Title: Leaving Earth
Author: Elaiel
Rating: PG13
Word count: 522 words
Warnings: none
Characters: Eli & Mrs Wallace
Author's notes: Written for a songfic challenge on stargateland- the song is Leaving Earth by Code 64.
"I'm truly sorry if I was a disappointment to you." He had offered the sentence like a gift, waiting to see how she would react.
"Oh Eli!" She had hugged him, "I always knew you were a bright boy, you just needed the right opportunity."
She is so very proud of him. He seemed such an aimless boy, even as a young man he was an aimless boy. Sitting around the house, playing his games, wasting his time. Well she knew he worried about her and he was only home because of her, because she had had a bad patch and he had come home from MIT and never gone back. She was all he had, they weren't a large family, she was an only child, her parents were both dead and the idea she could die without him being there...well, he had come home.
It was funny that his obsession with games was what had actually got him the job with the air force. He had solved the puzzle, the puzzle that no-one else could solve that Doctor Rush (skinny, unhealthy looking, defensive) had hidden in a computer game to see if anyone else could. That nice Mr Brody (nice smile, messy hair) had explained it when Eli had gone off to the toilet.
He'd also explained that the air force had effectively abducted Eli, beamed him up, like in a science fiction programme, beamed him up to their space ship and told him they needed him on another planet. It was probably for the best, now she knew what was happening, she didn't think he would have left home voluntarily otherwise, too worried about her. This was his way out, she knew, one he'd never have chosen, but an incredible one.
"Sometimes it feels like Earth is kinda like a dream, not real, like I'm losing my grip on reality."
She had pinched him. "Real enough?" He had laughed. "Just you keep trying to come home."
"I'm don't know if we'll make it home Mom."
"Well you just keep visiting me."
And so there he was, a trillion miles away, on a giant alien space ship exploring the galaxy, maybe never to return.
At least now though she understood when he came to visit. The strangeness of seeing her son in another's body was still a little unsettling, but she was getting used to it now, could see when the car arrived which one he was simply by his body language. It didn't matter that he was borrowing someone else's body, his heart was still in the right place, he was her son. He still talked the same way (too fast), moved the same way (too clumsy) and hugged the same way (as if he was scared she would disappear).
I gotta go Mom, it's late." He said standing reaching to hug her again. "It's time for me to leave."
But she was decided. She would be here to listen to his stories of alien worlds. She would be here as long as she could, while he was out there, floating away from her faster than the speed of light.
Leaving Earth by Code 64
I'm truly sorry if I am
Losing my grip
If I'm fading away
Watching the stars as I set sail
I'm truly sorry if I was
A disappointment to you
But I cannot stay
Watching the stars
Longing to set sail
I know that I will miss you
But it's time for me to leave
The arcadia is calling my name
I am drifting away
This is my goodbye
No need for me to stay
This is my way out
I'm truly sorry if I am
Losing my grip
If I'm fading away
Watching the stars as I set sail
I know that I will miss you
But it's time for me to leave
The arcadia is calling my name
I am drifting away
This is my goodbye
No need for me to stay
This is my way out
This is my goodbye