madscietist

madscietist @ 2009-05-16T13:26:00

2009-05-16T17:30:08Z

Title: Best Forgotten
Author: madscietist
Rating: PG-13? For now at least
Chapter: 02/??
Summary: There are some things in life that are best forgotten. The problem is no matter how far Jaime Sommers runs she can’t seem to forget.
Author's Notes: This is a Stargate SG-1/Bionic Woman 2007 crossover. I move back the time line though so that the Bionic Woman timeline starts in 2005 to coincide with Stargate SG-1 season 9. No pairings beyond the Daniel/Vala tension. Basic plot, Jaime Sommers is loaned to the SGC so that they can fix her nanite problems. Starts around Ex Deus Machina. Un-Betaed by anyone but me.
P.S.
Don’t forget to check out my story over at my livejournal madscietist.livejournal.com for fun graphics related to this project.
Disclaimer:Not mine.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me. “ Jaime starred at the swirling blue and white vortex. “I’ve read about the whole getting my body stripped down to tiny particles and sent through a swirling vortex but now that I actually see it. I realize that this is a bad, bad idea.”

“Are you kidding me? This is one of the best parts of the whole job.” Mitchell with a wide boyish grin on his face gestured with his P-90 at the active Stargate.

Jaime turned her head and just stared at the obviously excited Colonel. This whole Stargate thing had to have caused brain damage because there was no way any sane and healthy person could possibly actually want to jump through this thing for fun.

“Its actually really not that bad once you get used to it,” Carter looked over at Jaime and tried to give her a reassuring smile.

This was her first off world mission and the whole thing probably seemed pretty intimidating. As much as she would never admit it Carter had been slightly apprehensive herself the first time she went through the gate but she had been so excited about the prospect of discovery that all the fear had just been washed away. The same could probably not be said of Jaime.

“I just hope someone can come up with a good lie to tell my sister when this thing kills me.” Jaime sucked in a deep breath and shifted the P-90 held in her arms. That was another thing she wasn’t all that cool with. She had said no guns, but they still made her learn how to use and pass the proficiency exam on the damn thing.

“Probably not as good as Berkut’s lies but we’ve told a few whoppers in our days,” Jackson leaned around Teal’c to give Jaime a look.

Jaime just glared back resisting the urge to stick out her tongue. Really the whole anti-Berkut thing was getting on her nerves and Berkut had been unsurprisingly mum on the whole subject. She hadn’t really expected them to just come out and say why some space archaeologist hated them.

“Come on kids enough with the fighting, mythical Jaffa warriors await us.” Mitchell grinned and practically bounded up the ramp shoving his cap backwards onto his head.

Teal’c merely cocked an eyebrow at Jaime and strode up the ramp behind Mitchell with Carter and Jackson following behind. Sighing Jaime threw back her head and said a quick prayer and followed suit. Dragging her feet she made it to the top of the ramp and stared at the event horizon. Turning her head she gave Walter in the control booth a queasy look. Walter merely smiled and tossed her a thumb up. Rolling her eyes Jaime poked at the swirling mass recoiling when it felt cool and damp to the touch.

A deep embodied voice came over the intercom, “Young lady it is my understanding that you can bend steel.” Jaime turned around and nearly winced at the stern look on Landry’s face. “You’ll be just fine. Now don’t keep the others waiting.”

Landry turned off the intercom and gave her a small wave. With a dejected slump of her shoulders Jaime drew a breath and stepped through the gate. There wasn’t any way to describe what happened next except for maybe if you had been flash frozen and then thawed just as quickly on the other side, tossing in a side order of nausea. Stepping through on the other side Jaime gasped and grabbed at her chest. Bending over she grabbed at her knees.

“Holy crap I think I’m going to puke,” drawing a deep breath Jaime kept staring at her feet trying to calm her stomach and her racing heart.

A hand reached out and clapped her on the shoulder. “Good job there Sommers, congratulations on your first trip through the event horizon.” There was a teasing tone it Mitchell’s voice.

Groaning Jaime stood up slowly and rubbed a hand over her stomach. “Does it always feel like that?”

Carter gave flashed her a warm smile, “Just the first time. It gets easier after each time.”

“Alright then, let’s move out. Teal’c seeing as you’re the one with the intel you lead the way.” Mitchell waved his hand at the team indicating that they should all get a move on.

With one last protesting groan from her stomach Jaime slid into their line between Jackson and Carter. Letting her P-90 hang down she followed slowly behind not wanting to get too close to Jackson, the words friendly fire came to mind. Her curiosity was starting to grate on her though. Jackson, who seemed normally like a nice amicable apparently hated Berkut so much that he showed extreme disdain for anything related to it. Whatever Berkut had done it had been major words like torture, kidnapping and mind control came to mind, it was probably creative whatever it was, Berkut was notoriously creative.

She could hear Mitchell up at the front of the line just behind Teal’c complaining about something of other but she was tuning him out. He did look cute though with the whole cap backwards though and that was a seriously inappropriate and ill advised thought and she hoped to never have one like it ever again. Shaking her head she tried to clear it but instead she kept hearing this weird thumping noise. Teal’c had brought the line to a stop, which finally gave her a chance to actually consider the weird thumping noise.

The longer she listened to it the more she realized it sounded familiar, something natural, something organic. Laying a hand against her chest she felt the steady rhythm of her own heart. That was it. It was heartbeats. When the group started moving again she hung back a bit still listening. Something wasn’t right about the heartbeats. Either someone was really excited, pausing she lay her fingers against her neck checking her own heart rate, but no it wasn’t her. Or there were too many hearts beating at the same time. Picking up her pace again she listened carefully to the others. None of their hearts were beating that fast. Though they were all giving her strange looks and Mitchell had stopped talking.

Teal’c regarded her with a raised eyebrow as she began to raise her fingers ticking off heartbeats, “One, two, three, four, five,” she looked at each other members of the team as she counted before turning her head to look at the bushes next to them, “six.”

Mitchell suddenly interrupted her making her lose her concentration and the individual heartbeats. “You ok there Sommers?”

“There are too many heartbeats,” Jaime hoped that she didn’t look as confused as she felt.

“What?” Mitchell gave her a confused look before all of a sudden a beam of energy struck Jaime in the chest sending her flying off her feet and onto her back.

Jaime let out a groan and tried to roll over as weapons fire lit up around them. Mitchell shouted for the others to go on as he made a move to grab Jaime before a warrior came out of nowhere nailing him hard in the face. Jaime’s whole chest felt like it was on fire and there was a distinct stench of burned flesh and plastic. Trying to push herself off the ground she heard footsteps coming up behind her, kicking out her left leg she caught whoever it was tripping them. She heard a thud but didn’t see anyone land. She rolled trying to get away from whoever it was.

She could hear gunfire and whatever the hell those stick weapon things were shooting off nearby. Suddenly there was a guy standing over her legs holding a staff to her face. Kicking a leg upwards she nailed the guy in a definite sensitive area making him gasp and bend over before planting a foot on his chest and kicking him away. She didn’t even bother to listen for the inevitable sick smack he would make on the nearby tree. She tried to push herself up again but was stopped by a bald guy looming over her and then she felt a sudden sharp pain to the side of her head.

