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sga_flashfic2006-09-28 10:02 pm
bluefall.livejournal.com) wrote in sga_flashfic2006-09-28 10:02 pm
Entry tags:
Calls Never Made by bluefall [phone calls challenge]
Title: Calls Never Made
Author: the azure cascade
Rating: G
Characters: Weir-centric
Genre: gen
Notes: This didn't start out as a crazy and over-long Five Things story that went backward in time, but somehow it ended up that way, and who am I to argue with the muse? Especially when she carries a pointy stick.
Oh, and also, hi everyone. First post, no beta; mistakes are my own.
Author: the azure cascade
Rating: G
Characters: Weir-centric
Genre: gen
Notes: This didn't start out as a crazy and over-long Five Things story that went backward in time, but somehow it ended up that way, and who am I to argue with the muse? Especially when she carries a pointy stick.
Oh, and also, hi everyone. First post, no beta; mistakes are my own.
The fifth person Elizabeth didn't call was Rodney McKay.
She was writing when the phone rang, perched on the couch with her laptop trying to convince Word to ignore "Chaya." She was getting a little tired of it catching every time she ran the spell-check, but some resentful little urge prevented her from adding it to the dictionary.
When she glanced over at her cell, the caller ID flashed "Area 51." It took her a second to realize it was probably Rodney, calling from work, and most likely on a secure line. Personal calls on government time were against regs, of course, but given the number of rules McKay broke on a regular basis, a phone call to Elizabeth probably wouldn't even register. She thought about what Colonel Carter had said last time she was at the SGC - "No doubt he's driving them all crazy. He drives me crazy and that's just weekly email about everything I did wrong while I was there and what a miserable bunch of morons he has to work with."
It might be nice to hear from him. She sort of wondered how things were going with his sister, if they were working things out at all now that they could see each other regularly. An endless litany of complaints about his staff and position, though.... She just wasn't in the mood to deal with it, she didn't have the energy. Rodney required a lot of energy, and she'd been writing for hours and fighting with Windows and she'd slept late that morning and forgot to go running, which always slowed her down for the rest of the day.
She let the phone ring. She'd call him back later, when she felt a little more up to it.
---
The fourth person Elizabeth didn't call was Teyla Emmagen.
Doctor Jackson was on some library off-world for the foreseeable future, and General Landry had called her in to the SGC to translate something possibly important in his absence. They had all hoped for a clue to finding the sangraal, but the carefully photographed wall carvings ended up just another red herring, and Landry had told her to go home after only a few hours, not quite able to totally mask his disappointment.
On her way back to her apartment, she stopped for dinner at a little French place, grabbing a table out on the sidewalk in the falling September sun. She used to drink cafe au lait, but a year in Pegasus without milk trained her tastebuds away from it, so when the earnest young waiter in the red apron took her dishes away, she asked him to bring her coffee black.
She considered asking him if he could add a squirt of honey; it's the closest thing she knew of to the Athosian syrup she used to sweeten her mug when she sat like this in Atlantis, dinner eaten, light fading until the stars hung bright overhead, talking quietly with Teyla about everything except the frustration of the day.
Elizabeth had always felt better after dinner with Teyla; they tended to reminisce about negotiations long past, cultural oddities and misunderstandings that were either scary or maddening at the time but funny as hell in retrospect, and it reminded them both that even the worst annoyances and setbacks would eventually be nothing but a conversation topic over coffee. Even when they didn't have dinner together, they often hunted each other down after bad days brandishing a pair of mugs and a sympathetic ear.
But Teyla was in another galaxy, so Elizabeth drank her coffee in silence and left her table before the sun set, buttoning her jacket against the cold.
---
The third person Elizabeth didn't call was Jennifer Stafford.
Elizabeth was an only child, but her father and uncle had always been close and spent a lot of time together when she was growing up, so for years, her cousin Jen had been almost like a sister to her. When they were fifteen and sixteen, Elizabeth was the one who taught Jen to drive, sneaking out to the baseball field parking lot in the afternoon to give her a leg up on the test. When she lost her virginity as a freshman in college, Elizabeth had borrowed her roommate's car and driven two hundred miles to collapse on her cousin's bed and flip out about it, and they'd stayed up until eight in the morning gushing and trying to decide what it meant. When Elizabeth's father had died, they'd gotten drunk together after the funeral, and Jen had paid the tab and the taxi driver, even though she was so broke at the time she couldn't afford heels and had to borrow a pair for the service. Even after Jen got married and moved to Topeka, they'd called each other occasionally, only falling out of touch the year before Elizabeth left for Atlantis.
