Work Text:
John
The Deadalus is finally gone. They stayed longer than usual this time. I bet that the maintenance work on the hyperdrive was just a cover story to hide the real reason for their extended stay. Surely Caldwell was asked to deliver a detailed report on Elizabeth. He spent more time in the city, talking to the expedition members and especially with Elizabeth compared to previous visits. No doubt Earth wants to know exactly how she’s doing her job and if she’s truly ready for command again. While she has the reports to prove it, not every member of the 10A and Air Force agreed with this decision. Woolsey himself said that there is a minority who wanted a different leader. Pretty sure Caldwell wanted the job himself when he couldn’t get mine.
We all worked together to make sure that the daily business ran smoothly and that there was absolutely nothing, which could be used against Elizabeth. the whole city is happy that she’s back in charge. Even though it’s challenging at times, doing her job again, brought her so much joy that I really hope everything we did was enough to keep it that way.
Now it’s time to relax and take a break, which is something Elizabeth didn’t dare to do in the last two weeks, too scared for it to be seen as a sign of weakness. She even pushed through one of those terrible headaches she sometimes gets. Usually a quiet day in the dark makes it go away, but this time she forced herself to work through it, using painkillers and masking her symptoms in front of everyone but me, which only made it worse and had her feeling miserable for days. So no work for the next two days. I’ll let Sedge literally work her magic. To keep her away from Caldwell, I’ve taken her around most of the time. Occasionally she stayed with Teyla. Torren loves to play with her.
“Are you ready to spread some magic?” I ask and Sedge barks excitedly.
She’s doing that full body tail wagging move out of pure happiness in front of me. I carefully open the box containing the Halloween costume for her, which the Deadalus brought from Earth.
“I know you're excited, but you need sit still for a moment, okay girl?” I request.
She sits down and waits for me to put on her costume. I lift her front legs and slip them through the harness and tighten the straps before attaching the wings. Then I weave the flowers around her collar and turn the wings on.
“Oh look at you! You’re a little fairy now. Come on, time to spread some magic,” I encourage her to follow me outside. She jumps around, still getting used to her rather unusual costume. After a few minutes she calms down and walks beside me, showing no signs of feeling uncomfortable. I think by now she’s used to my sometimes weird and crazy ideas.
We walk around the city together while I collect everything I need for the actual surprise. Sedge loves the cuddles she receives from everyone we meet. Soon rumors about the little fairy are spreading across the city. Time for our last stop.
Elizabeth
The day drags on forever. I’m so ready for it to be over. Two weeks of almost constant supervision by Colonel Caldwell have drained all my energy. He was watching me like a hawk, waiting for any mistakes he can report. Officially they stayed longer for maintenance work on the Deadalus, but that was only a cover story. He can’t seriously think I’d buy that lie. It’s so obvious that he wants my job. I hope I didn’t give him anything to use against me. I even kept Sedge away from him. Only seeing her for short moments and at night made my days even harder. At lunchtime I’ll meet her and John. Just one more hour to go.
Too tired to focus on the progress report I’m reading, head to the control room for a short break.
“Do you need something?”, Chuck asks when he sees me.
“No, I’m just taking a break from reading,” I answer, “anything interesting happening in the city?”
Avoiding eye contact he says, “Ah no, nothing worth mentioning.”
“Come on, what is it? I promise nobody gets in trouble if it’s a prank gone wrong,” I press on, knowing there is something he’s clearly hiding from me.
“Various people around the city have reported seeing a fairy ma’am,” Chuck confesses trying not to laugh.
Did he just say a fairy? That must be some kind of joke. He’s not making fun of me, isn’t he?
“Keep me posted on it. I’d like to know the story behind it,”I answer and head back to my office.
Just before lunchtime I get a surprise visitor. Sedge runs in to see me, dressed in a pair of fairy wings that slowly move and flowers around her collar.
“So you are that fairy my girl,” I say to her and laugh.
She’s clearly happy to see me, wagging her tail so much that her whole body moves with it, begging for attention.
“Yes I missed you too my girl, so much,” I whisper into her fur when I hug her, “John put you up to this to make me smile and you went right along with his plan. You two are best buddies now. I’m not so sure who is the bad influence sometimes, but this surprise is very sweet. Thank you.”
Then she’s giving me kisses all over my face faster than I can avoid it. I feel a piece of paper scratching my neck so I pull back to see what it is. I pull on the ribbon to release it from her collar. As I unfold the piece of paper to read it, my dog sits down and waits for me.
Meet me in the jumper bay at lunchtime.
Love
John
“So you didn’t escape him. He sent you on a mission to get me,” I say to her and she barks in response, “okay, let’s see what John has planned for us.”
Turns out, he prepared a picnic on the beach and then dinner for two, well three, counting our little fairy.