When Jaime regained consciousness she was in a hut of some kind with a bandage wrapped around her chest and her shirt definitely stripped off. Groaning she rolled her head and looked over spotting an unconscious Mitchell lying on the cot next to hers. She went to climb up from the cot but an electrical discharge noise and the sudden appearance of one of those staff weapons made her stop. Swallowing slowly Jaime looked up the length of the staff and into the face of a very angry looking young man.

“Hi,” Jaime said the word slowly not sure what was happening. Obviously these were the guys they were looking for but apparently they had been taken captive.

“Do not attempt to get up, your man is gravely wounded and so are you.” The man couldn’t keep the sneer off his face as he spoke to Jaime.

Clearing her throat Jaime reached up and rubbed a hand across her chest. She could feel the skin underneath h still healing, either it had been a really serious wound or she hadn’t been out that long. Raising a finger she hoped she didn’t come off sounding like a smart ass, “Two quick points of reference, he’s not my man and I’m going to be fine.” She flashed a quick smile as the obviously grumpy guy.

“You were gravely wounded,” He said it again more slowly this time as though he thought Jaime was some sort of idiot.

“I was but I’m a fast healer. It takes a look more than one hit to the chest to get rid of me.” Jaime moved to sit up but the staff was just shoved more into her face. Leaning back she raised her hands up in surrender. “Ok let’s play nice here. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

The man made a scoffing noise and pulled the staff weapon out of Jaime’s face. “You could not hurt me even if you tried woman. Besides if you wish to leave you can, but you cannot take your man with you and I doubt you would survive the journey across the mountains to the Chappa’ai. “

“Again not my man, unless you mean that in the loose soldiery leave no man behind sense and Chappa’ai, that’s the Stargate right?” Jaime sat up slowly not wanting to move suddenly and dislodge the bandages on her chest though she had a distinct feeling that Seriously Grumpy over there had already felt her up while she was unconscious.

“If you are not his woman than why did he abandon the others to rescue you when you were obviously severely wounded?” Grumpy crossed his arms across his chest and glared down at Jaime. Right now though Jaime wasn’t sure if he had any other expression than glare of doom.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not what happened and again, not severely wounded and not his woman,” Jaime pushed herself up off the bed quickly this time getting into Grumpy’s face. She gestured at Mitchell starting to get really annoyed with the Jaffa.

“You will sit back down and allow your wound to heal. We have no desire to kill you at this moment but that can change very quickly.” Grumpy leaned into Jaime’s face practically spitting into her face.

“Feel free to try,” Jaime cocked her head and braced her feet.

Suddenly Grumpys fist shot out slamming into her chest. Jaime let out a hiss of pain but didn’t move and grabbed the guy’s wrist. Kicking out a foot she went to flip him but he got to her at the same time and they both went down in a heavy thunk on the floor. Jaime groaned and grabbed at her chest the pain from her back reverberating into her still healing wound. In the brief moment she was distracted the Jaffa’s leg came down kicking her in the chest causing her to let out a scream of pain. The noise apparently caught someone’s attention because the bald guy from earlier came in through the door.

“Jolan, what is the meaning of this?” The bald guy was middle aged and obviously in charge.

Grumpy, oh wait Jolan, rose from the ground and brushed himself off. “She attacked me and I responded. I was forced to hit her wound to make her relent,” He turned his head around to glare down at Jaime. Seriously did this guy do anything but glare?

With a groan and a hiss Jaime pushed herself up and managed to seat herself back on the cot. She was definitely going to be bruised tomorrow and the nanites were real bitches when it came to bruises. Open wounds no problem but bruises always took ten times longer to heal. Jaime interrupted their little pow wow waving an accusatory finger, “Hey he hit me first.”

“Do not injure her too badly Jolan, I have questions for her once she has healed,” the bald guy gave Jaime one last considering look before leaving the little hut.

“Yes Lord Haikon,” Jolan spoke the words quickly to the rapidly closing door. He turned his head and glared at Jaime. “You will stay here and be silent until you are well enough to properly answer the Lord Haikon’s questions.”

With those parting words he stormed out of the hut the sound of the door slamming reverberating in Jaime’s ears. Not wanting him to have the last word Jaime shouted after him, “Hey what happened to I can leave whenever I want as long as I’m willing to brave the mountains.”

When Jolan didn’t return Jaime flopped down on the cot and stared at the ceiling. It seemed the only thing she was going to have to do until Mitchell woke up was count the grains in the wood. Closing her eyes she listened to the sound of Mitchell’s heartbeat. It was a good soothing sound. As long as Mitchell’s heart was beating Jaime wasn’t going anywhere. She definitely couldn’t go back to the Stargate without him. She would probably be kicked out and Jackson would definitely shoot her.

A few hours later Jolan came back into the hut with a basket of supplies in his arms. “I need to change your dressings and your man’s wounds are infected.”

“Again with the your man business and you are not changing my dressings. The last thing I want after getting shot in the chest is having some grumpy pervert groping me under the guises of wrapping my wound.” Jaime held out a hand to keep Jolan back.

“As though I would take any pleasure in touching your mutilated flesh. After that blast you are hardly fit to be called a woman,” the sneer in his voice only got heaver with each word.

“Oh screw you buddy, just give me the damn bandages. And I’ll have you know that I’m more woman than you’ll ever find on any creepy medieval backwoods planet,” Jaime held out her hand for the bandages.

Jolan merely smirked and shoved them and a small jar of some kind of medicine into her outstretched hand. “Fine then, bandage them yourself and then I need you to come hold your man down. Though I don’t think he will be your man much longer once he sees your ruined flesh.”

“God can you get it through your thick Jaffa skull, he’s not my man.” Jaime let out an annoyed huff and spun around dropping the supplies in her lap.

Reaching up her hands she drew a deep nervous breath and began to slowly unwrap the bandages from around her chest. She let out a slow hissing breath as she peeled the rough woven bandages away from the healing skin on her chest. Looking down she considered the rough edges of the wound. She could see the nanites moving around healing the wound. The little bastards were obviously taking their sweet time. Unscrewing the jar she began to slowly rub it over the open wound. While the nanites would do the job of healing her up she hoped the balm would at least sooth the pain.

Moving her hand slowly over her chest she looked over her shoulder and saw Jolan staring at her. With an annoyed noise Jaime spun her head around, “Jesus could you at least turn around while I do this.”

Jolan made a disgusted noise, “Your pale, deformed body hold no appeal for me.” He did turn his head though.

“You know before I get out of this I owe you a serious punch in the face.”

Moving her hand from the wound she reached down and grabbed the bandages out of her lap. Using one hand to anchor the end of the bandage in place and used her other hand to wrap it slowly around her chest. It took her a few minutes and she made a few mistakes before she finally got the bandages tightly bound around her chest. Maybe they were a little messy looking but they weren’t going anywhere. Looking around she tried to find a shirt.

“Do you have something I can wear?” She turned her head and looked at Jolan over her shoulder.