The last ring before going to voicemail was the one that woke Elizabeth from her nap, and she stretched her legs and fixed her twisted bra and socks before calling up the message.
"Hey, Liz. It's me, Jen. I was just talking to Aunt Allison and she says you're finally on the radar again, and living in Colorado, of all places. I can't believe it's been almost four years since we talked, and now you're right next door! We've got to get together some weekend and catch up! And you can meet little Zach, and finally meet Megan properly - she's talking a mile a minute these days, knows all kinds of words, reminds me of you when we were growing up - and someone's got to teach Jeff to cook Grandma's peach cobbler because you know I'm completely hopeless with that.
"Anyway, I don't want to use up all your minutes just talking at your voicemail, so I'll just hang up now and you can get back to me - my number is the same as it's always been, but your mom's got it if you've lost it, or I suppose it's on your phone now that I've called, isn't it? So never mind, just call me back. It's been way too long, Liz, I can't wait to hear from you!"
It would be nice to see them again, and if her vague memory of Megan was any indication, Zach was bound to be an adorable little kid. But an eight hour drive was hardly "next door," for all Jen's enthusiasm. And ninety percent of the last three and and a half years of her life were classified, so how much could they really have to talk about?
She sent Jen an email, later, explaining that she was pretty busy these days, but if she could get the holiday, it would be nice to see them for Thanksgiving.
---
The second person Elizabeth didn't call was John Sheppard.
It took three weeks for the last of her boxes to arrive in Colorado Springs. It probably would have gone faster if she'd actually gone out to Washington to get her stuff out of storage, but she trusted her mom to handle things without having to hang over her shoulder, and anyway visiting for just a few days wouldn't be fair to Sedge.
That, and her mom would probably try to convince her to take him again, and she didn't know if she could hold onto her resolve face-to-face. Yes, she was sure his poor doggy life had been disrupted enough recently and she didn't want to stress him out with yet another upheaval, but everything Elizabeth knew about intimidation she'd learned from her mother, and she'd never won a single argument with the woman in three decades, so without question, if she actually went to DC, her mother would get her to bring Sedgewick back.
But she did have sensible priorities at least, so the last box to arrive at Elizabeth's house was all cosmetic; throw rugs and curtains and a couple of nice wall hangings. Elizabeth was fighting with the curtain rod in her bedroom when the phone rang, and didn't have a prayer of answering it without bringing the whole window down on her head.
When she finally had everything under control, she checked the display - wouldn't do to miss a call from NORAD - and there in block letters her screen blinked "John."
She almost called him back, but they'd probably end up talking for at least a couple hours, with all the catching up they had to do, and she wanted to finish the curtains before it got dark. She cleared the message with a click. She'd get in touch with him tomorrow.
---
The first person Elizabeth didn't call was Simon Wallace.
She had packed her phone in the same box as her television, figuring that Verizon probably hadn't built any cell towers in Pegasus yet. It saw the light of day for the first time in almost three years when she finally got around to setting up her VCR. She plugged in the charger and turned it on, only to hear the distinctive beep of a stored message. Simon's voice in the earpiece made her heart stop.
"Hey, Liz. It's me. You're probably in China or Afghanistan or hey, maybe even Roswell by now," and she heard his rumbling afternoon laugh, "and I know you probably can't call me back for a long time. But that doesn't mean you can't check your messages, right? So, here's something to hold on to when your top-secret negotiations get tough.
"I'm always in your corner, and I'm proud of you, and it's been six hours and I miss you already. Every last kiss in my heart, Elizabeth. I love you."
Half an hour later, she finally blinked her vision clear and saw her phone white-knuckled between her fingers, the plastic casing warped and cracked. She iced her hand and tossed the phone without regret. She'd been thinking of buying a Blackberrry anyway.
She was writing when the phone rang, perched on the couch with her laptop trying to convince Word to ignore "Chaya." She was getting a little tired of it catching every time she ran the spell-check, but some resentful little urge prevented her from adding it to the dictionary.
