[nano] Stained Glass Masquerade
Nov. 8th, 2007 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeTeyla's eyes opened again, and she was in the infirmary on Atlantis. She didn't remember having been picked up in another jumper, although she was not surprised to see Sheppard sprawled out and asleep in a chair by her bedside.
"Hey you," Ronon smiled at her with ill-disguised relief, pulling up another chair. She felt a little guilty for the fact that her first thought was, looking as calm as that, they must not have found any trace of Michael.
Still, she gave him an exhausted smile. "It is good to see you again," she told him, squeezing his hand when he wrapped it around hers.
"It's good to see you," he told her. "We thought..." the statement ended in a shrug, but she could finish the rest of his sentence well enough.
"I am all right." With particular emphasis on those last two words. She wasn't unharmed, but they could see that she was all right, and would recover. And that was the important part. There were four people back in the wreckage of the Jumper who would not recover.
Which reminded her. "The others?" Although she looked around the infirmary as if to see who else was there, knowing there wouldn't be anyone but doctors and visitors and patients with minor ailments or injuries.
"No one else survived. I'm sorry."
Teyla closed her eyes, nodding, feeling as though she could allow herself to grieve for them now. She wasn't quite there yet, perhaps, still processing everything that happened in the last however long it had been. "How long have I been here?" she asked, opening her eyes again.
"You've been out for about a day," Sheppard said, sitting up a little and stretching. "Apart from the dehydration from sleeping a lot, and the injuries of course, Keller says you're doing pretty good."
Teyla forced herself not to show any kind of alarm or undue concern at that. "I was lucky," was all she said, since they weren't asking her any questions.
Both men seem to agree, although neither of them said anything. Since Ronon had claimed the other hand Sheppard took her free hand in his, both of them clinging in their own quiet and stoic way. She closed her eyes rather than make herself dizzy looking back and forth between the two of them, but she was smiling. "I'm sure you to have duties you should be attending to," she told them, knowing it wouldn't do much good.
"Probably," Sheppard agreed, not moving. Ronon only snorted and said nothing.
She leaned back in the bed and allowed herself to relax, not to think about Michael or the bizarre rescue or anything but what drifted through her mind at the time. Which was when she realized that she would have to force herself to stop thinking about Michael if she wanted to avoid those thoughts at all. The circumstances had been less than she would have wanted, and yet. He hadn't harmed her. He had helped her, as little as he could. He had done nothing that she would have expected.
If she had even expected to see him again. Of all the people who could have been keeping her captive or hostage, he would have been the last she would have expected on their very own, very new planet. And how had he gotten here in the first place?
She was busy trying to figure that out when she slipped into actual, undrugged sleep for the first time in days.
"I really do not think anything would come of trying to explore that part of the continent."
It was harder than she would have thought to convince them not to go back to the crash site. Apparently the magnetic phenomenon was either less intermittent than she had thought, or Michael was controlling it. Sheppard had had difficulties trying to fly over that area as well, and only experience with a previous and similar phenomenon had enabled him to recognize it for what it was and land some distance off before he crashed, too.
Carter, on the other hand, seemed determined to explore. "There's no reason to think that there's any hostile presence there, Teyla, you said so yourself."
Teyla managed not to wince. She had, and it was not a lie, if only because she didn't think Michael would be hostile until they intruded upon his sanctuary. And then he would be the familiar, hateful presence they had all come to know. Or rather, the rest of the team had come to know.
She wondered how it was that she had come to see a different side of him. And if she was the only one.
"I do not think there is any hostile presence there, no. If there were, I would not have …" Both Sheppard and Ronon looked uncomfortable at what she was starting to say. "Well, I do not believe I would have been so well off as I was. Even so, there does not seem to be anything of value in that part of the continent that cannot be found elsewhere, and the magnetic anomaly is unstable. It would take resources to enter the area on foot, resources that would be better spent elsewhere."
"But we don't even know what's causing the anomaly!" The argument from McKay, she had all but counted on. "There could be some kind of technology there, something we could use, there could even be a Zed-PM down there…"
"Rodney, if there was any kind of technology we could use on this planet, I think we would have found it by now."
Teyla made herself not look at Sheppard when he said it, or at least, not with the kind of gratitude she wanted to express. A rueful smile, perhaps, sharing sympathy with him for McKay's constant struggle against what she thought he saw as a military dictatorship uncaring of his need for scientific advancement.
Sheppard gave her a similar smile in return, but she thought there was something more behind it, some kind of question. Perhaps he suspected that everything was not as it seemed with her survival. Perhaps Michael had been wrong about their relief overshadowing their observations.