Not saying anything he walked over to some storage on the wall and grabbed a rough looking shirt out of a basket. He tossed it at Jaime who caught it and with a wincing movement pulled it over her head.

“Thanks,” she spat out the word not really meaning it.

“If you are done than I need you to come here and attempt to hold him down. He should not move during this, he will merely tear the wound more.” Jolan pointed at Mitchell and began to set up more stuff from out of his little basket.

Walking over to Mitchell’s cot she looked down at him and raised her hands helplessly. “Where do you want me to hold him?”

Jolan nodded his head in the direction of Mitchell’s, “Sit behind his head and hold his shoulders down.”

Blowing out a breath Jaime climbed onto the cot behind Mitchell’s head. She lifted his head gently resting it in her lap. At least the Sodan had had the decency to leave her pants and boots on. Resting on her heels she reached out and laid her hands gently on Mitchell’s shoulders. She would probably only need her bionic arm to hold him down but she didn’t want to give that away to Jolan. Her wound burned as the healing skin was stretched from the position.

As Jaime held Mitchell down Jolan began to scoop some green paste out of one his little pots and apply it to the wound. Almost instantly Mitchell began to softly groan and writher about. Jaime increased the pressure on his shoulders making soft soothing nonsense sounds. She wasn’t completely sure Mitchell could understand what she was saying it was obvious he was completely out of it from the fever.

When Jolan suddenly pressed the paste down harder into the wound Mitchell let out a loud cry and arched his back up Jaime immediately moving to shove his shoulders down.

“Hold him down woman,” Jolan spat the words at Jaime.

“Seriously, you’re getting two punches to the face when all of this is over.” Jaime leaned down to wrap her arms more tightly around Mitchell’s shoulders. She didn’t want to crush the bones.

“That you Sommers?” Mitchell rolled his eyes up and was immediately greeted with the sight of Jaime leaning over him. He could see straight down the blousey shirt she was wearing to her heavily wrapped chest. He had seen that wound when she went down, she shouldn’t be alive.

“Yeah its me. Sit still while Nurse Ratchett here works his magic,” Jaime flashed Mitchell a reassuring smile.

“His wound is infected,” Jolan’s voice interceded on their conversation. “It must be cleansed or he will die.” Standing up Jolan moved away from the cot and over to pick something else up. He came back holding another little pot of paste. “This will cause you a great deal of pain.”

Jolan smirked over at Jaime who wrapped her arms more tightly around Mitchell’s shoulders. Mitchell turned his head looking up at Jaime her hair hanging down in a curtain over his face.

“You don’t need to hold me down you know. I can take this.” The words came out in a harsh breath from between Mitchell’s chapped lips.

“Don’t worry Mitchell, I know you’re a big strong air force Colonel. You are not any less of a man in my eyes simply because I have to hold you down.” Jaime smiled down at Mitchell.

Mitchell flashed Jaime a wry grin that quickly changed into a scream as Jolan pressed down on the wound. Jaime wrapped her arms more tightly around Mitchell’s shoulder holding them down to the bed as Jolan continued to prod at his wound. The more Jolan prodded the louder Mitchell’s screams got and Jaime actually found herself wincing. She turned her head so her bionic ear was facing away. She had long since given up on trying to whisper soothing words to him.

Finally after what felt like an eternity Jolan stopped his Doctor Mengele routine and left the hut. At some point Mitchell had passed out during Jolan’s tender ministrations again from the pain and Jaime released his shoulders climbing off the bed. Her chest wound had bled a bit from the awkward position she had to assume in order to hold Mitchell down. Rubbing a hand over her chest Jaime stared down at him. He was unconscious and his face was covered in sweat. Looking around she tried to spot something resembled water.

Walking over to the door to the hut she opened it and shouted after Jolan, “Hey could I get some water?”

Jolan merely looked over his shoulder at her before turning around and starting to walk again. Rolling her eyes Jaime looked back at the unconscious Mitchell before venturing out of the hut. Walking across the dirt packed square she headed towards something that looked like a well from a movie. Peering down it she stared at the rope line and tried to figure out how the thing work. Grabbing the rope she began to tug it up. Going hand over hand she began to see a bucket rising out of the deep of the well.

When she finally got it to the top of the well she untied the bucket from the string and headed back to the hut. Closing the door behind her she sat it down next to the bed. Digging around the room she found a rag and dipped it into the bucket. Pulling it out she tried to wring a few drops of water out of the rag and into Mitchell’s mouth. This move always seemed to work in the movies but all it seemed to be doing now was wetting Mitchell’s face. Sighing Jaime tried to dig up her memories of taking care of her mom towards the end.

Reaching out a hand she began to stroke the rag over Mitchell’s forehead. The cool water seemed to have a positive effect as Mitchell let out a soft sound. Jaime moved the rag around Mitchell’s face occasionally dipping it again before moving down to his neck. Giving his chest a careful look over she just shook her head. There were just some things she wasn’t comfortable doing and giving the guy who was apparently her boss a sponge bath was one of them.

A few minutes later Jolan came storming in and grabbed the bucket. “This is the village water bucket. If you want water find your own container.” And stormed back out again before Jaime could even make a sound.

Waving her hands in the air Jaime let out an annoyed noise and turned her head looking back at Mitchell. She stayed next to his bedside wiping his forehead with what little water she had left on the rag until nightfall. At some point another Jaffa came in and dropped food on the floor before stomping out again. Jaime tried to coax Mitchell awake to eat but obviously his body was too worn down by the infection and he remained asleep.

When it seemed like nothing she could do would wake him and that no one else was coming Jaime went back over to her cot and lay down. She let her eyes close and laid her hands on her stomach. She didn’t think she would be able to sleep but at the very least she could try.

“We’re the only two people with neuro-ocular implants in our brains.” Sarah smirked at Jaime from across the fuzzy tree dotted landscape. “I’m in your head Jaime,” the words rolled off Sarah’s tongue. “And I’m never going to go away.”

Jaime shot awake her breath coming out in short pants. It was that dream again. Fucking Sarah. Leaning back on the bed Jaime threw an arm over her forehead. Light was starting to stream through the bamboo bars on the window of the hut. Mitchell was still unconscious but breathing. That at least was a positive sign. Rising from her cot she headed to the door and out to the well again. Pulling up the bucket she found that Jolan had reattached the bucket she had tried to steal the other day.

Reaching her hands into the water she splashed it on her face letting the water run down her neck. Her chest felt tight and it was obvious that the bandages had started to heal to her skin. Looking around she noted that there was no one out and about at this early in the morning. Stripping off the loaned shirt she picked up the bucket and dumped it over her head.

Shivering from the cold of the water and the cold of the morning air she began to pick at the bandages wrapped around her chest. With a wince she slowly peeled away the bandages from the wound. The nanites had apparently done their work during the night. The open wound was healed but there was still a large pink-scarred area where the new skin was growing in. It would probably take at least the rest of the day for it to fully heal. Oh yeah if she had been a normal person she would have been dead ten times over.

“How is it possible that your wound has healed so quickly?” A deep voice sounded from just off to Jaime’s side causing her to spin around.