When she glanced over at her cell, the caller ID flashed "Area 51." It took her a second to realize it was probably Rodney, calling from work, and most likely on a secure line. Personal calls on government time were against regs, of course, but given the number of rules McKay broke on a regular basis, a phone call to Elizabeth probably wouldn't even register. She thought about what Colonel Carter had said last time she was at the SGC - "No doubt he's driving them all crazy. He drives me crazy and that's just weekly email about everything I did wrong while I was there and what a miserable bunch of morons he has to work with."
It might be nice to hear from him. She sort of wondered how things were going with his sister, if they were working things out at all now that they could see each other regularly. An endless litany of complaints about his staff and position, though.... She just wasn't in the mood to deal with it, she didn't have the energy. Rodney required a lot of energy, and she'd been writing for hours and fighting with Windows and she'd slept late that morning and forgot to go running, which always slowed her down for the rest of the day.
She let the phone ring. She'd call him back later, when she felt a little more up to it.
---
The fourth person Elizabeth didn't call was Teyla Emmagen.
Doctor Jackson was on some library off-world for the foreseeable future, and General Landry had called her in to the SGC to translate something possibly important in his absence. They had all hoped for a clue to finding the sangraal, but the carefully photographed wall carvings ended up just another red herring, and Landry had told her to go home after only a few hours, not quite able to totally mask his disappointment.
On her way back to her apartment, she stopped for dinner at a little French place, grabbing a table out on the sidewalk in the falling September sun. She used to drink cafe au lait, but a year in Pegasus without milk trained her tastebuds away from it, so when the earnest young waiter in the red apron took her dishes away, she asked him to bring her coffee black.
She considered asking him if he could add a squirt of honey; it's the closest thing she knew of to the Athosian syrup she used to sweeten her mug when she sat like this in Atlantis, dinner eaten, light fading until the stars hung bright overhead, talking quietly with Teyla about everything except the frustration of the day.
Elizabeth had always felt better after dinner with Teyla; they tended to reminisce about negotiations long past, cultural oddities and misunderstandings that were either scary or maddening at the time but funny as hell in retrospect, and it reminded them both that even the worst annoyances and setbacks would eventually be nothing but a conversation topic over coffee. Even when they didn't have dinner together, they often hunted each other down after bad days brandishing a pair of mugs and a sympathetic ear.
But Teyla was in another galaxy, so Elizabeth drank her coffee in silence and left her table before the sun set, buttoning her jacket against the cold.
---
The third person Elizabeth didn't call was Jennifer Stafford.
Elizabeth was an only child, but her father and uncle had always been close and spent a lot of time together when she was growing up, so for years, her cousin Jen had been almost like a sister to her. When they were fifteen and sixteen, Elizabeth was the one who taught Jen to drive, sneaking out to the baseball field parking lot in the afternoon to give her a leg up on the test. When she lost her virginity as a freshman in college, Elizabeth had borrowed her roommate's car and driven two hundred miles to collapse on her cousin's bed and flip out about it, and they'd stayed up until eight in the morning gushing and trying to decide what it meant. When Elizabeth's father had died, they'd gotten drunk together after the funeral, and Jen had paid the tab and the taxi driver, even though she was so broke at the time she couldn't afford heels and had to borrow a pair for the service. Even after Jen got married and moved to Topeka, they'd called each other occasionally, only falling out of touch the year before Elizabeth left for Atlantis.
The last ring before going to voicemail was the one that woke Elizabeth from her nap, and she stretched her legs and fixed her twisted bra and socks before calling up the message.
"Hey, Liz. It's me, Jen. I was just talking to Aunt Allison and she says you're finally on the radar again, and living in Colorado, of all places. I can't believe it's been almost four years since we talked, and now you're right next door! We've got to get together some weekend and catch up! And you can meet little Zach, and finally meet Megan properly - she's talking a mile a minute these days, knows all kinds of words, reminds me of you when we were growing up - and someone's got to teach Jeff to cook Grandma's peach cobbler because you know I'm completely hopeless with that.
"Anyway, I don't want to use up all your minutes just talking at your voicemail, so I'll just hang up now and you can get back to me - my number is the same as it's always been, but your mom's got it if you've lost it, or I suppose it's on your phone now that I've called, isn't it? So never mind, just call me back. It's been way too long, Liz, I can't wait to hear from you!"