Perhaps not. The conversation went on around her, without her.
"All right," Carter said finally, and Teyla wondered what she had missed that had made the woman acquiesce so easily. "I'll post a warning and have that quadrant prohibited to all Jumper flight."
They disbanded, Teyla lingering behind. "Colonel Carter… John. I know that what I just said will make this seem… unusual. But…"
"You want to go back to the crash site," Sheppard interrupted, finishing her sentence with a tiny smile and that same strange look in his eyes.
Colonel Carter looked back and forth between the two of them as though she genuinely had no idea what they were talking about. "Is that true?" she asked Teyla, who resisted the urge to shift about uncomfortably. This was not a conversation she wanted to have, as necessary as it seemed to be.
"It is. One of my … one of my close friends," she amended, although she and Erich had not been as close in the last few years as they had been in the past. "Died at that crash site. I would like to… say goodbye. I would go in on foot, of course. It would likely take a few days, perhaps a week." And she held her breath, wondering if that would be met with opposition or confusion at best.
Carter only shrugged. "I don't see why not. We're not under a threat of any kind,"
"For once," Sheppard muttered.
"And there's no reason we can't spare you for a week. Do what you have to do," Carter nodded. "Did you want to take someone with you?"
"No," Teyla smiled a little, grateful, for the first time since she had come to Atlantis, that none of her friends from Earth had bothered to ask or learn anything about Athosian customs. "Thank you, this is something I would rather do by myself."
"I'll fly you in, if you want," Sheppard offered. "Drop you off, pick you up when you're ready."
Carter nodded, moving on from the subject and from where they had stopped in the hallway, leaving them to arrange it between themselves. Teyla tipped her head up to give Sheppard a curious and searching look, wondering why he had offered. If there was something more to it, if he had suspected something, or if he was simply grateful that she was alive. Things had been changing between them, she realized again, in one of those strange little moments where the obvious seemed to catch up with her all of a sudden. She wasn't sure where they stood in relation to each other anymore.
"Thank you," she said, after she still hadn't answered for a minute or two. "I would be grateful. I would like that," she amended it to something a little more personal. "I really would."
John's fingers brushed over her shoulder, an expression of simple and wordless sympathy that should not have moved her almost to tears the way it did. "Whenever you're ready," he said after a minute, and headed off down the corridor. Teyla watched him go, wondering both just what it was that he thought he knew, and what there was to know in the first place.
"Hey you," Ronon smiled at her with ill-disguised relief, pulling up another chair. She felt a little guilty for the fact that her first thought was, looking as calm as that, they must not have found any trace of Michael.
Still, she gave him an exhausted smile. "It is good to see you again," she told him, squeezing his hand when he wrapped it around hers.
"It's good to see you," he told her. "We thought..." the statement ended in a shrug, but she could finish the rest of his sentence well enough.
"I am all right." With particular emphasis on those last two words. She wasn't unharmed, but they could see that she was all right, and would recover. And that was the important part. There were four people back in the wreckage of the Jumper who would not recover.
Which reminded her. "The others?" Although she looked around the infirmary as if to see who else was there, knowing there wouldn't be anyone but doctors and visitors and patients with minor ailments or injuries.
"No one else survived. I'm sorry."
Teyla closed her eyes, nodding, feeling as though she could allow herself to grieve for them now. She wasn't quite there yet, perhaps, still processing everything that happened in the last however long it had been. "How long have I been here?" she asked, opening her eyes again.
"You've been out for about a day," Sheppard said, sitting up a little and stretching. "Apart from the dehydration from sleeping a lot, and the injuries of course, Keller says you're doing pretty good."
Teyla forced herself not to show any kind of alarm or undue concern at that. "I was lucky," was all she said, since they weren't asking her any questions.
Both men seem to agree, although neither of them said anything. Since Ronon had claimed the other hand Sheppard took her free hand in his, both of them clinging in their own quiet and stoic way. She closed her eyes rather than make herself dizzy looking back and forth between the two of them, but she was smiling. "I'm sure you to have duties you should be attending to," she told them, knowing it wouldn't do much good.
"Probably," Sheppard agreed, not moving. Ronon only snorted and said nothing.
She leaned back in the bed and allowed herself to relax, not to think about Michael or the bizarre rescue or anything but what drifted through her mind at the time. Which was when she realized that she would have to force herself to stop thinking about Michael if she wanted to avoid those thoughts at all. The circumstances had been less than she would have wanted, and yet. He hadn't harmed her. He had helped her, as little as he could. He had done nothing that she would have expected.
