How to turn lights ON
Author: wanderingsmith
Feb 2008
Summary: How to turn lights ON on Atlantis
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft
enough to pay me for this.
AN: OK, this was one of my little scenelets to add
to Hold
on
tight, the *last* scenelet I'd been going to
make at that!, which I was not going to work on
until I had finished my ~great~ ):| endeavour into
smut... but then I read this delightfully fluffy fic
called Blue
Dots, by leave-me-light and got totally in the
mood!! argh! distractions, distractions....(sigh)
lol. so this is... lets say a couple-ish months
after Hold on tight ch2
AN2: this was supposed to be fluffy!! but they
insisted in talking about their feeling }:{,
CHARACTERS! (sigh). This has not been betaed,
blame me for the numerous mistakes. And Carson
is mine! (hiding behind earthworks from the thrown
vegetables).. I'm sorry I mangle him... if you want
to help make him a better Scot, I welcome help...
though, would it help if I said I write him
phonetically? I'm not implying anything about
his frankly excellent English vocabulary and
grammar. I'm amazed at how well he said that
medical jargon in Scottish in.. Progeny I think?.
Prequel: Hold on tight
Elizabeth woke slowly, blinking in the darkness.
Wondering groggily when she'd started waking up early
without an alarm. She signed softly, wishing *she*
could turn the lights on without having to get up
first.
Even as she shook her head in annoyance at the stubborn
finickiness of the ATA gene and threw back the covers,
the lights were suddenly on. Her head jerked up in
surprise, groaning at the thought of what Rodney was up
to now; if it wasn't so painful to listen to,
she'd insist harder that he always tell before doing
*anything* to Atlantis.
"Why are the lights on?" The gravely, grumpy voice
besides her didn't surprise her nearly as much as the
suddenly lit room had.
"Actually, I'm just as glad they are, I have to get to
work." She swung her legs over the side of the
bed. "I'll turn them off as soon as I get to the
bathroom door. And find out why they got turned
on." She muttered the last with a glare meant for
her erstwhile astrophysicist.
"Why?" John knew he was whining, but sometimes it
actually worked at making her rethink her responsible
behaviour; and he did hate it when she got up early.
This time she just replied indulgently, "Because someone
has to run the city." Nonetheless giving his
tousled, sleepy head a tender smile. And she took
her time stretching her shoulders and neck while sitting
in bed; a minute more playing with her lover was nothing
to skip on in this uncertain life.
"Come on, come back to bed." He was lazily patting
the mattress next to him, knowing he was wasting his
time but playing their familiar game anyway. While
he was still giving her his first thorough once-over of
the day, his brain, cycling through the usual crooked
thought branches that could drive McKay nuts hit an odd
note and he frowned, eyes raising to meet hers, "Say,
you wouldn't have *thought* about having the lights
on... would you?"
Elizabeth raised a brow at him, "Of course I did, I
don't happen to relish banging my toes on your
gear." She widened her eyes deliberately on the
'your', teasing him.
He ignored the most likely true accusation about his
effect on her orderly room, "Umm." John thought
the lights off.
"Jooohn!" Elizabeth growled in *mostly* mock
annoyance. She'd been looking forward to having a
clear path to start her day.
"Humour me. Think about having the lights on."
"Oh for Pete's sake." Elizabeth shook her
head. Done her stretching, she got up; she really
did want to get started on her reports before everyone
woke and started interrupting. And if she let
herself get dragged into whatever John's new game was
they'd be arguing for an hour.
John grabbed one of her hands at the last second,
pulling it to his lips with a deliberately seductive
grin he knew she liked, "Humour me. You love me,
right? Come on, just one little thought..."
He kissed her palm softly with each statement.
Ignoring the annoyed glare she was shooting him.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at his transparent antics; but
acceded anyway. If he was that insistent, she knew
from past experience that a short participation would
allow her to get free of the pestering and back to work
the fastest. So she closed her eyes and wished the
bloody lights were so bright his night-adjusted eyes
yelled at him for her.
