glimpse redux
Author: Rorie
Email address: rorie.brianne(at)nospamcomcast.net
© August , 2006.
Spoilers:
Before I Sleep, Michael,
Allies, No Man's Land,
Misbegotten, The
Real World, and my story--glimpse
Rating: whatever the
equivalent of 'G' to 'PG' is
Classification: John/Lizzie fic,
sequel/series
Summary: Another run in with the Ancient device.
Disclaimer: The
characters that you'd recognize and the concept of "Stargate:
Atlantis" are not mine. They
belong to SciFi, MGM, and whoever else holds the rights, and their portrayers.
I'm not making any money off of this story, and no copyright infringement
is intended. Please don't sue...
I'll return them when I'm done... probably in better condition than I found them
in (my momma taught me well). Don't
complain to me if they get lost in the mail... blame the United States Postal
Service.
Author's notes:
"glimpse" was
supposed to be a one-shot deal, but so many people wanted more that my muses
started to agree. You'll have to
read "glimpse" first to get this. More notes at the end…
Point-of-view
changes are denoted by double horizontal lines, time changes by a single
horizontal line.
Enthusiastic,
over-abundant, gushing thanks to my betas: Jess,
Kelsey, Debby, Jacqueline and Elvin, who should get co-author status.
You helped me more than you could ever know!
Y'all are amazing.
glimpse
(noun): To look briefly.
~~Å~~
It had been two weeks since Elizabeth's "incident" with the Ancient device and no one else had yet been
able to make it do anything: neither
the expedition members with the ATA gene nor those without it.
John stared at the object sitting on Rodney's
worktable. It looked harmless.
"So no one was able to turn that thing on until
Elizabeth?"
"Yes… well, actually, I don't know if Elizabeth
actually turned it on."
"But…"
Rodney interrupted, "Nothing happened
with the device. The only reaction
was with Elizabeth."
"How do you know that's not how it's
supposed to work?"
"I don't.
All I know is that nothing showed on that screen and
Elizabeth
was suddenly unconscious." He
paused, "Besides, she doesn't have the gene."
John tuned Rodney out and moved closer to the
table. It was almost as if the
object was drawing him in. He was
curious. Why
could Elizabeth get a reaction from the thing when no one
else could?
Rodney turned just in time to see John pick up
the box. "I don't know if
that's such a good idea."
"Why?"
Rodney sighed in exasperation.
John was never going to learn. "Never
mind," he snapped as John turned the object over in his hands.
Nothing happened… yet again.
"Just where exactly did you find this
thing?" John asked as he set the device back on the table.
"It was tucked in the bottom of the
stasis pod in which we found Elizabeth's older counterpart," McKay answered distractedly.
"Just a thought," John began.
"But what if Elizabeth
is the only one who can operate it?" He
paused when he saw McKay stop what he was doing and actually pay attention.
"Like maybe it's coded to her DNA or something."
Rodney frowned and stared at the object in
question. "Why would Janus, who
was obviously trying to help her, give Elizabeth
something that causes her to pass out?"
Elizabeth
stood at the railing on one of Atlantis' many balconies.
She'd found one that was quite remote from the rest of the expedition's
living quarters. She wanted to think
and knew that no one would look for her here.
Staring out over the ocean,
Elizabeth
didn't see the sparkling water or the brilliant sunshine.
She was seeing, as she had many times in the last two weeks, her small
family in the infirmary. She
remembered the little girl with the features that were a perfect mixture of her
and John, and the tiny baby who was the most beautiful in the galaxy.
Elizabeth
smiled as she remembered how much John was in love with that baby.
And with her. Many times in
these last few weeks, she'd wanted to tell him about her vision, but she was
scared. They'd been growing steadily
closer since Michael and the ill-fated alliance with the Wraith.
She didn't want to jinx things. She
didn't want John to think she was pushing him into something that he might not
be ready for, or worse, that she was just plain nuts.