And there was baldy standing there standing at her exposed self. Gasping Jaime grabbed up the shirt and held it up in front of her body. Shrugging her shoulders she slapped on a nervous smile. “What can I say? I’m not like other girls.”

“You will come with me, now,” baldy waved a hand at her gesturing for Jaime to follow.

Rolling her eyes Jaime quickly shrugged into the shirt tugging it down over her exposed body. She followed along behind the bald guy wrapping her arms around her stomach. This was obviously not going to be a good day, flashing the boss of the village holding you hostage was definitely not a way to start the day. The bald guy led her to the far end of the village where there was a house larger than all the others. He led her along the balcony and towards a very zen like garden. The bald guy waved a hand gesturing at one of the stone circles.

“You will sit.” Sitting down the guy folded his feet underneath himself assuming some sort of yoga, meditation pose.

Sitting down Jaime tucked her legs underneath her and let her hands fall in her lap. “So,” Jaime tapped her fingers on her leg.

“I am called Lord Haikon and Jolan tells me that you are called Sommers and that your man is called Mitchell.” Lord Haikon rolled his shoulders back resting his hands on his knees.

“Jaime actually and Mitchell is not my man,” Jaime said the words slowly hoping they would sink in to this guys head.

“Jaime then, if Mitchell is not your man you will be moved to other quarters.” Haikon cracked his eyes staring straight at Jaime.

“Excuse me? Why can’t I stay with Mitchell?” Jaime gave Haikon a confused look.

“We do no tallow unattached men and women to stay together. It is considered a right of passage for a man to capture a woman from the unattached woman’s barracks. A foreign woman who apparently heels from near fatal wounds would be quite the prize for any man,” Haikon said the words slowly obviously wanting Jaime to understand completely what he was saying.

“Oh, oh well how very Spartan of you and when I say he’s not my man I meant that we’re having a bit of a fight right now and I’m just angry with him. We’re completely attached I’m just mad at him,” Jaime said the words quickly not even thinking about it. No way was she going into some creepy woman’s barracks to be some guy’s prize.

“I thought as much. You are very interesting though, you were able to detect us before any of the others and your wound healed very quickly, a wound that should have killed you or at the very least let you horribly scarred.” Haikon had closed his eyes again drawing a deep breath and focusing on the quiet of the early morning.

“Like I said, I’m not like other girls.” Jaime shrugged a shoulder leaning back resting her hands on the back curve of the stone seat.

“That much is true. I’m afraid though that we can not allow you to leave.” Haikon drew in another deep breath attempting to relax.

“Excuse me? Can’t allow me to leave? Why not?” Jaime sat up quickly instantly infuriated at the thought of being held captive indefinitely in this place.

“You have seen our secrets and we can not allow you to share them with outsides. When your man has answered for his crimes through Kel shak lo you will have to remain with us.” Rolling his shoulders back Haikon continued to descend into a meditative state.

“What’s Kel shak lo?” Jaime said the words slowly not really understanding what he was saying.

“It is ritual battle with another warrior, he will undoubtedly die and you will then take a new man.” Haikon said the words as casually as though he were talking about what he would like for breakfast.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me. Well can he have a pinch hitter?” Jaime said the words incredulity clear in her voice.

“A what?” Haikon cracked an eye then looking at Jaime.

“A pinch hitter, like can he tag me in so I can finish it for him before he dies?” Jaime slid her legs out from under her tension running through her body.

“No. We are done for now.” Haikon waved a hand as though to signal for her to leave.

They were interrupted though when a Jaffa led Mitchell up to Haikon. Jaime rose slowly and went to stand over by Mitchell. She stood silently beside him waiting while they engaged in their little discourse. She really needed to talk to Mitchell as soon as possible just in case the Jaffa separated them. Mitchell for his part looked like he had at least recovered from his fever. When Haikon moved away Jaime immediately grabbed Mitchell’s arm and yanked him against her.

“We need to talk,” She tilted her head up staring straight into his eyes.

“You can say that again, what were you doing talking with Lord Haikon here?” Mitchell jerked his head back in the direction that Haikon had gone.

“I went to wash up and Haikon noticed that I wasn’t horribly wounded anymore. Then he let it slip that if you’re not my man they’re going to stick me in some barracks for guys to come after me like a prize. So please for my sake, pretend you’re my man,” Jaime looked up at Mitchell rubbing her lips together quickly.

“Well that shouldn’t be too hard, these people don’t seem much like the PDA types.” Mitchell looked over his shoulder to see Jolan coming up behind them. Coughing Mitchell pried Jaime’s fingers from his arm, “Why don’t you do down to the hut honey and see if you can’t find me some lunch.” Mitchell patted Jaime lightly on the butt.

With a glare Jaime moved away from Mitchell and strode past Jolan. She didn’t spare Jolan a harsh look before heading out of Lord Haikon’s zen garden. As she was leaving Haikon’s house she could feel eyes on the back of her head, turning her head she looked back to see Haikon watching her carefully. Swallowing Jaime turned around again and picked up the pace.

“Explain to me please, how you lose track of a fifty million dollar weapon? You couldn’t exactly misplace her?” Jonas shouted down the phone at the general on the other end of the line. He paused briefly to listen to the General’s response before launching into his tirade again. “I don’t care if you lost one of your men again, you need to find her. We’ve given you the signal for not only her eye camera but her GPS. I expect an update soon.”

Jonas slammed down the phone rage coursing through his veins. The IOA and that US Air Force General O’Neill had assured him that Jaime would be fine. That she would be reasonably safe and that something like this was severely unlikely. Yet here they were barely two weeks into her time with the Air Force and within fifteen minutes of being on her first mission she gets kidnapped by the people they’re trying to befriend.

Rubbing a hand over his face Jonas collapsed into his chair. Outside his office he could see Jae and Ruth waiting to come in. Picking up the phone he dialed Jaime’s home number, when it picked up on the second he drew a breath and steeled himself for this.

“Becca, its Jonas, Jaime’s boss. It’s nice to talk to you again too. I just got word from Jaime’s supervisor at Cheyenne Mountain that she is going to be delayed for a few days, maybe even a week. Can you take care of yourself or do you need us to send someone?” Jonas spoke slowly not wanting to frighten Becca.

“No I’m sorry, I can’t take you to your drivers test, you’ll have to wait for your sister to get back,” Jonas laughed softly into the phone as Becca begun to complain about wanting to get her learner’s permit. “Alright Becca I have to go but I’ll let you know as soon as I know something.” Hanging up the phone Jonas rocked back in his chair sighing heavily.

When Mitchell finally got back that night he looked like one giant bruise and he collapsed immediately onto his cot. Walking over to him Jaime leaned over him, “Do you want something to eat?”

“No. I don’t think I have the strength to chew.” Mitchell rubbed his face into the roughly woven pillow underneath his face.

“Ok, your loss. You’re missing out on this awesome gruel like substance that the Sodan have so lovingly provided for us.” Jaime held out a bowl near Mitchell’s face waving it temptingly in front of him.