Her own eyes popped open when the lights not only did
come on, but at a noticeably higher brightness.
Suddenly wide awake and deadly serious, John grabbed his
earpiece off the bedside table, swinging over to her
side of the bed to keep his hold on her hand while
getting up. Pulling her behind him as he reached
for their clothes and tapped the comm link, "Carson!"
"John, you're overreacting!" Elizabeth's voice
warbled as he jostled her about while she tried to tug
her hand out of his in frustration.
"No, I'm not." John knew deep down that he was,
just a little; there was nothing really wrong. So
why *was* he feeling so panicky all of a sudden?
Maybe because this was the Pegasus galaxy and
spontaneously appearing good things always meant rapidly
approaching bad things. And they'd been riding on
a wave of 'good' lately, which must have been slowly
cranking up his subconscious 'bad thing' senses to
hair-trigger sensitivity. Either way, he knew he
wouldn't be calming down until he knew Elizabeth was OK.
The doctor's groggy voice eventually replied, "Aye lad?"
John popped his head out of his T-shirt, helping
Elizabeth with her vest, "Elizabeth just turned on the
lights."
Carson leaned up on his elbow in his bed, sleepily
humouring the early-morning madman, "Well yes, colonel,
so can I..."
"YES Carson! *You* can. And *I* can, but
ELIZABETH should not!" John knew he needed to get
the panic, or at least himself, under some
control. There was no excuse for shouting at the
doctor; and yet... He took a deep breath as
Elizabeth frowned at him and briefly cupped his cheek.
Carson took a few moments to make the connections, then
got up, rolling his eyes in annoyance at the yelling,
"Some of us just woke up colonel. Even Rodney's
less than a genius when he wakes up. A'll meet ye
in the infirmary."
"Already on our way." Carson could hear Elizabeth
muttering in the background and shook his head, at least
getting some romantic enjoyment out of the
situation. It was good to have people acting like
normal human beings every now and then, instead of the
always-tense, always-working inhabitants of a floating
city in another galaxy. Especially nice to see the
two people with the most responsibility having that
little bit of emotional ease.
------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth sat in a chair in the infirmary with a tablet
she'd borrowed from Carson so she could work while he
ran his tests. Doing her best to ignore John
pacing next to her and pestering the doctor with
questions every minute or so.
When one of the computers finally beeped, Carson walked
over, feeling Colonel Sheppard dog his steps. As
he interpreted the results he started smiling widely.
"Something wrong?" Sheppard asked as Carson walked
quickly to a different terminal, colonel at his
heels.
"Doc?" John could hear his own voice rising; it
didn't matter that the man was smiling, all this
hurrying was making his nerves tight and shivery with
the latent fear they all lived with.
"Yes?" The doctor's tone was distracted.
"Well? What's wrong?" By now Elizabeth had
gotten up and put a hand on John's shoulder, trying to
calm him so they could hear what the doctor had.
"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." Carson was hunting
for a rarely used file, muttering to himself, too
distracted to remember his patients couldn't read his
mind.
"Then what!!" Elizabeth shook her head with
exasperated affection, moving herself in front of John
and wrapping his arms around her waist. Ready to
elbow him if he said another temperamental word;
it was blatantly obvious to her from Carson's cheerful
demeanour that whatever was up, it wasn't bad.
She reminded herself that John's self-control was not at
its coolest when it came to her safety. She spared
a moment to admit the advantage of their relationship
being public among the expedition; people would feel
justified to step in and snap some sense into him if
anything happened to her, without having to couch their
actions under some other excuse. One less worry
for her.
She got back to the present as Carson spoke.
"Well, it appears it's Lieutenant Havesham that will be
several hundred dollars richer at some point in the near
future."
"What?" Confused herself, she managed to beat John
to the question.
Carson finally looked up at his two curious friends with
a grin, "Yer 3 weeks pregnant."
Elizabeth froze, dropping her grip on John, slowly
turning to share a look with him, seeing him standing
with his mouth agape, arms at his side; shaken but eyes
already starting to shine with happiness. She
still couldn't get past shock.