It would be nice to see them again, and if her vague memory of Megan was any indication, Zach was bound to be an adorable little kid. But an eight hour drive was hardly "next door," for all Jen's enthusiasm. And ninety percent of the last three and and a half years of her life were classified, so how much could they really have to talk about?
She sent Jen an email, later, explaining that she was pretty busy these days, but if she could get the holiday, it would be nice to see them for Thanksgiving.
---
The second person Elizabeth didn't call was John Sheppard.
It took three weeks for the last of her boxes to arrive in Colorado Springs. It probably would have gone faster if she'd actually gone out to Washington to get her stuff out of storage, but she trusted her mom to handle things without having to hang over her shoulder, and anyway visiting for just a few days wouldn't be fair to Sedge.
That, and her mom would probably try to convince her to take him again, and she didn't know if she could hold onto her resolve face-to-face. Yes, she was sure his poor doggy life had been disrupted enough recently and she didn't want to stress him out with yet another upheaval, but everything Elizabeth knew about intimidation she'd learned from her mother, and she'd never won a single argument with the woman in three decades, so without question, if she actually went to DC, her mother would get her to bring Sedgewick back.
But she did have sensible priorities at least, so the last box to arrive at Elizabeth's house was all cosmetic; throw rugs and curtains and a couple of nice wall hangings. Elizabeth was fighting with the curtain rod in her bedroom when the phone rang, and didn't have a prayer of answering it without bringing the whole window down on her head.
When she finally had everything under control, she checked the display - wouldn't do to miss a call from NORAD - and there in block letters her screen blinked "John."
She almost called him back, but they'd probably end up talking for at least a couple hours, with all the catching up they had to do, and she wanted to finish the curtains before it got dark. She cleared the message with a click. She'd get in touch with him tomorrow.
---
The first person Elizabeth didn't call was Simon Wallace.
She had packed her phone in the same box as her television, figuring that Verizon probably hadn't built any cell towers in Pegasus yet. It saw the light of day for the first time in almost three years when she finally got around to setting up her VCR. She plugged in the charger and turned it on, only to hear the distinctive beep of a stored message. Simon's voice in the earpiece made her heart stop.
"Hey, Liz. It's me. You're probably in China or Afghanistan or hey, maybe even Roswell by now," and she heard his rumbling afternoon laugh, "and I know you probably can't call me back for a long time. But that doesn't mean you can't check your messages, right? So, here's something to hold on to when your top-secret negotiations get tough.
"I'm always in your corner, and I'm proud of you, and it's been six hours and I miss you already. Every last kiss in my heart, Elizabeth. I love you."
Half an hour later, she finally blinked her vision clear and saw her phone white-knuckled between her fingers, the plastic casing warped and cracked. She iced her hand and tossed the phone without regret. She'd been thinking of buying a Blackberrry anyway.
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Thank you!
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Glad you liked it!
Windows
(Anonymous) 2006-09-29 04:11 am (UTC)(link)Oh man, I've been there!
--Terri Stephens
Re: Windows
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calls never made
perched on the couch with her laptop trying to convince Word to ignore "Chaya."
*snort* I'm sure Rodney could find a way to make it do that.
I liked the sense of putting things off in this - that's true to depression in many ways, and it's also the way friendships fade away. After a while, people feel bad about not calling and then they don't call and so on. I think you captured that very well, and the last one especially - Simon's message still on the machine - really seemed to be the event that broke Elizabeth after losing Atlantis, and the others spill from that. I liked the format of this - think it worked well.
Small thing - in the second section, it's hard to determine which "she" is being referred to in the first bit, either Teyla or Elizabeth. I can be more specific if you need, but I had to read the beginning over more than once.
Thanks for sharing this piece.
Re: calls never made
As for the Teyla section; I can sort of see what you mean, but I figured it was clear from the context - even if the SGC had any way to contact Teyla, they'd hardly summon her to the Milky Way to translate things for them. I suppose I could change that first "she" to an "Elizabeth," but it comes soon enough after the first that it feels clunky to me.
I dunno. It's worth some thought at least, which is always a good thing, so thank you again. :)
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azure_cascade@fastmail.fm is my fan account. Inform away, thank you. :)