She took a deep breath and started to head for
the door to return to work. She
closed her eyes when her arms began to tingle…
...and her stomach filled with butterflies, she took a breath to steady her
nerves. Opening her eyes,
Elizabeth
was relieved that she didn't find herself in the infirmary this time.
Instead, she was standing in her quarters.
Another second passed before she realized she wasn't alone.
She slowly turned to see Teyla, Laura Cadman, and Sam Carter smiling at
her. The women were dressed in
matching red satin gowns.
"You look lovely, Elizabeth," Teyla said. The other two
women nodded in agreement.
Elizabeth
finally gathered the courage to look in the mirror.
She gasped as she saw her reflection.
She was wearing her dream wedding dress:
simple and elegant, it reminded her of the gowns worn in Hollywood's heyday of the '40s and '50s. The
ivory satin skimmed her curves and the intricate beadwork at the top of the
bodice drew attention to her grandmother's sapphire and diamond filigree necklace. Her hair had been pulled
up into an elegant twist with a few tendrils of curls framing her face.
The mainland equivalent of a white rose was nestled in her hair, and a
bouquet of the same flower was lying on her dresser.
As she realized what was happening, the
butterflies in Elizabeth's stomach leapt into flight. No
longer only from the uncertainty of where she'd find herself during her vision,
they were now also in anticipation of the upcoming wedding.
A knock at the door startled
Elizabeth
out of her reverie. Sam moved to
answer the door. "Elizabeth, it's for you," she said with a smile.
Elizabeth
turned to see who was there. She
smiled when she saw Jack O'Neill in his dress blues.
He walked into the room and smiled in appreciation at the bride's
appearance.
"Elizabeth, you look stunning," he said, dropping a kiss on her cheek.
"If Colonel Sheppard doesn't watch it, I may steal you away from
him."
Elizabeth
blushed then laughed as Sam playfully punched Jack in the arm.
"Ow!
Okay, okay." He put up a
hand and backed away in mock surrender. "Sorry,
Doctor. It's seems that my wife has
some objections."
Elizabeth
smiled in amusement.
Sam smiled and kissed Jack on the cheek before
glancing at the clock. "It's
time." She grabbed the bouquet
off of the dresser and handed it to
Elizabeth
.
Jack walked back over to Elizabeth and offered his arm, "Shall we?"
They were headed towards the gate room.
So far, it was the only room that they'd found that was big enough to
hold all of the expedition members at one time.
It feels strange,
Elizabeth
thought, walking through deserted hallways.
Usually, even at night, there were team members going to labs, quarters,
and other places in the city. Today
it was almost eerily quiet.
The five members of the bridal party stopped
at the door to the gate room. Major
Lorne was waiting for them and clicked his radio to signal their arrival.
From inside the room, the strains of Bach's Air
filtered out into the hallway as first Laura, then Sam, and, finally, Teyla
began the walk down the aisle to the makeshift altar in front of the Atlantis
Stargate.
The music changed to Bach's Adagio and Elizabeth
took a deep breath. It was her turn
to go inside.
"Ready?" Jack asked as Elizabeth
took his arm.
"Yes," she answered, her first word
since this vision began.
Lorne opened the door.
Jack and Elizabeth began their walk.
Her breath caught in her throat as she first saw John in his dress blues.
John's eyes locked with hers and he smiled reassuringly.
The butterflies in her stomach calmed as everything she'd ever said
against the military popped into her head and she chuckled at the irony.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked quietly.
"Better than okay," she replied as
she stared into John's eyes…
John walked into the briefing room to find
everyone gathered except Elizabeth. "Where's Dr. Weir?" he
asked.
McKay shrugged.
"We thought she was with you."
John reached for his ear piece.
"Sheppard to Weir.
Elizabeth, where are you? You're late."
No response.
"Weir, this is Sheppard.
Elizabeth, are you all right?"
Still no response.
John glared at his team in frustration before he left the room and headed
for Elizabeth's office. It was empty.
Looking around quickly for any clue to Elizabeth's whereabouts, he sighed and went to the control room.
"Anyone seen Dr. Weir lately?"
No one had.
