Title: Our Mrs. Sheppard
Pairing: Sparky
Spoilers: This takes place sometime after The Tower, so I guess anything before that is fair game.
Disclaimer: I still don't own them or Firefly.
Summary: Sometimes John's off-world shenanigans catch up with him. And sometimes Elizabeth gets involved. Sparky.
Author's note: Back to Elizabeth!
Chapter 9- Wedding crashers
Elizabeth became vaguely aware of people talking, their voices rising to pierce the fog surrounding her mind. She couldn't remember where she was, but there was something she was supposed to be doing. For the next several moments she attempted to break through the confusion, focusing on the voices to help draw her out of disorientation. Soon they resolved into words and a not quite recognizable conversation. It seemed important for some reason, so she strained to hear anything she could. The fact that she heard her name almost immediately made it a little easier to focus.
"…………..pick up Weir, Lorne, and the rest until morning."
"…………..best part of this plan……rid of them quickly………..…be implicated." A woman said.
"………………impossible to send a team………." The man answered.
"…..hold them for the night……..." A second male voice chimed in.
"You don't understand why I'm worried?" The woman's voice rose in irritation so that Elizabeth could hear all of what she was saying. "You heard what Sheppard did when he thought Weir was dead. What do you think he's going to do when she doesn't return?"
There was a muttered answer that she couldn't quite pick up.
"Yes……………he'll find her here." The woman sighed. "Well……..do about it now."
Another incomprehensible comment followed.
"………….be careful…………………around the gate………..." The woman finished.
Elizabeth could hear footsteps shuffle about, the sound of a door opening, and then quiet. During the course of the discussion, her memory had slowly returned. Her head still felt fuzzy and it was a struggle to focus her thoughts, but she now recalled coming to Gandria with Lorne's team, speaking with Alix, touring the village, and then leaving. She remembered walking to a farm, after which point her mind seemed to cloud over. Elizabeth concentrated further, trying to remember through the haze. She had been talking to Imely and then there had been incapacitating dizziness. That plus the conversation she had just heard seemed to point to her being taken prisoner.
This thought made her aware of her physical situation for the first time. She leaned her head back against something solid and opened her eyes slowly. Despite the fact that she had moved her head gently, it pounded with a sharp pain causing her to groan. A few seconds passed before her vision steadied enough to take in her surroundings. Faint light illuminated the small room where she was currently seated against one wall. Shelves lined the walls to her right and left with jars and bundles stacked on them, and the wall across from her had barrels in front of it. From what she could see, there wasn't anyone else in the room. Well that's unfortunate.
To add to the list of unfavorable conditions, her hands appeared to be tied behind her back and she was gagged. She gave the ropes an experimental tug and figured out that not only was she bound, but that she was tied fairly securely to something. After feeling around with her hands for a moment she determined it was probably a wood post, so it didn't seem like she was going anywhere anytime soon. Elizabeth sighed, what she wouldn't give for Ronon and one of his knives right about now.
Since moving was out of the question for the time being, she instead tried to piece together how exactly she had ended up here. The conversation she had overheard indicated that Ronon, Lorne, and the rest of the team had been captured and they all were to be handed over to someone in the morning. The fact that they seemed concerned about being discovered led her to believe that they were still on Gandria, which was good because then Atlantis would know where to look.
Now she just had to figure out who had captured them, who they were being handed over to, and why. Wait, that woman's voice had sounded a little like Imely. She had been captured by Sheppard's disappointed fiancé?
Suddenly the pieces fell into place. Imely had requested to speak with her to get the team away from the village. Then, she had drugged the wine for the farewell toast. And the woman probably had them stashed in her family's farm waiting to be turned over to…..who? Elizabeth paused, reviewing the conversation again. The Genii. As far as she knew, John had only thought she was dead and reacted to it once, when the Genii invaded Atlantis during the storm. And the only way anyone would know that was if they were in contact with the Genii. It made sense, but it also didn't make sense. The last time she checked they had a tentative truce with the Genii. So why would they want people from Atlantis?