"That's impossible." Her voice was barely above a
whisper, hand automatically covering her belly.
John tilted his head in question; he'd been sure
she wasn't against having his baby... was she? It
was his turn to put his hands on her shoulders in
reassurance. The joy bubbling through him ached to
be shared with her, but their relationship was strong
enough these days, he was strong enough, that his only
concern was for whatever was scaring her. He was
confident they'd celebrate later.
Carson just humoured her, enjoying giving good news
instead of the usual bad, "And why is that Elizabeth?"
"You know as well as I do that I ..." Shaking
herself mentally out of the stupor, she rolled her eyes
at the two men who knew her most intimately, one way or
another, "That I haven't had a period since before I
came here! I thought you told me yourself I was
well into menopause... you even blamed its early
onset on stress and my not sleeping enough!"
"Umm, true." Carson frowned in concentration,
checking his readings again while he thought.
"Well, ye're definitely pregnant. A wonder
if..." His voice trailed off as he reached for
another sampling needle.
John swallowed, reminded of his thoughts about the
rapidly approaching bad things. He dredged up a
shadow of a grin for Elizabeth when she looked at him
with half-concealed worry of her own. He put an
arm around her waist, hugging her briefly to his
side. Letting her go with a kiss on the top of her
head and a silent prayer, he lifted her onto the table
Carson indicated. This time having no intention of
pestering the doctor; Elizabeth needed him, and that was
always a damned good way to freeze his panic or get any
other troublesome emotions put aside.
------------------------------------------------
It took a couple hours for Carson to come up with the
explanation. Elizabeth for once didn't need to be
convinced to take some time off. She and John
spent the time holding on to each other in a curtained
off corner of the infirmary, with Carson running
interference so the rest of Atlantis left them
alone.
Elizabeth sat on the edge of an examination table, John
standing in front of her, their arms around each
other; sometimes hugging as tight as they could,
sometimes just staring at each other. It was
probably one of the most silent periods they'd spent
together; both preoccupied with mentally adjusting to a
baby, consciously setting aside the rest of the concerns
they had until they knew something. Just locking
eyes every few minutes to share the awe, sometimes
delight, sometimes terror of two people who had until
very recently given up on the idea of a family.
Had only recently accepted that they could even have the
love of one person. There just didn't seem to be
words for what they felt. The feelings were of
touch, of expression, of shared intimacy. Reading
each other's minds would have been superfluous.
When the doctor finally walked into their quiet corner
and cleared his throat, they were calm, Elizabeth
getting up so they could stand together, ready to face
anything.
"Nanites."
Except that. With her back leaning on John's
chest, Elizabeth felt exactly how he tensed at the
word. Felt herself freeze in fear, both for
herself and for the new life she carried. Trying
to keep from being thrown back to the terror of her
imprisonment, gripping John's forearms hard enough to
draw blood. Unconsciously trying to burrow back
into him while his arms tightened to steel around
her. Terribly glad they'd had the time to
reinforce the bond between them before facing this.
Carson tried to be reassuring for the two people who
couldn't even come up with one response between them,
"Back when those nanites in yee were active; aside from
trying to take over yer body, they also automatically
fixed it."
"Fixed?" Elizabeth found her voice, trying to let
herself be somewhat reassured that there was no *new*
threat. Somewhat. Trying.
Carson shrugged, "Hormones in the state of flux that
menopause can induce... I can imagine little wee
machines decidin' that a 'fix' was needed. An'
then goin' an' makin' changes. A'm still na' sure
why ye dinna get a period though..." He frowned in
annoyance at not having all the answers, "But yer
ovaries are still producin' eggs, and a can see the
linin' o' the uterus is at the right stage fer 3 weeks
o' pregnancy. I'll be taking a great deal more
tests a'm afraid, to be sure everything is absolutely
well. Fer now, a can tell ye that if this was
Earth and ye came to me pregnant, I'd say everything was
perfectly well and right on time. The babe should
be just fine."
