Borealis (Stargate Atlantis FF)

Chapter 6 Curious

Welcoming the people in the City was a very stressful experience for everyone. It had been almost a month since the preparations started but everyone still felt that something was missing. Having civilians – families in the city was going to be tricky. John stood on the balcony with Sam watching the crowd gather in the lower sections of the gate room. Jack was standing in front of the gate directing newcomers. One of the women, an older lady came through the gate with a small bag. She noticed Jack and neared him with a smile. He hugged her and directed her to walk up the stairs unlike the rest of the quests.

"Susan, I would like you to meet two most important people in Atlantis." Jack showed her the two colonels. "Colonel Samantha Carter and Colonel John Sheppard. And here we have Mrs Susan Weir."

Susan welcomed Sam warmly and then looked at John. She stared at him for a long while and then came closer and hugged him affectionately. Sheppard didn't know what to do about it. He was always awkward with too much hugging.

"You are the one who refused to leave my daughter..." She whispered. "You are the one who tried until the very end to find her."

"The one and only." Commented Jack with a smile.

"John, maybe you can show Mrs Weir to her quarters?" Suggested Sam with a smile. "I thought about assigning her quarters next door to where Dr Weir lived if you're okay with that."

John nodded and led Mrs Weir towards the transporter when Samantha Carter welcomed the newcomers and started to go over all the basic rules. First time in a transporter was a pretty creepy experience, especially just after travelling through the wormhole for the first time. And it just happened to the woman who gave birth to Elizabeth Weir. Considering everything she was holding very well. John led her to the quarters Sam designated but stopped just a few meters from them.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Asked Susan looking worried. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah... " John continued walking and showed Susan the door. He showed her how to unlock the door. "Now I will need to key the door to your specific DNA..."

John wanted to activate the controls when Susan Weir tapped lightly on the controls and the door opened.

"Wow..." Murmured John. "It should be closed by default... at least until I program it to respond to your touch. I guess Atlantis still remembers Elizabeth."

"Will you tell me about her?" Asked Susan Weir looking through the window. "I ceased to recognize my daughter after she came back after the first year here..."

"It would be better if I took you somewhere."

Sheppard led Mrs Weir to the next quarters and opened them. There was a lone candle standing on the table and a handful of flowers from the mainland on the bed. There was also a lot of strange objects on the shelves and floor.

"There is a rule that things obtained in Pegasus galaxy are not given to families with the rest of personal items." Said John touching lightly the pot he gave Elizabeth for her first birthday in Pegasus. "So we took our time and selected everything that could have been restricted and stored it. Since it seemed that no one wanted to intrude in the space left vacant by Elizabeth we decided to put those things here."

"What about the flowers?" Susan took them and smelled.

"There are always fresh ones." Answered John. "We have our own greenhouse here as well as ancient hydroponics lab, but since we started to visit mainland again they come from there. We don't really know who leaves them, not every time at least."

"Was she living here from the beginning?"

"Yes. But she waited until every other member had his own place before she took quarters for herself. And she chose this place specifically" John led her to the window. "Just look there. She was able to see the most amazingly looking part of the city from her room. She had to feel that because the view was quite unattractive until we received a ZPM at the beginning of our second year here."