Rolling his head Mitchell stared at the bowl and then tipped his head to look up at Jaime. “You’re trying to torture me aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, this is all part of my evil plan I’ve concocted to make me seem like your nagging wife.” Raising an eyebrow Jaime took the bowl away setting it down on the shelf along the far wall. “So that Sodan fighting stuff Jolan’s showing you looks pretty cool.”

Mitchell made a scoffing noise and wrapped his arms around the pillow under his head. “Yeah but you don’t need any of that, you’re Wonder Woman. Speaking of which, why are you still here? Couldn’t you have been gone the minute you came to no problem whatsoever?”

Jaime moved away from the shelf and sat down on her own cot. She peeled off her boots slowly not sure how to ask. “Well when I came to his supreme grumpiness told me that I could head out over the mountains and leave you behind if I wanted to get away. Now I’m pretty sure even if by some miracle I made it back to the Stargate I wouldn’t know how to dial it home and then even if I could dial the SG-C I would have to explain why I left you here to die. So you can see why me staying here was the best option.”

Mitchell rolled his head and looked over at her. “Well that certainly makes sense. For what its worth I appreciate you not leaving me behind.”

Jaime lay down and gave Mitchell a small smile. “You’re welcome.”

Mitchell nodded slowly and turned his face again burying it into his pillow. Drawing a deep breath Jaime let her eyes close and tried to relax again on the cot. It seemed every time she close her eyes though all she saw was Lord Haikon speaking with Sarah’s voice. After a few hours she finally gave up and climbed out of the bed. Moving quietly out of the hut she headed down to where she had seen Jolan and Mitchell running earlier in the day.

Staring at the path she muttered to herself, “Blue is left, red is right.”

Drawing a deep breath she began to slowly run the path. The longer she ran the more she picked up the pace. By the time she was through her second lap she was pretty sure she was clocking in at thirty miles per hour. The sound of a twig snapping caused her to slide to a stop suddenly. She flipped over landing on her back. With a soft ‘ow’ she rolled her head back and stared up at Jolan.

“Your speed is impressive. You should return to your man before one who is less scrupulous comes along.” Jolan nodded at Jaime before turning on his heel and walking away.

Sighing Jaime reached up her hands and rubbed them over her face. She was really starting to hate this planet.

The next week seemed to creep by. If Mitchell wasn’t with Jolan than he was passed out from exhaustion in their tiny little hut. Jaime seemed to spending an inordinate amount of time with Haikon mediating. Lord Baldy, as she had started calling him in her head, would call for her at some point during the day. Then they would engage in a brief conversation where he would ask a couple of questions, usually only one of them having any real importance and then they would meditate.

It was a weird sort of arrangement and it was definitely starting to creep Jaime out. She was starting to get a pretty good idea who would try to come after her if Mitchell was killed. And she highly doubted that it was for her sparkling personality and conversation skills. Jaime had no doubt that Haikon was operating under the impression that whatever it was that made Jaime special was capable of being passed on to future generations and some how tied to ascension like the Priors. At this moment she really didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wasn’t and there was the fact that she was pretty sure he would try to kill her if she told him that she was enhanced with robotic parts.

Today wasn’t really any different than any other. She and Haikon were sitting back-to-back mediating. Suddenly Haikon spoke up.

“Tell me Jaime, how did you come to be as you are today?” He did not turn around just kept his eyed closed and his body still facing forward.

“Well not to spoil the big surprise ending but I was in an accident.” Jaime was trying to meditate but anytime she was alone with her thoughts dark things started to creep in.

“Did you believe that you would die in that accident?”

“Yes.” Jaime said the word softly pressing her eyes tightly closed. She couldn’t believe she was answering his question. It was just too uncomfortable a question but after a week of this she had grown used to it. She had been wondering when he would start getting to the serious stuff.

“Did you pray?”

“No.” Jaime stated that emphatically. There was no other way to say it but with the truth.

“I wonder about your world. So empty and godless,” Haikon said the words slowly. They rolled off his tongue in a soothing fashion, almost like a lullaby.

“Not godless, we have lots of gods and people who believe in gods, but we also have believe who don’t believe in gods. Its part of what makes our world beautiful, there are places where you are free to believe whatever you want.” Jaime rolled her shoulders a bit not wanting to sound too self-righteous.

“Without a path you are lost.” Haikon took a deep breath and let it expel slowly out of his nose.

“Part of what makes like worth living is finding your path. You don’t always have to be on the path to have a path. And that’s the extent of my philosophical deepness for today.” Jaime popped open her eyes and slid off the stone seat.

“I did not say you could leave,” Haikon didn’t bother to turn his head.

“Yeah but you can’t really make me stay either.” Jaime threw Haikon one last look before stalking off out of the zen garden.

Jaime stomped off down into the village. She needed to find Mitchell. This whole hang around make nice with the Sodan business was really starting to grate on her. She wanted off this planet. She found Mitchell hovering over a water bucket sucking water down like a horse. Sliding onto the bench next to him she leaned in close.

“Mitchell, we need to get out of here.”

Turning his head Mitchell flashed her a small smile, “Come on Sommers its not that bad. They feed us, they’re teaching me their ancient secrets, you seem to be getting cozy with the chief, all and all things seem to be going pretty well.”

“Yeah except for a few small problems, they’re feeding you so that they can kill you, they’re teaching you ancient secrets so that they can kill you and the chief I’m pretty sure wants to hit me over the head and drag me back to his cave so I can be the mother to future generations of Jaffa,” Jaime gave Mitchell a dark look before she lifted her head to look around and make sure no one was listening.

“Oh come on its not that bad,” Mitchell let out a small laugh and took another sip from his water spoon. “I just have to survive this Kel shak lo thing and then we’ll make friends and be on our way.”

Jaime tossed her head back and let out a low groan. Shaking her head she closed her eyes against the glare of the sun. “I think even if you did survive Kel shak lo they would just kill you. I have a distinct feeling that this only ends one way.”

“You know what your problem is Sommers?” Mitchell pointed the dipper at Jaime turning his body to look at her.

“What is my problem Mitchell?” Jaime twisted her neck so that they locked eyes.

“You’re too negative. You need to learn to see the bright side of things, maybe relax a bit,” Mitchell waved the dipper at Jaime like an accusatory appendage.

“If the words cloud or silver lining come out of your mouth I will hit you,” Jaime gave him a deadly serious look.

Mitchell let out a laugh and turned dipping his spoon into the water bucket and grabbing another drink. “Well like my Grandma always said,” he was quickly cut off by Jaime holding up a hand.

“Oh don’t you even go there. I had a Grandmother too, and she had more than enough sayings for the both of us.” Jaime waved a finger at Mitchell daring him to say something.

When Mitchell just laughed Jaime turned her head away not wanting him to see the smile on her face. It was then that she noticed a bit of a commotion at the edge of the village. Adjusting her eye she watched as a pair of warriors led a man wearing robes and carrying a strange staff up the village path.

“Really? And where was your Grandma from?” Mitchell turned his head trying to follow Jaime’s line of sight.

“Iowa,” she said it without even thinking about it. “Hey Mitchell, what do Priors of the Ori look like exactly?” She didn’t turn her head just kept her eye trained on the approaching threesome.

