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Still coming off of the high from mere glimpses of her beloved city Elizabeth sank into a chair, ostensibly to wait for Walter to finish uploading the messages�those sent by Radek and Teyla�off of the SGC�s mainframe onto Elizabeth�s laptop. In actuality she felt shaken, partially by the realization that she wouldn�t even get the chance to speak to anyone on Atlantis again until the Daedalus deposited them all back in the city, and partially by the reaffirmation of her responsibility as leader of the City of the Ancients. Usually when everything became simply too heavy for her to deal with Elizabeth would seek out John who had a knack for lifting burdens from her shoulders. But she couldn�t turn to John, both because he was in Nevada, hopefully actually training, and because she was beginning to grow concerned about just how often she found herself turning to someone else�to John, specifically�when she could very well handle the situation on her own. At the very least, she decided, she needed someone she could turn to who wasn�t in mortal peril on a daily basis.
That was something she hadn�t thought about, hadn�t allowed herself to think about, until that moment when John stopped on the stairs up to the Jumper Bay, telling her that he had to, that she knew that he had to, while his eyes plead with her to not make his last act one of insubordination. Until that moment, or, rather, until the moment the Jumper blew up high above the City, Elizabeth had never actually thought that John Sheppard would die. He, she had long since decided, was like Jack O�Neill or Daniel Jackson that way. Too stubborn to die, and too smart to stay dead for long if sheer stubbornness wasn�t enough. But when that Jumper blew up Elizabeth had thought, however briefly, that John Sheppard was dead.
To lose her tether to hope and reality and sanity like that was the scariest thing Elizabeth could think of, and the fact that she would be losing her best friend in the same moment shook her to the darkest depths of her soul.
�Doctor Weir, the files have been transferred,� Walter said, holding out her laptop. Judging by the look on his face Elizabeth realized that he had tried to get her attention more than once.
Blushing slightly, Elizabeth took the laptop from the technician and uttered a soft and slightly apologetic �thank you� as she tucked the computer into the leather case that worked so well with her suits but looked a little odd when paired with her current attire.
�Colonel Carter asked me to get you to stop by her lab before you leave,� Walter continued, allowing her appreciation and apology roll off him. He was just doing his job, after all, and more often than not his actions, especially those above and beyond the call of duty�his ability to know what the General needed before he was asked for it, among other things, being a prime example�being ignored or simply accepted as the norm. He had been with the Stargate Program since just before General West left and General Hammond came in, and Walter knew that he was damned lucky to have the job he did for as long as he had. More than ten years, three promotions, five CO�s, and more than twenty System Lords later he was still doing what he loved, where he wanted to be, doing his part in keeping the galaxy safe and free. Hell, for a while he had been doing his part not only for the Milky Way but for other galaxies as well. The two Asgard galaxies�because the Replicator plague had all-but destroyed their original home galaxy of Ida, the Asgard had moved to their current home galaxy which none of the Asgard had yet to mention the name of�and Pegasus were also, in a way, under his care. Earth was, after all, the only Stargate that they knew of in the Milky Way with the extra control crystal that allowed eight symbols to be dialled into the DHD, or, in their case, the computer that substituted for the DHD.
�Thank you, Walter,� Elizabeth said, shouldering her bag and offering the technician a soft smile before heading out of the Control Room and quickly crossing through the hallway to the elevators, not feeling up to climbing the stairs from Level 28 where the Stargate resided to Level 19 where Sam�s lab was located.
She found Sam�s lab easily, despite having avoided the lab for the most part whenever she was at the SGC. Tapping on the doorframe with her knuckles Elizabeth lingered in the doorway until Sam waved her in, barely looking up from the cupboard she was emptying out onto the floor.
�Packing?� Elizabeth observed.
�Nine years of accumulated crap that�s been stuffed into cupboards and drawers and forgotten about,� Sam said, frowning at a thin binder that she had pulled from the back of the cupboard. �I stopped looking for this almost five years ago,� she said, letting out a frustrated huff before struggling to her feet. �How are things in Atlantis?� she asked as she threw the binder onto the main table.