planets. True, they were biologically human, but if Beckett was right, Clark was a close enough genetic match to allow Human/Kyrptonian interbreeding.
But Dr Weir had been adamant: no one was to say a word about Clark's true nature. If it turned out that you did need Kyrptonian DNA to work any of their technology, then only those who truly needed to know would be told. The cover story for everyone else would be that he possessed a special for of the ATA gene.
Relaxing, McKay went back to the temporarily abandoned chess game.
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"So we actually get to fly in an honest-to-go spaceship?" Chloe had a wicked grin plastered across her face, "Now where did I put my camera..."
"Don't even joke about it." Sam ruffled her girlfriend's hair, "One day, when the SGC is made public knowledge, you can write you Pulitzer Prize wining story, but just not yet."
"I hate you." Chloe pouted, "It's important you know that."
"We'll see how you feel tonight..." Sam smirked as she headed towards the Puddle Jumper that Sheppard and his team were still prepping. They had all met at dinner the night before, and they seemed nice enough. But Chloe still felt a little ill at ease around Ronan, but she was confidant that Clark could handle the big, gruff Satedan if needed.
Having a best friend with superpowers had its perks, and Atlantis' yellow sun kept the young Kyrptonian fully charged.
"Ok, time to hit the road." Sheppard hefted his pack over one shoulder and walked up the ramp the led into the rear of the Puddle Jumper. He took the pilot's seat next to Ronan, who just automatically assumed that he was superior to everyone else and thus had the right to sit there. McKay, in a surprising display of humility, gave up his seat to Chloe, while Teyla did the same for Clark.
"I received that video-message you sent me last month." Sam sat down on the reach bench next to McKay, "I don't know just what happened to you, but it must have been major for you to admit that I'm smarter than you..."
"I never said that you were smarter than me!" the Canadian shot back defensively, "I said that you were, in some, narrow and well defined areas, wiser than I am."
"I've missed these little sparing sessions." Sam acknowledged, "You know, you can write to me if you want: you do have the occasional spark of geniuses."
"That's very big of you to say so, Samantha." McKay nodded, secretly happy that he had finally won her professional approval, "You're not that bad yourself."
"I'm also impressed at how well you've handled being around Chloe and Me." Sam looked at her girlfriend, "I know a lot of people, well, mainly Jack and Pete, who had a lot of trouble dealing when I first came out. I remember the look on Pete's face when he ran into the two of us in Colorado Springs just before I moved to Smallville: I've never seen a man so afraid for his masculinity. You, on the other hand, seem to have taken the fact that I live with a young and beautiful woman in your stride."
There was a slight squeak from McKay who looked like he was about to have a stroke.
"Is this how you normally interact with Dr McKay?" Teyla asked from her seat on the other side of the Puddle Jumper as it descended into the gate-room.
"Let's just say it's the continuation of an old game." Sam winked, "I'll explain it later."
To Be Continued...
If you didn't like it, then so be it: it was my story to write and time to waste, not yours.