Date : 14.05.2009
Title : The Fate Series : Part 1 - A Touch of Fate
Author : ElaineDex
Chapter : 4 of ?
Rating : M
Pairings : Lt. Colonel John Sheppard/OC
Major Evan Lorne/OC
Warnings : Some Sexual Content, Romance, Angst, Maybe Some Strong Language.
Feedback : Yes please, always welcome whatever it may be.
Disclaimer : Dr. Ellie Lorne, and any O/C's are mine. Lyssa Hunter belongs to Kazavid and is from her Atlantis stories Behind The Mask and Reunions. Lexi Roberts was created by Soccer-Bitch. Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately, has nothing to do with me.
Summary : AU : Lorne is gone for good this time and Ellie must move on with her life. There'll be no second chances this time, no way around them being parted…or is there…and is that what Ellie and Lorne for that matter, really wants?
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A/N : My O/C's are in this story quite predominantly at one point and I do apologise for that, but I felt it necessary for the series to work. Hopefully though, you'll like them enough to continue to read on and enjoy what they're getting up to! There are of course all the old favourites in here and a newbie or two…oh and remember…forget the Ellie and Lorne's of the past, this is another AU J
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"And don't slam the door!" Major Statham yelled, seconds before it banged shut loudly behind Ellie's angry retreating form.
Their uneasy relationship had gone from bad to worse over the last few weeks and their 'disagreements' had become somewhat of a talking point around Atlantis.
Sheppard had asked Statham a couple of times whether he thought that Ellie or indeed he, should step off the team but Statham was determined to make it work, a fact that Sheppard admired him greatly for.
This new argument was about, as always, one of their recent off-world assignments. Statham had refused to recommend that their team return to a planet where Ellie wanted to do some more research and she had not taken his decision well…as usual.
As she marched away from his office, Ellie cursed colourfully and muttered under her breath,
"I am still so right, he is a jerk. In fact, he's the biggest jerk that I have ever had the misfortune to work with!"
In his office, Statham raked a hand through his impossibly short hair and whirled around as the door re-opened.
"I am not willing to discuss it any further…we are NOT going back and that is final!" he said determinedly, then sighed as he saw that it was Sheppard that was standing in his doorway and not Ellie.
"You two having another row?" Sheppard asked, shoving his hands into his combats' pockets as Statham rammed some files into a nearby cabinet drawer angrily.
"The woman drives me crazy," he replied and Sheppard raised an eyebrow but Statham shook his head in denial.
"No! No way…not 'that kind' of crazy. She gets excited about mud…mud for God's sake and she ALWAYS wants to go back to the uninhabited planets, I mean, what is the point?!"
Sheppard smiled as he remembered how he had heard a similar outburst from Lorne when he had first started working with Ellie and then he had ended up marrying her.
Choosing not to freak Statham out, he sympathised instead.
"McKay's the same…not quite with the mud, but he likes it when there's no-one else around except us, makes him feel safer."
Statham sighed and sat back down behind his desk.
"Anyhow Sir, what can I do for you on this wonderful morning?" he asked and Sheppard smiled.
"I need a favour. One of Lexi's friends from the infirmary thinks that you're kinda hot and well, basically, if you don't come for a drink with us tonight in the bar I'm dead," he said, shrugging helplessly and Statham ran a hand over his day old stubble.
"Is it the tall red-head?" he asked, sounding vaguely tempted and Sheppard realised that he actually had no idea which of Lexi's numerous friends it was, but rather than endure yet another night of earache from his girlfriend, he smiled broadly and said,
"Yeah, that's the one."
Statham nodded and stood and rounding his desk he came to stand before Sheppard again.
"Alright, I could do with relaxing a little," he said as they moved to the door.
They stepped out into the hallway and Sheppard said,
"Great, you're a life-saver. See you around eight-ish in the bar then," and Statham nodded, his attention suddenly caught by Ellie who was stood further down the hallway with Ronon.
He watched as she smiled up at the Satedan and he couldn't help but think how pretty she looked.
As Sheppard walked away, Statham caught himself on.
'Pretty?!' he thought. 'Now where the hell had that come from? He didn't do pretty.'
Ellie was over a foot shorter than him, with unruly brunette curls that bounced as though they had a life of their own whenever she was ranting at him and although she was in no way overweight, she had curves to die for.
'Get a grip Frank,' he told himself sternly. 'She's not your type and for that you should be grateful!'
Clearing his throat he moved back inside of his office and shut the door behind him.
He needed a slim, leggy woman, preferably wrapped naked around him and tonight from the sounds of it, could be his lucky night.
ooooooo
Ellie and Lyssa sat together in the bar, both nursing a soft drink each.
"What do you make of her?" Lyssa asked eventually, nodding over to Lexi and her red-headed friend and Ellie glanced over at the other woman.
"Um, I don't really know her…why?" she replied.
"I don't like her," Lyssa replied bluntly and Ellie eyed her best friend with interest.
"What did she do to you?" she asked, pretending not to know and Lyssa shrugged and swirled what was left of her drink around the bottom of her glass.
Ellie sighed and said,
"It may interest you to know that when John and I were on the Daedalus, he told me that he and Lexi are having problems…"
"Why would that interest me?" Lyssa asked a little too quickly and colour tinged her cheekbones as Ellie raised an eyebrow at her.
"You're telling me that it doesn't?" she asked sceptically and Lyssa stuck her tongue out.
"How come you know me so well?" she asked and Ellie smiled.
"I'm your best friend Lyss, I'm supposed to know you better than even you do," she said and Lyssa nodded.
"True."
