Sorry for the long time before update. I just finished another story, and it was a very long last chapter, so it took a bit to finangle it out of my MIND. Also, though I had this written, DOCUMENT MANAGER WAS NOT WORKING AND IT WAS TRYING TO DESTROY ME.
A/N: All irreverant writing in this chapter must be blamed on Douglass Adams, as I was rereading his Hitchhiker series when I wrote this.
Here ya go, though...
Chapter Two: This River is Wild
Now, in a normal situation, with all the normal cast in their usual placements, an exclamation such as that would be met with calm but critical questioning, in a schedule debriefing that allowed for all members of the team to get their medical check-up, a meal, and a shower, if not a night's rest, before they underwent it. However, this was not a normal situation, and everyone was out of sync, placed in positions that they had never quite encountered and were not comfortable with.
Ergo, when Major Lorne made such an exclamation, a roar of approval went up from the control room, with many hugs, kisses, and inappropriate touching taking place as the thought that they would be getting their favorite, and most capable, commander and chief back. In fact, it's interesting to point out, that though Colonel Sheppard has never before done such a thing, at the news of a possible lead, and the surety with which Lorne said it made it a certainty in Shep's head, Colonel Sheppard planted a large smacking kiss directly on Lorne's lips, and though it's only rumored, it's widely believed that he did indeed use tongue.
Teyla and Ronon merely cocked their heads to the side and in the way that they had, were greatly amused by the sight of the two men. For some odd reason, Rodney looked crushed, though he perked up when he remembered why the exuberant celebration and intimacies were erupting everywhere.
Pushing Sheppard away, Lorne wiped his mouth and blushed. "Stop that!"
Sheppard shrugged and wrapped an arm around Lorne's shoulders, practically dragging him into the nearest debriefing room. Ronon, Teyla, Rodney, and what seemed to be the entire control room crew, followed.
Pushing the Major into a seat, Sheppard forced himself to compose; drawing all that giddiness into himself, he sobered up and calmly took a seat across from Lorne. Ronon and Teyla stood at his back, silent sentinels of security, and Rodney took a seat between the two men, anxiously wringing his hands. The dozens stuck in the doorframe were completely silent as they strained to hear what was going to be said.
"Now, Major," let's ignore the kiss, went unsaid, so Sheppard skipped saying it, "explain yourself."
Lorne grinned. "Well, we were sent to make contact with an advanced world, one we only recently became aware of through the trading post inside the asteroid belt in Sector Five. Well, when we got there, we were forced to surrender our weapons and interrogated heavily most of the day. It's why we didn't contact you."
"I'm aware," Sheppard replied, noting that had Lorne not checked in when he had, Sheppard would have sent another team in.
"Well, once we convinced the people there that we weren't Wraith-collaborators, they were perfectly happy to let us explore. We started talks about a possible alliance, and they were perfectly happy to talk with us."
Rodney interrupted. "Are they advanced? Or is this another primitive people we're going to have to protect?"
Teyla glared at Rodney. "What does that mean?"
Under the death glare of Emmagen, Rodney paled. "Nothing."
Lorne smiled. "That's just it. They're advanced. Their population is very small, barely a couple million, but they're at Earth's level, from what I can see. Their planet is located within a nebula, protected within a pocket of safe space, the Wraith venture there but once every hundred years. They know the people are there, but it's almost impossible to get there by ship without taking heavy damage."
"What does this have to do with Dr. Weir?" Ronon asked, impatient to get to the point of the story.
Lorne smiled. "Well, we were investigating their version of a night club-"
"Investigating?" Rodney questioned with a small but snarky smile. "A nightclub?"
Lorne grinned sheepishly. "What? We were invited."
"Get on with it!" Sheppard said loudly, glaring at Rodney, mentally sending him a message to shut up.
"Okay, so, I was investigating the drinks and the women serving them, when I looked over at the entrance and saw someone I did not expect to see."
An expectant silence filled the room. Everyone knew the answer, and just wanted Lorne to say it. See, if he said it, then it must be true, because everyone knows soldiers never lie. However, Lorne had a sense for the dramatic and paused for a few seconds before grinning and speaking again.
"Dr. Weir."
While the control room broke into applause (again), and hugged and kissed each other (again), Sheppard stared at Lorne calmly (and wondered if he was really such a bad leader that orgies ensued when Elizabeth was even mentioned as returning). "Do you have proof?"
Lorne continued to smile. "I had one of my team record her, so that we could be sure before we went to get her."
Rodney stood up. "Give it to me."
It was a command, and with a small grin, the small female of Lorne's team squeezed through the crowd and dropped the camera into Rodney's hands. Due to the advanced nature of Atlantis, all recordings played on the system became 3D, and after plugging the camera into a conduit, the roomful of people, and the many people outside, stared at the Hologram forming above the table. At first, all they could see was a jumble of gyrating people, moving to some unheard music. Oh, and there was also a very large thumb appearing in half of the hologram, but that was removed very quickly.
Rodney began to work at a keyboard and suddenly a loud beating music began to echo out of the small unobtrusive speakers in the walls. It had lots of drums to it, very Cuban mixed with African. There was also some sort of violin-like quality to the fore-music, making it very ethereal, yet still quite familiar in it's origins. With the audio restored, Rodney went to working at isolating the part of the recording that supposedly held Elizabeth.
Zooming in at a point on the far part of the hologram, the focus went past the crowd of people, and focused on the woman standing alone in the entrance to the club, her arms wrapped around herself securely. The hair was shorter, and curlier, and she was wearing a floor-brushing trench coat of a sort, but it was undoubtedly Dr. Weir.
Sheppard and everyone else leaned closer, studying the now frozen hologram, taking in every inch of the face (and on the part of the men, and one of the women, they studied the body too). Finally, Colonel Sheppard smiled. "That's her." He turned that gleefully child-like look in his eyes on Lorne. "Anything else to add?"
"Yeah...how come no one told me that Dr. Weir had mile long legs that went from the floor all the way to Heaven!?"
Sheppard's eyebrows flew up, and everyone turned back to the hologram just in time to watch Rodney hit play, and the coat hit the floor revealing a tan, long-limbed Dr. Weir strutting down the stairs in a mini-dress that left little to the imagination. Like Lorne had said, legs that went from the floor all the way to Heaven, starting with strappy heels that no one imagined Dr. Weir had ever even owned, leading the gaze of the crowd up those limbs to the glittery skirt that started inches below Heaven, and stopped inches above her navel, revealing amounts of skin that were delectable in their glory.
Teyla hoped no one slipped in the puddles of drool accumulating on the floor.
