An hour later she sat in the darkened canteen next to the viewport. The impossible light cast strange shadows on the familiar benches and tables. Without realizing it she dozed off again.
"Dangerous?"
"Who here isn't dangerous?"
"Rodney did blow up a star system."
"Yeah but he didn't mean to. They say she confessed to murder, mass murder."
"Who are they?"
She opened her eyes. Four tables over a group of people in the unusual uniforms were discussing her. She didn't think they knew she could hear them. She sighed and sat up. They didn't fall silent. Annoyed and frustrated she decided to put a halt to the conversation. Gently.
"Hi." She said. The group stared at her and blinked in unison. She grinned in amusement.
"My name is Max Holloway. Ask me whatever you like." She said evenly. A tall thin man with an equally thin ponytail and officious manner glanced at his companions then snorted.
"Fine, I will ask a question. Are the rumors true?" He asked with a sneer.
Max studied him for a moment wondering how he could manage to ask her that in a tone like that. Then smiled again.
"Which ones?"
"Well –"She cut him off.
"All you need to know is that I'm here because Colonel Carter and General O'Neill want me here and I'm not going to hurt anyone. Okay?"
The obnoxious man glanced at his peers, seemed to gather his version of courage and said, "So you are a murderer then."
She felt tired so damn tired because she knew this was a conversation she would never get away from.
"Yes. I am." She said simply. He paled and wilted. She left then unable to bear their stares, the copper taste of fear drifting off them. As she walked away she felt the urge to scream at them, to burst into tears, to smash her fist in to a bulkhead to do something crash over her.
She ran into Lorne two halls down.
"Whoa, hey." He said with a laugh as he gently pushed her out of ta collision course and looked at her face.
"What happened?" He asked.
"I'm sorry sir I just had a bad night –" She started to pull away, he had left a hand on her shoulder, he stopped her.
"What happened?"
"Oh shit, the usual, I feel like a teenager Christ. Look I'm fine sir nothing really happened, I just had a word with some asshole in a blue paneled uniform, stupid ponytail. It really wasn't anything I guess I'm just I don't know, space lagged?" She joked lamely and took a deep breath then let it out.
Lorne thought about giving the scientist that had been such an asshole a piece of his mind, then thought better of it. Max might not be staying and there was already a near constant level of tension between certain members of the science teams and the military presence on Atlantis as it was.
He patted Max's shoulder instead. "It's almost over, one way or another." He said and smiled.
She nodded and took another breath then smiled back.
"Think the coffee is still drinkable?" He asked.
"No, but it's probably warm." She admitted and followed him as he resumed his path to the canteen.