fic: 'Too Good' by Tielan, PG-13 [Abandonment/Amnesty]

[tielan]

Title: Too Good
Author: Tielan
Category: Angst, Missing Scene
Characters: Simon Wallace, Elizabeth Weir
Spoilers: 2.02 - Intruder
Wordcount: ~300
Notes: A last hurrah before the amnesty challenge ends.

Too Good

There are nights when he stands on the patio, wineglass in hand, Sam at his feet, staring up at the stars with an ache in his chest.

He always knew she was too good for him.

She turned heads wherever she went. Men looked, then looked again.

Simon never quite understood why she stayed with him, but she kept coming back to him and he never questioned it. He only knew that they couldn't last.

They didn't.

She abandoned him to Earth while she went hunting adventure through this 'Stargate'. She left him staring out at the night sky spattered with stars, doubting himself, doubting her.

And then she came back.

Her return was worse than her abandonment in some ways. Harder, more difficult and more painful for him in spite of the joy of seeing her once more. Because Elizabeth might come back, but she would always leave again. She was an adventurer by nature. Simon was not and never would be.

He couldn't go to Atlantis - couldn't leave everything he knew behind. That wasn't him and couldn't be him.

He wouldn't go, and she wouldn't stay.

You were gone a long time, Elizabeth.

Simon ended it with fourteen words - truth and lies mingled. He inserted the needle with a surgeon's precision, and pushed down the plunger with a murderer's intent. He did it without gentleness because she would have tried to understand gentleness. He did it with cruelty because he couldn't afford compassion.

He wanted her to stay, and she wanted him to go; there was no halfway point between them.

All or nothing.

Simon Wallace abandoned Elizabeth Weir to the universe.

But if there are nights when he looks up at the stars in the sky and feels the hollow of her absence, only Sam knows.

- fin -

Comments

[nikej.livejournal.com]

Wow. I really like fics that look at Simon/Weir's relationship (and I don't think there are enough of them ;)) so I throughly enjoyed this. It's very poignant, and a nice explaination for the scene in Intruder, which always sits uncomfortably with me.

[tielan]

I was never happy with that scene in Intruder, either - it felt far too "oh, we need to tie this up, okay, he can have met someone else and dump Elizabeth" - and cast him as the bastard and Liz as the victim.

[nikej.livejournal.com]

Yeah...the reason I could never buy into that was just the timescale of Intruder: by the time he broke it to her he'd 'met someone', she'd obviously been back at least a few days and living in her old house (and, presumably, sleeping in her old bed) which makes it ten times worse, and I can't see Weir having a longterm relationship with someone like that. So the whole concept just seemed ridiculous. Hmph. *shakes head* Also, I just quite liked Simon. *g*

[roothekittykat.livejournal.com]

see, I always thought it was just the easiest way for him to excuse him not going. It's always seemed to me like he couldn't think of a nicer/better way to tell her that he didn't want to go, so 'he met someone' that way Elizabeth wouldn't really want him around and stop asking him.

[tielan]

Easy, yes. But a major copout.

[roothekittykat.livejournal.com]

yeah :|

(which is why your fic is better than my theory;)

[sjhw-tolerance.livejournal.com]

Totally believeable and makes me feel a lot better about Simon.

[tielan]

Thanks, Sue. He did get a rather raw deal, didn't he?

[sjhw-tolerance.livejournal.com]

He did...doomed from the start.

[tielan]

Ah well, that what you get for being Narim's evil twin...

[(Anonymous)]

We don't often get fics about Simon and Elizabeth. I've always felt bad for the two of them. This was lovely and brief but poignant.

[tielan]

I loved Liz's letter to him in LfP - beautiful. And I don't really want to believe that Liz would choose a guy who'd just up and leave her - not when she was probably already away most months of the year.

[azarsuerte.livejournal.com]

Now, see, that's an interpretation I can live with. :-)

[tielan]

It's the only way I can reconcile the ending of their relationship. Otherwise it's just...ugh.

[roothekittykat.livejournal.com]

oooohhhh.
very awesome.

[snoggingpicard.livejournal.com]

Great to see this from Simon's point of view. I think in a lot of ways he got a bad rap for the events in "Intruder", and this is a much more believable and sympathetic way of dealing with the situation. Thanks!

[mercurydraconix.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure Simon's behaves poorly at all in the show. she was gone for a long time in atlantis - he KNEW she might not ever get back. sure, she'd been away for missions before, but with the possibility of contact, and a definate conclusion. he always knew that if she died, he would hear and could mourn and move on.

in the video she leaves in Rising, she warns him it might be a one way trip. i saw that first video as a preemptive breakup - a "hey, btw, i might never see you again. i love you, but i love this more. feel free to move on." in Letters from Pegasus, she sends another message, saying the situation is WORSE. not only will she never get back, but HEY! they're about to DIE! horribly!

were they actually living together? that romantic scene seemed like "this is the first time i'm seeing you since i got back from my intergalactic travels! let's have reunion sex now!" moment to me. it's likely that she was kept so busy at the SGC that she might even have been staying there. if that was their first romantic encounter after her return, i can't blame him for not mentioning it earlier.

[mercurydraconix.livejournal.com]

though i also meant to include, btw, that i still quite liked your fic.