"So how long have you fancied him?" Ellie asked and Lyssa sighed.
"A while now."
"Why didn't you mention this in your emails?" Ellie said and Lyssa looked away.
"You had enough on your plate Ellie and its hardly important," she said and Ellie tutted in annoyance.
"Of course its important…and I would have been grateful of the dis…" she trailed off as Major Statham strode into the bar wearing jeans and a grey T-shirt and a brooding expression upon his ruggedly handsome face.
Lyssa watched as Ellie's mouth stayed open, but no sound came out and she followed her friend's gaze to see Statham striding toward Lexi and the red-head, Sheppard entering the room not far behind him.
Ellie felt the flicker of something she would rather not acknowledge deep in the pit of her stomach and she stomped down on it hard and tried to swallow, but she found her mouth to be as dry as a bone and she knocked back the remainder of her drink quickly and looked away.
"Something wrong?" Lyssa asked, dragging her eyes from Sheppard's butt to see Ellie shaking her head.
"No…nothing at all."
"I don't believe you," Lyssa replied and Ellie felt heat steal into her cheeks.
"Its him, Major Statham. I just…I mean I…" she sighed with frustration before saying, "I hate him!"
Lyssa frowned.
"Hate's a strong word."
"I know…but he just irritates the hell out of me," Ellie replied, trying to ignore him, but she could see out of the corner of her eye that he had taken the empty seat next to the red-headed nurse and for some reason the fact annoyed her greatly.
"And you irritate the hell out of him, so I'd say you're fairly even," Lyssa laughed and Ellie looked at her.
"He told you that?" she asked and Lyssa shook her head.
"No…its just plainly obvious to anyone who is within earshot of the two of you whenever you're together."
Ellie's blush deepened.
"Its nothing like working with Evan, that's all. I'm sure its just teething problems," she said and Lyssa touched her arm.
"You wanna get out of here?" she asked and Ellie smiled.
"Yes."
"Good, because I cant stand seeing Pesky Lexi wrapping herself all around John for one minute longer," Lyssa replied, standing and Ellie's smile widened as they left the bar.
From where he sat, Statham watched as Ellie smiled her 'pretty' smile at Lyssa and he sighed inwardly.
She grated on his nerves like no other woman could and he wasn't sure why.
'You don't want to know why,' he told himself sternly as the red-head that Lexi had just introduced him to ran a fingernail along his jaw.
'Crap, I missed her name,' he cursed inwardly.
'Still,' he thought, 'Who needs names for just one night of unadulterated pleasure…'
ooooooo
The next morning Ellie, Lyssa and Franks were sat in the briefing room with Woolsey, waiting for Statham to appear before they could start their weekly team meeting.
He eventually arrived five minutes late and sat down looking a little worse for wear.
"You look terrible Sir," Lt. Franks smirked, then added, "Long hard night was it?"
"Yeah, you could say…but I had a great time. Sorry I'm late by the way, damn alarm didn't go off," Statham replied before continuing, "You cant beat going on a blind date and meeting a sexy, hot blooded, long-legged…" he stopped as Ellie interrupted distastefully,
"I think we get the idea of what it was you were up to last night."
Statham snorted derisively and said,
"You really should relax those morals of yours Doctor, being so uptight all of the time makes you really unattractive."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted them and he cursed silently as he watched Ellie's face redden with embarrassment and he heard Lyssa's sharp intake of breath.
Thankfully, Woolsey intervened and said,
"Come along now children, let's play nicely and get this meeting underway shall we?"
They all mumbled their agreement and he began with their last mission reports.
As his voice droned on, Statham stole a glance at Ellie, his conscience well and truly pricked because of his harsh comment to her and he watched as she tucked a stray curl behind one ear.
She looked extremely vulnerable at that moment and he wondered what she was thinking as she chewed on her pen-top, her eyes staring sightlessly at the paperwork before her.
Just then though she glanced up and their eyes met.
For a moment they stared at one another, no anger or resentment between them, but then the moment passed and Ellie's eyes narrowed and Statham's lips twitched in a smile as they all but spat fire in his general direction.
Ellie was the first to look away.
She was angry and hurt by his comment and he might be her C/O but right then she wanted to beat the crap out of him with her bare hands, despite the differences in their size.
They had bickered about everything from day one and she was sick of it. She just wanted their team to have the same camaraderie that it had when Lorne was their leader.
'Maybe I should step off the team…' she pondered, her mind wandering and it wasn't until she realised that the room was silent that it dawned on her that Woolsey had asked her something.
"Um…what was that?" she asked, blushing again and Statham smirked at her.
"Mr Woolsey would like to know why you keep insisting we re-visit uninhabited planets all the time," he said and Ellie took a deep calming breath.
Then World War Three erupted in the briefing room…
Parallel Atlantis
Same Time
Lorne placed the last of the supplies he'd managed to collect onto the bench seat in the rear of the only remaining jumper and then sighed deeply.
The time had come to leave what was left of the city and move on.
He had spent the last few weeks moving around the rubble of the various levels, looking for survivors, but sadly there had been none.
Finally he had made the decision to gather what food, ammo and medical supplies he could find and get away from the place he had once called home.
He had no idea where he was headed, but one thing was for certain and that was that he could not remain at the place where all his friends had lost their lives.
It was just too painful.
He stood at the rear door of the jumper and looked around one last time, his eyes misting over with tears and he quickly swiped at them with the back of his hand.
Clearing his throat he activated the rear door closure and moved to the cock-pit of the jumper.
"Time to go Evan," he told himself as he powered up the systems.
End of Chapter 4