“Iowa, hey I’m from Kansas we’re practically neighbors.” Mitchell let out a small laugh and clapped a hand on Jaime’s back. Her next questions caught him off guard, “Why?” Craning his neck Mitchell tried to see what Jaime was seeing.

Then he saw it. The Prior coming up the village path with what looked like a royal welcome. People moved out of his way some almost bowing to the Prior. The Prior and he locked eyes as the entourage moved past them.

“Just like that,” Mitchell said the words softly shock clear in his voice.

“Human!” There was an angry shout from Jolan and Mitchell and Jaime both spun around. Jolan stomped over his arms crossed across his stomach. “A true warrior does not waste time that could be used for training gossiping with his woman.”

Jaime rolled her eyes and let out a less than ladylike snort. Mitchell gave Jaime a small smile before rising off the bench.

“Well this warrior occasionally likes to have a little time with his woman,” Mitchell flashed Jaime a wink and followed behind Jolan.

Shaking her head Jaime pushed up off the bench. She still had chores left to do today. She had thought that the first few days she could get away without doing any chores but the other women of the village had quickly corrected her on that point. Learning how to make their nutritious and nauseating gruel paste had been the highlight of yesterday’s day. Today supposedly she was going to learn how to clean and skin animals. Yeah, there had to be a way to get out of that.

A few days later Mitchell came stomping into the hut slamming their rickety door behind him. Jaime merely raised an eyebrow but went back to badly sewing closed a hole on Mitchell’s only other shirt. When she pricked herself again she let out a quick hiss of pain and stuck her finger in her mouth sucking on it.

“Why do you do that?” Mitchell said the words quickly exhaustion clear in his voice.

“Why do I do what?” Jaime looked up from her sewing staring at Mitchell. He had his hands resting against the door with his shoulders slumped forward.

“Why do you do any of it? You have your little chats with Haikon, you spend time with the women, and hell you’re fixing my shirt. Not too long ago you were complaining at me about wanting to leave and now you’ve practically gone native on me.” Mitchell rolled his shoulders tension radiating throughout his whole body.

“What do you want me to do? Should I sit around on my ass waiting for you to get killed and then make a run for it?” Jaime threw down the shirt rising off the bed. “I’m trying to do what the SG-C apparently sent us here to do which is establish friendly relations with the locals. The locals tend to get bent out of shape if I just sit around on my hands. You want to trade places? Cus I definitely think that I would do better at the whole Kel shak lo thing than you will.”

Jaime started to pace annoyance coming off of her in waves. God she had just wanted to get out of the sun for a while. Get away from all the villagers and their stares. Not think about the fact that she had left her little sister alone for over a week and she would probably be freaking out. Mitchell turned around his hands on his hips and strode towards Jaime. The pair faced each other trying to stare each other down. Living together for almost two weeks was starting to wear on both of them.

“Yeah let’s trade places robo girl. Why don’t you just go Terminator on the Priors ass?” Mitchell shouted down into Jaime’s face. He was pissed off. He didn’t even know why he was pissed off but he was pissed off at Jaime.

“Oh yeah that’s a great way to solve this. I’ll fight with the Prior, probably get my ass kicked but I’ll heal and he’ll kick my ass again and again. I’ve been trying to convince Haikon that the Prior is a bad guy but he’s not listening. You know what I think?” Jaime stepped up into Mitchell’s personal space leaning up so that she could get as much into Mitchell’s face as possible.

“What do you think? Let’s hear what the great Jaime Sommers has to say because its not like I haven’t been listening to what you have to say every moment you and I are alone together for the last two weeks.” Mitchell leaned down a grimace working its way across his face. His hands came up in a gesture of defeat.

“Haikon isn’t a true believer.” Jaime said the words softly her neck jerking back and forth in annoyance. “If he needed proof so badly then he wasn’t a true believer and now he’s trying to make up for having doubted in the first place.”

Mitchell pressed his lips together his eyes locked on Jaime’s. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before they finally broke apart almost at the exact same moment. Turning around they both paced away from each other. Mitchell rubbed a hand over the back of his neck as Jaime wrapped her arms around her middle pacing in a small circle.

“There’s nothing we can do is there?” Mitchell sighed and rolled his head from side to side.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can about Haikon but maybe the others.” Jaime turned her head and looked over at Mitchell.

Nodding slowly Mitchell rubbed his hand over the back of the neck trying to ease the tension. “Alright but I don’t want to give up on Haikon just yet. I think Jolan can be convinced. Let me work on him but you need to keep at Haikon.”

Sighing Jaime sat down on the edge of her cot rubbing a hand over her face. The close quarters, the more difficult lifestyle, the threat of imminent death hanging over their heads, it was all starting to wear on the both of them. They probably wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. Another week at most and they’d probably start really tearing into each other. Mitchell walked over and sat down on Jaime’s cot next to her.

“I shouldn’t have yelled,” Mitchell looked down at his hands pretending to be very interested in his fingernails.

Jaime let out a soft laugh and looked over at him. “I’m not a delicate flower Mitchell, you’re not going to hurt my feelings that easily.”

Mitchell nodded and looked over at Jaime. Reaching out a hand he clumsily patted Jaime on her shoulder. “This isn’t exactly a great first mission. I mean my first mission was pretty cool. I got to go to Avalon and fight a knight.” Mitchell grinned remembering the event with somewhat rose colored glasses.

Jaime let out a laugh and reached up a hand patting Mitchell’s hand lightly. “I know. It was in that brief and I use the word brief loosely, report that they gave me when I first showed up.”

Grinning Mitchell pulled his hand away from Jaime’s shoulder and let it fall back into his own lap. “You know I’ve read every single SG-1 mission report.”

“Well I was already convinced you had brain damage so that doesn’t surprise me too much,” Jaime let out a soft laugh and turned so she was facing Mitchell.

“Brain damage huh?” Mitchell made a scoffing sound giving Jaime a careful look.

“Well yeah, no sane and healthy person would think that jumping through a wormhole that rips you apart on an anatomical level only to put you back together all in about the space of three seconds is fun.” Jaime poked Mitchell lightly in the chest a grin on her face.

“So says the bionic girl,” Mitchell gave Jaime a teasing look his hand coming up to swat her finger away.

Jaime just shook her head sucking in her lips. “I didn’t choose to be bionic.”

“What do you mean?” Mitchell looked her over carefully not sure what she was saying.

“I, you know I’ve never really talked to anyone about it. Up until now anyone who knew about my bionics knew about how I came by then because they were the people who did this to me.” Jaime looked down at her hands clenching and unclenching her fingers.

“Well you know I might be dead in a few days so it might not hurt to tell me. Come on Sommers we’ve been stuck here for two weeks, tell me something honest and true about you.” Mitchell looked up at Jaime with sincerity in his eyes.

“You could start by calling me Jaime,” Jaime flashed him a small smile looking down at her hands.

“Ok, Jaime you can call me Cam.” With a small smile Mitchell laid a reassuring hand on Jaime’s leg.