Finally, John sought out security, barely hiding his panic.
After some time and searching both by
personnel and by computer, someone found her.
"Colonel, she's on a balcony on the south
side of the city," a tech said, pointing at a diagram of the city.
"Here."
She'd barely finished her statement before
John was gone.
Elizabeth
was lying crumpled and unconscious in front of the door when John found her.
He dropped down next to her, checking to see if she was still breathing.
"Sheppard to Beckett. Medical
emergency at my location.
Elizabeth's unconscious."
"C'mon, Elizabeth," he whispered. "Wake
up." John stared at her still
form and brushed her hair away from her face.
He ran a finger along her cheek in a way he wished he could when she was
awake. "C'mon," he
whispered again, this time with a catch in his voice.
After what seemed like an eternity, Beckett
and his team arrived.
Beckett quickly assessed
Elizabeth's condition and then the team loaded her onto a gurney for the trip back to the
infirmary.
After determining that there was nothing
life-threatening causing her condition, Beckett left John sitting at
Elizabeth's bedside while he went to make some notes in Elizabeth's ever-increasing medical file. He
chuckled at the thought that hers might soon rival John's in size.
John just stared at Elizabeth's face. Beckett couldn't find
anything wrong with her, but he didn't want to risk bringing her out of her
unconsciousness without more tests. They
were just going to have to wait for her to come out of it on her own.
John inhaled sharply.
Elizabeth
was pale--frighteningly so. However,
there also was just a hint of a smile playing around the corners of her mouth.
He wondered what was going on in her mind that caused that.
On one hand, he wanted her to wake up.
On the other hand, he didn't want to destroy whatever dream was making
her smile. God knew, she… they
didn't have as many opportunities to smile in real life as they'd all like.
John took Elizabeth's hand and gently began running his thumb over it, avoiding the IV that stuck
out incongruously. He wanted to talk
to her, to say something profound. Nothing
came.
Beckett and various nurses came in to check on Elizabeth
over the next few hours. Everything
checked out as normal, she just didn't seem to want to wake up.
"John?" a soft, but steady, voice asked.
"Huh?" John jerked his head up from
where he had been lying on the bed next to Elizabeth. He breathed a sigh of relief then
smiled his trademark grin. "Elizabeth!"
Carson
heard John's exclamation and came to check on his patient.
"Welcome back,
Elizabeth," he said, checking her vitals.
"What happened?"
Elizabeth
asked as she slowly opened her eyes to find herself once more under the bright
lights of the infirmary. If she
didn't watch herself she'd soon find herself in this room as often as John did.
She groaned at the thought and lifted her head off of the pillow.
"You were unconscious when we found
you," John replied. "We
were kind of hoping you could tell us what happened."
Elizabeth
blushed under his concerned scrutiny, then sighed and dropped back against the
pillow. "I don't kn… wait a
minute. I went to the balcony to get
some air and to be by myself. I was
just getting ready to go back to my office when my arms began to tingle."
She paused to take a deep breath and frowned.
"It felt just like a few weeks ago when Rodney asked me to translate
that artifact." She tried to
sit up. John stood up and steadied
her with a hand on her back until she was able to sit on the side of the bed.
"But I wasn't anywhere near it…"
"No, but I was," John said.
"Rodney was studying it again, and I picked it up.
We thought nothing happened."
Elizabeth
smiled and reached for John's hand, knowing he was going to start feeling
guilty for what happened to her. "John,
it wasn't your fault." She
paused and looked down at their hands, twining their fingers together.
Taking a deep breath, she looked up to meet his gaze.
"But we do need to talk…."
To be continued in the third part
in the "glimpse" series…
Author's notes, part deux: This
story was originally going to have John experiencing the effects of the object.
Blame Lizzie! She is the one
who said that only she could make the thing work (or, at least, be affected by
it).
You can see my inspiration for
Lizzie's wedding gown here: http://www.bridalonlinestore.com/store/Lily.asp
You
can also see the bridesmaids' dresses here:
http://www.bridalonlinestore.com/store/J802.asp
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