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She told him about how it felt to step through the Stargate to another galaxy. She told him about how the lights came on by themselves and how the City was under the ocean until the failsafe kicked in. She told him about the people they�d met and she glossed over the enemies they�d made.
She explained about the siege and how terrifying it had been. She confessed how frustrating it had been when the SGC finally sent reinforcements through and how she had basically been stuffed into a corner until Everett was unable to be in charge any longer. She told him how it broke her heart how many people they had lost, and how Lieutenant Ford�s disappearance had hit her hard, and how Peter Grodin�s death had hit her even harder.
She told him how she and Carson and Rodney and John had returned to Earth. She told him how intensive the debriefing process had been, and how she had been immediately pulled to Washington to go through the same process all over again. She told him how she couldn�t wait to get back to Atlantis.
And, finally, she told him how she hoped he would come back with her.
When she finished, Elizabeth realized that she had been talking for over three hours and she knew it was a hell of a lot to take in all at once�she had lived through it and she still found it all difficult to handle sometimes�so she stayed still and waited for Simon to speak. The man had an opinion on everything, after all; give enough time and he could formulate a response to the story of her life for the past year or so, as fantastic as it all sounded when she summarized it to one fairly intense speech.
He would have questions, she knew. Good, carefully thought out questions, because he was methodical like that. She would answer his questions as best she could, as honestly as she could, because, even though she was allowed to tell him a lot of the details of the Atlantis expedition and the SGC and everything, his clearance was still fairly limited in scope compared to hers. Even if he did come to Atlantis with her he would still have a lower clearance level than she did. Though General O�Neill and the IOA were in the loop on everything now, while the expedition had been cut off from Earth there had been a lot of things that only Elizabeth, Rodney, Carson, and John knew, and even more things that only Elizabeth and John knew. The day after the party celebrating the alliance between the Athosians and the Tau�ri inhabitants of Atlantis Elizabeth had gone over everything that John didn�t have the clearance to know when he was just a member of the military, even though, because of rank, he was Sumner�s second in command by default�something that Elizabeth recalled pissing Sumner off from the moment she told him she�d brought John in. If Simon came to Atlantis he would only have the clearance level of one of the doctors, like Doctor Biro, on Carson�s staff, which, while it did give him an upper hand in that he had access to everyone�s medical files, he still wouldn�t have carte blanche and she had to make sure that Simon understood that. It wouldn�t be an easy pill for him to swallow, Elizabeth knew, but on the matter of global security�on two globes in two different galaxies no less�she couldn�t afford to cater to the fragile egos of those who didn�t have the clearance or the need to know that which they weren�t privy to.
Even though Elizabeth expected that Simon would need some time to absorb what she had just dumped on him she was growing increasingly tired from her hectic schedule that had been running her steadily ragged since arriving back on Earth and she still hadn�t caught up on the sleep she had forgone during the weeks leading up to the siege on Atlantis. She knew that she had a full schedule of back-to-back meetings ahead of her and she still had to make a trip back up to the SGC so she could crash in her quarters there, and Simon�s usually endearing careful consideration was more irritating than anything.
�Simon?� Elizabeth prodded gently, wanting to at least get an initial reaction before she left.
�I had a patient, about four years ago, I think,� Simon said after a minute. �He was convinced that the military was employing aliens for use in a battle against other races. I sent him to the psyc ward.�
Reaching over and putting her hand on his forearm, Elizabeth tried to sound as reassuring as she could. �Nearly half the people on this planet believe that the US military is doing something with aliens. That doesn�t make the mentally ill any less so. Neither does the fact that one person�s delusions happen to have some vague basis in a truth that is not exactly widely known.�
Simon nodded, knowing that Elizabeth was right. He pulled his arm away from her and rubbed his hands over his face. �Everything you�ve just told me is� it�s a lot to take in. I think I need some time� to process all this,� he said, waving one hand around vaguely as if to demonstrate