"Aaah, Carson?" John's voice was quiet, arms tight
around Elizabeth. And their baby. Panic just
barely under control. As long as she was under his
touch.
"Aye lad?"
"How are the inactive replicator things in Elizabeth
going to affect the baby? And why is Elizabeth
able to turn the lights on exactly?"
"As to the lights, I'd say yer wee one obviously has the
same strong Ancient gene ye do colonel. And a
suppose having it in the babe is close enough to
Elizabeth's own body for the technology to accept her;
the gene might even have spread back to her bloodstream
from tha wee one. The nanites..."
Carson tilted his head, not wanting to encourage them to
worry about what he was confident what a situation under
control, but not ready to dismiss the possible danger
either, not that they'd believe it. "They are
still inactive, there's na change there. But since
they are in yer body... it's quite possible some will
end up in the babe, if they can travel through
skin..." He tightened his lips, understanding and
agreeing with the anger in the new parents' eyes at the
thought of an innocent child being pulled into such
damned trouble. "That does na mean the wee one
will come to harm fer it. They'll be just as
inactive in him." He grinned encouragingly, trying
to lighten the air, "Or her."
As the two stood there, faces pale and arms tight around
each other, Carson nodded apologetically for the news
he'd had to impart and slipped back out.
John's eyes closed, head bent to rest on Elizabeth's,
making himself take deep calming breath. Replaying
the doctor's words to get every nuance out of
them. Unconsciously rocking Elizabeth. He
finally managed to convince himself that nothing Carson
had said was a death sentence. It was scary, but
no worse than yesterday had been. No more, no less
terrifying. But they had dealt with yesterday, and
they would deal with today. And tomorrow.
He lifted his head, firmly set upon safeguarding his
family. Starting with finding a way to make
Elizabeth feel better.
"Well." John turned Elizabeth in his arms so he
could grin at her, one hand cupping her cheek, wishing
he could take the worry and fear in her eyes into
himself and leave her at peace. "Born with keys to
both Ancients and Replicators. That's not a bad
start for an Air Force brat." He pecked her on the
nose, glad she was allowing him to distract her at least
a little, her tension very slowly decreasing. He
widened his grin, "Add a dash of Wraith and he'd be a
real Pegasus baby."
"John!" She objected with a sob buried in her
voice.
"Joking!" He pulled her closer, "You know I'm
joking." Kissed her forehead, "'Laughter kills
fear'." He hoped they could continue to be alone
long enough to get themselves back to looking like
business as usual; the last thing they needed
right now was to have to deal with everyone's
well-wishing and going-on when they were still trying to
assimilate their own feelings.
Elizabeth rested her head on his chest, reminding
herself that together they could beat anything.
Anything at all. "Who said that?" She didn't
really care, but she knew he'd feel better if she played
along with his teasing.
"Sean Connery, part of a longer quote, but that bit fit
here." He rubbed his cheek on the side of her
head, holding her close. Knowing with a sinking
heart that they were both going to be having nightmares
about her time dealing with replicators in one form or
another for the foreseeable future.
A stray thought caught Elizabeth and gave her the
strength, or at least the distraction, to pull herself a
little further out of the fear. Pull them both a
little out of the fear. "You'd better not think
you can get away with becoming as protective as Ronon,
Sheppard."
Without meaning to he snorted laughter, arms tightening
around her for an instant before lifting his head,
catching her eyes as she did the same. They were
grinning at each other, albeit shaky grins, each trying
hard to make the other feel better. Elizabeth knew
it was a waste of time to try to tell him not to be
protective and John knew she knew. But they would
both enjoy the flirting, teasing and growling they could
get up to with such a great excuse. And that would
keep the fears away for the days, until they could hold
each other through the nights.
AN3: I am not a doctor, and I am being lazy by not
doing research. any doctor in the house is welcome
to correct me. ditto for SGA experts - my thanks to
Vicky for grammar and the Anon person for the
nanites
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