Hopefully, Atlantis would send a rescue team and she wouldn't have to find out. They had left Gandria in the late afternoon, but hadn't been expected back to Atlantis until late in the evening. The question was how long John would wait around for her and the team before going to look for
them. Elizabeth was aware of the fact that she was counting on John to be more paranoid that normal about her safety and come looking for her when she was just a little overdue. Except she had forbidden him to set foot on this planet. Well at least I was right about something going on here, she thought ruefully. Yay me.
She did have basic self defense training, but even if she could get out of her bonds, her head was still throbbing and spinning, like a really bad hangover. Even with some element of surprise she doubted she could take down a guard single handedly. However, it couldn't hurt to attempt to break free of her bonds, so Elizabeth started pulling them up and down against the wood post, trying to snag and tear the rope little by little. She had only made a dozen or so pulls when a door opened at the top of a set of stairs she had failed to notice. The room was suddenly bathed in light, causing her head start throbbing again. Elizabeth squinted at the brightness, seeing Imely standing in the doorway and then walk down the stairs, wearing a slightly amused expression.
"I thought I heard something in here." Imely said once she reached the floor of what now appeared to be a root cellar. Her expression turned thoughtful. "You should still be unconscious. Maybe you didn't drink all of the extract, not that it really matters now."
Elizabeth tried to talk, but all that came out were muffled noises.
Imely smirked a little, "I can take the gag off, but if you try to kick me or anything I will take it out on one of your men."
Elizabeth was momentarily shocked by the coolness of her tone, it was such a departure from the unsure woman she had briefly spoken to. She nodded. It was worth a try to talk her way out of this.
"I think you're mistaken," Elizabeth said once the gag was removed and Imely had stepped back a pace or two. "We have a truce with the Genii."
Imely's eyebrows rose in surprise and Elizabeth felt a certain satisfaction in having figured out that piece of information. Soon her expression returned to a knowing smirk. "You are mistaken Dr. Weir. You did have a truce with the Genii. Now they want Atlanteans."
"Are you sure? Because the Genii have already held me as a prisoner once and they let me go, so maybe-"
"I know what I was told to do." She interrupted. "Though I'll admit that is puzzling, but I was given the impression that your capture was rather time sensitive. In any case, they'll be here soon enough and you can ask them yourself."
"And you're doing their dirty work for them. Why?" Elizabeth asked.
"Maybe because I believe in what they are doing to rid us of the Wraith. Maybe because I have heard how you double-crossed them. Maybe because they're paying me to do it." She answered evenly, crossing her arms.
"It's really not going to do any good. Whatever the Genii want, my people don't negotiate with terrorists." Elizabeth said. It now looked like she wasn't going to be able to change Imley's mind, but she hoped if she just kept the conversation going, Imely would continue on in 'comic-book villain' mode, as John liked to call it, and reveal more of what was going on.
"You don't negotiate with terrorists Dr. Weir," Imely pointed out, watching Elizabeth carefully. "But you're not in charge of Atlantis right now, are you?"
"It's not just my policy, it's our government's policy." Elizabeth protested.
"You mean to tell me that Colonel Sheppard, the man who went on a killing spree because he thought you were dead, wouldn't trade for your safety." Imely raised one eyebrow. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."
Just then the entirety of the plan hit Elizabeth. She should have realized it earlier, but she blamed whatever they had given her for scrambling her brain a little. The Genii hadn't wanted just anybody from Atlantis to hold as a hostage, they specifically wanted her to use as leverage against John. That also meant that Sheppard hadn't been the one targeted by the engagement.
"Ahh, now she gets it." Imley must have seen the comprehension on her face. "This never was just about the dear Colonel. It was all to get you and deal with him. It would have been much simpler of you had come through the gate to address our wedding plans, but I guess in the end this worked too."
Elizabeth glared at her. "I told you, John won't deal."
"From the little I know of him, I think he will. And obviously, so do the Genii." Imely started to leave the room. At the door she turned back and regarded Elizabeth with an almost apologetic expression, "And if he doesn't, maybe you should have told him about the way you felt before it was too late."
TBC