Drawing a deep breath Jaime rubbed her hands together. She lifted her head staring at the bamboo bars on their tiny window. “I was coming home from dinner and there was an accident. Our car was hit by a tractor-trailer. I don’t really remember much of what happened just a bright light and a lot of pain. The next time I regained consciousness, real consciousness not that funny haze you can drift in and out of before they put you under with anesthesia, everything felt wrong. My body felt wrong. I couldn’t feel parts of myself and,” Jaime paused not sure how to say the next.

With a deep shaky breath Jaime stopped not sure what to say next. She didn’t really want to go into the finer details of what her body looked like after the accident. She could feel Mitchell’s hand coming up and rubbing across her back.

“I know what that feels like,” Mitchell said the words softly his hand moving in a smooth motion along Jaime’s back. Jaime lifted her head and stared into Mitchell’s eyes.

“A few years ago SG-1 was in Antarctica looking for the Ancient weapons platform but the Gou’ald attacked. I was flying fighter planes to help keep the Gou’ald off SG-1 until they could activate the weapon but my plane went down into the ice. They told me I wouldn’t ever walk again.” Mitchell paused in the slow stroking motion along Jaime’s back.

In a strange confluence of motion Jaime stretched out her arms wrapping them around Mitchell’s middle as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders pulling her against his body. They sat there in the darkening hut arms wrapped around each other sharing in a strange sort of mourning ritual. Neither was really sure what they had lost because they were both standing there fine and healthy but still they mourned. When morning came Jaime found that apparently she and Mitchell had just spent the night loosely wrapped around each other. That morning started an odd sort of pattern that last for the next few days.

<

Each night she and Mitchell would sit up late talking about their personal injury stories and that quickly slid to stories about family and stupid relationship stuff. Most of their conversations seemed to revolve around Cam’s Grandma and Becca. It seemed in some sort of odd way they were bonding. And more often than not they would wake up the next morning having slept next to each other. Which proved to be quite uncomfortable with the whole cot situation.

One morning there was a snort from above her and Jaime lifted her head and stared straight into Jolan’s smirking face. Pulling away from Mitchell she gave Jolan a look that dared him to comment as she stood up adjusting her clothes. Jolan walked past her and kicked Mitchell sharply knocking him out of the bed. Mitchell hit the ground with a heavy thud and a low groan. Jaime tried not to laugh at Mitchell’s head and arms appeared over the top of the cot.

“I have considered your words,” Jolan was holding a canteen in his right hand.

Mitchell nodded and pushed himself off the floor. “Ok, and that meant that you had to kick me out of bed?”

“Today is to be your Kel shak lo and today you both will leave this place.” Jolan looked carefully back and forth between Jaime and Cameron.

“How are we going to do that?” Jaime crossed her arms over her stomach and looked carefully at Jolan.

Jolan thrust the canteen at Mitchell, “You shall drink this and it will make you appear as though you have died. Then your woman and I shall take you away to dispose of your body and I will take you two to the Chappa’ai where you may return to your world.”

Mitchell looked carefully back and forth between Jaime and Jolan. “So we’re not going to do the whole Kel shak lo thing?”

Jolan shook his head and waved the canteen at Mitchell, “No, we will complete the Kel shak lo but it will only appear as though you have died. Drink quickly, the elixir should only last two hours.”

“You’re just letting us go?” Jaime stared at Jolan incredulously. After everything that had happened the past few weeks this guy was just going to let them walk away.

Giving Jaime a careful look Jolan shook his head. “I am not letting you go. I have considered what has been said to me and I find there to be false promises in the words of the Prior. If the Sodan are to find enlightenment we must do it our own way.”

With a nod Mitchell took the canteen from Jolan. “Alright, so if this all goes well we just walk away and go home?”

“Yes.” Jolan nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. “We must hurry though you must prepare.” Jolan walked away from Mitchell and opened the door of the hut grabbing something from outside the door. He thrust a leather shirt at him. “You must wear this.”

Mitchell nearly spat out the elixir as he struggled to catch the shirt. “Thanks.”

“Finish that quickly. We must leave,” Jolan gave Jaime a searching look. “You must be present as well.”

As soon as Mitchell was dressed Jolan led them to the village circle. He took Mitchell up to the balcony of Haikon’s house leaving Jaime to stand down with the crowd below. Crossing her arms Jaime drew a deep breath and settled in to watch. This stupid plan of Jolan’s better work the way it was supposed. It sounded way too Romeo and Juliet for her tastes. Poisons to fake death were so Elizabethan era.

Jaime let out a worried gasp when Mitchell actually started to go down from the cut on his leg. She wasn’t completely certain that Jolan was actually faking it. When it was all done with Mitchell actually looked dead and apparently appeared dead enough that Haikon was convinced. She could hear Jolan talking but she was tuning him out until Jolan was grabbing at her arm and leading her away. He had slung Mitchell over his shoulder. He led them down the path to the starting point of the track.

Jolan dropped Mitchell’s body heavily on the ground. “Now we wait.” Jolan slid down the pole opposite of the one where he had dropped Mitchell.

Jaime lowered herself to the ground sitting beside Mitchell, waiting. She hated waiting. Here in the woods she was suddenly reminded of the woods outside of Berkut. That first run she made for freedom. That time when she thought that if she just ran fast enough and far enough she could forget everything that had happened. It would all just fade away and be one bad dream. The run hadn’t made her forget, the water hadn’t washed away the memories, she was stuck with those awful memories.

Seven hours later Mitchell finally regained consciousness. Letting Mitchell wrap his arm around her shoulder she helped him limp down to what apparently was the eye of the gods and finally make it back to the Stargate. Almost three weeks later and it looked like they were finally going home. When they made it to the Stargate Mitchell unwrapped his arm from around her shoulder to use the dialing device. When the wormhole activated he didn’t move to lean against her again. Obviously whatever they had shared was now over.

Stepping through the gate again Jaime drew a deep breath as she took in the beauty that was the concrete cellar where Stargate Command was located. Mitchell quickly moved ahead to talk to Landry as the others came rushing into the gate room. Jaime broke away and waved a hand at Walter.

“Can I get a phone?” Jaime shouted at the little Sergeant behind the glass.

Walter nodded and waved for her to come up to the command center. Jaime hurried out of the gate room and up to the command center. Walter handed over a very old fashioned looking phone.

“Do you need me to connect you?” Walter looked up at Jaime prepared to do whatever Jaime needed.

“I just need to be able to call my sister,” Jaime held the phone loosely in her hand. She turned her head slightly looking down into the gate room. Mitchell was still talking with Jackson and Landry.

“Oh I can do that no problem,” Walter gave her a warm smile and dialed the number.

Bringing the phone up to her ear Jaime listened to the comforting sound of the ring tone. Finally someone picked up, “Sommers residence.” The voice was gruff and deep.

“Jonas?” Jaime hoped her voice didn’t sound as shocked as she felt.

“Jaime?” Jonas sounded actually surprised for a change.

“Yeah. What are you doing in my house?” Jaime leaned back rubbing a hand over her forehead.

“Taking care of your sister. So I take it to mean that you’re finally back,” Jonas said the words carefully. It sounded in the background like water was running.