If she had even expected to see him again. Of all the people who could have been keeping her captive or hostage, he would have been the last she would have expected on their very own, very new planet. And how had he gotten here in the first place?
She was busy trying to figure that out when she slipped into actual, undrugged sleep for the first time in days.
"I really do not think anything would come of trying to explore that part of the continent."
It was harder than she would have thought to convince them not to go back to the crash site. Apparently the magnetic phenomenon was either less intermittent than she had thought, or Michael was controlling it. Sheppard had had difficulties trying to fly over that area as well, and only experience with a previous and similar phenomenon had enabled him to recognize it for what it was and land some distance off before he crashed, too.
Carter, on the other hand, seemed determined to explore. "There's no reason to think that there's any hostile presence there, Teyla, you said so yourself."
Teyla managed not to wince. She had, and it was not a lie, if only because she didn't think Michael would be hostile until they intruded upon his sanctuary. And then he would be the familiar, hateful presence they had all come to know. Or rather, the rest of the team had come to know.
She wondered how it was that she had come to see a different side of him. And if she was the only one.
"I do not think there is any hostile presence there, no. If there were, I would not have …" Both Sheppard and Ronon looked uncomfortable at what she was starting to say. "Well, I do not believe I would have been so well off as I was. Even so, there does not seem to be anything of value in that part of the continent that cannot be found elsewhere, and the magnetic anomaly is unstable. It would take resources to enter the area on foot, resources that would be better spent elsewhere."
"But we don't even know what's causing the anomaly!" The argument from McKay, she had all but counted on. "There could be some kind of technology there, something we could use, there could even be a Zed-PM down there…"
"Rodney, if there was any kind of technology we could use on this planet, I think we would have found it by now."
Teyla made herself not look at Sheppard when he said it, or at least, not with the kind of gratitude she wanted to express. A rueful smile, perhaps, sharing sympathy with him for McKay's constant struggle against what she thought he saw as a military dictatorship uncaring of his need for scientific advancement.
Sheppard gave her a similar smile in return, but she thought there was something more behind it, some kind of question. Perhaps he suspected that everything was not as it seemed with her survival. Perhaps Michael had been wrong about their relief overshadowing their observations.
Perhaps not. The conversation went on around her, without her.
"All right," Carter said finally, and Teyla wondered what she had missed that had made the woman acquiesce so easily. "I'll post a warning and have that quadrant prohibited to all Jumper flight."
They disbanded, Teyla lingering behind. "Colonel Carter… John. I know that what I just said will make this seem… unusual. But…"
"You want to go back to the crash site," Sheppard interrupted, finishing her sentence with a tiny smile and that same strange look in his eyes.
Colonel Carter looked back and forth between the two of them as though she genuinely had no idea what they were talking about. "Is that true?" she asked Teyla, who resisted the urge to shift about uncomfortably. This was not a conversation she wanted to have, as necessary as it seemed to be.
"It is. One of my … one of my close friends," she amended, although she and Erich had not been as close in the last few years as they had been in the past. "Died at that crash site. I would like to… say goodbye. I would go in on foot, of course. It would likely take a few days, perhaps a week." And she held her breath, wondering if that would be met with opposition or confusion at best.
Carter only shrugged. "I don't see why not. We're not under a threat of any kind,"
"For once," Sheppard muttered.
"And there's no reason we can't spare you for a week. Do what you have to do," Carter nodded. "Did you want to take someone with you?"
"No," Teyla smiled a little, grateful, for the first time since she had come to Atlantis, that none of her friends from Earth had bothered to ask or learn anything about Athosian customs. "Thank you, this is something I would rather do by myself."
"I'll fly you in, if you want," Sheppard offered. "Drop you off, pick you up when you're ready."
Carter nodded, moving on from the subject and from where they had stopped in the hallway, leaving them to arrange it between themselves. Teyla tipped her head up to give Sheppard a curious and searching look, wondering why he had offered. If there was something more to it, if he had suspected something, or if he was simply grateful that she was alive. Things had been changing between them, she realized again, in one of those strange little moments where the obvious seemed to catch up with her all of a sudden. She wasn't sure where they stood in relation to each other anymore.
"Thank you," she said, after she still hadn't answered for a minute or two. "I would be grateful. I would like that," she amended it to something a little more personal. "I really would."
John's fingers brushed over her shoulder, an expression of simple and wordless sympathy that should not have moved her almost to tears the way it did. "Whenever you're ready," he said after a minute, and headed off down the corridor. Teyla watched him go, wondering both just what it was that he thought he knew, and what there was to know in the first place.