“Yep, I’m back. Look they’re probably going to want to debrief me and I desperately need a shower can you stay there until I get home?” Jaime drew a deep breath and crossed her arm across her stomach.

“What makes you think I would be going anywhere until you got back and explained to me exactly what happened?” Jonas couldn’t keep the scorn out of his voice.

“Ok, whatever. Just stop washing my dishes. I can hear the water running and it creeps me out.” Jaime quickly hung up the phone and looked up to see Landry, Mitchell and Jackson all giving her strange looks.

“Who’s washing your dishes?” Mitchell said the words slowly.

“My boss. He’s been taking care of my sister, can I go shower?” Jaime rubbed at the dir encrusted on her arms.

“Yes, that’s fine. You and Colonel Mitchell can get cleaned up and then we’ll do the debriefing.” Landry nodded at both Jaime and Mitchell before walking out of the command center.

Two hours later Jaime was finally leaving the SG-C. She was wearing the clothes that she had originally worn walking into it almost a month ago. Leaning back against the elevator wall she closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. She just wanted to get home. As the door was closing an arm suddenly came between the doors stopping them from closing. Jackson appeared between the doors coming into the elevator. He crossed his arms across his chest and blew out a breath.

“I understand that you didn’t leave Mitchell when you could have gotten away,” Jackson didn’t look at her just tilted his head up to stare at the numbers on the elevator.

“It was either make a selfish run for it and possibly die or hang around and possibly live. Wasn’t that hard of a decision.” Jaime banged her head lightly against the wall.

“Look I’m not trying to start a fight here I just, I want to say that I think you did a good thing.” Jackson sighed and shifted his hands tucking them into his pockets.

“Yeah well we’re not all big and bad at Berkut.” Jaime said the words with more than just a little sarcasm in them.

“Yeah about that. I’m sorry for judging you prematurely. We have a long history, Berkut and I.” Jackson half coughed the words obviously not wanting to say them.

“Was there torture involved?” Jaime closed her eyes a slight twitch to her eyebrow.

“What?” Jackson spun around giving her a funny look.

Jaime didn’t even bother to open her eyes just shrugged her shoulders. “There’s usually torture involved.”

“No, they just destroyed most of my career and my reputation.” Jackson ground out the words and turned away.

“Sucks,” Jaime said it with only an ounce of pity in her voice. “Look I don’t really care right now what Berkut did to you. I just spent three weeks on an alien planet and I just want to get home to my sister. Whatever Berkut did its in the past you need to just learn to let certain things go.”

When the elevator finally dinged at the top floor Jaime pushed off the wall and walked out leaving Jackson staring after her.

The End.
Please review. Thank you for reading. Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated and carefully considered.

madscietist @ 2009-05-12T22:28:00

2009-05-13T02:30:42Z

Title: Best Forgotten
Author: madscietist
Rating: PG-13? For now at least
Chapter: 01/??
Summary: There are some things in life that are best forgotten. The problem is no matter how far Jaime Sommers runs she can’t seem to forget.
Author's Notes: This is a Stargate SG-1/Bionic Woman 2007 crossover. I move back the time line though so that the Bionic Woman timeline starts in 2005 to coincide with Stargate SG-1 season 9. No pairings beyond the Daniel/Vala tension. Basic plot, Jaime Sommers is loaned to the SGC so that they can fix her nanite problems. Starts around Ex Deus Machina. Un-Betaed by anyone but me.
Disclaimer:Not mine.

“You made me into a soldier,” Jaime couldn’t believe the words were even coming out of her mouth. They sounded so absurd. Too absurd to be real, too absurd to be believed but they were spilling past her lips. She wanted to gag when she thought about what was inside her.

“You’re hard wired for highly specialized war fare, yes.” Will said the words so calmly; it seemed to barely bother him. He was so matter a fact about the whole thing. He was moving towards her, his hands out stretched like someone trying to calm a frightened animal.

In that moment she felt like a wild animal. A terrified, skittish, ready to flee instead of fight wild animal. An animal apparently capable of terrible, terrible things because of some chips in her head. The whole thing was sickening. It was like some terrible joke gone wrong. She couldn’t even hear what Will was saying anymore what she was saying. Then there was a fist coming straight at her face. She knew that fist and the person behind it.

“Jaime!” a voice shouted her name just as the fist connected.

Gasping Jaime shot awake coughing and grabbing at her chest. Sitting next to her Becca was giving her a weird look one hand on her gripping Jaime’s shoulder. Jaime’s heart was pounding as she stared at her little sister. Drawing a deep breath Jaime tried not to freak out.

“Jaime are you ok?” Becca gave her a weird look and pulled her hand away from Jaime’s shoulder.

Jaime nodded slowly and reached up rubbing a hand over her eyes. Turning her head she pushed up the little shade on the plane window and was shocked to see that they had already landed. Lifting her head she quickly glanced around the plane and noticed people were rapidly filing off the plane. Looking over at Becca she gave her a twisted little smile.

“Sorry I guess I fell asleep.” Jaime shrugged and tried to play off the whole freak out.

Becca just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Look can we get off the plane?”

Jaime nodded and stood up ducking to avoid hitting her head on the stupid console that hung over the seats. Becca climbed out before her grabbing her bag out of the overhead compartment. Jaime followed suit slinging her bag over her shoulder and moving in the slow shuffle off the plane. The stewardess flashed them an empty smile and some parting words. Becca and Jaime shared a look rolling their eyes at each other. Jaime wrapped an arm around Becca’s shoulders and led her sister off the ramp leading down to the plane.

Becca turned her head and looked up at Jaime. “So tell me again why we left sunny, hip, California to come live in cold, lame Colorado?”

“Because my job is paying me to move to Colorado and we go where the money is. I can always go back to being a bar tender if you like but that means no more awesome shopping sprees or cool nights out.” Jaime smiled down at Becca rubbing a hand over Becca’s shoulder.

“Fat lot of good that is going to do us here in boring Colorado.” Becca sighed dramatically and flapped her hands. “This is going to be the end of my life as I know it.”

Jaime laughed and shoved Becca gently. “Colorado Springs is not the middle of nowhere. It’s a pretty hip place. I will grant you maybe not as hip as San Francisco but I’m sure you’ll like it here.”

Becca just rolled her eyes and walked a little bit in front of Jaime. Jaime smiled and followed behind her trying to ignore the twitching in her little finger. They walked through the Colorado Springs airport heading towards baggage claim. Most of their stuff was on a Berkut Group moving van but they did have a few necessities that they had brought with them on the plane. Becca’s necessities of course consisting largely of make up and clothes.

They eventually found their way to the baggage claim after a quick bathroom stop. Becca of course made a great deal of noise complaining about the weight of her bag as she pulled it off the turn style. Jaime just smiled and easily hefted her bag onto her shoulder. It didn’t matter if she was cheating and using her bionic arm. When Becca kept complaining Jaime turned around and took the bag from her sister.

“Here give me that,” Jaime swiped the heavy paisley patterned duffle bag from her sister. “Good god what did you pack in this? I just said the things that you would need as soon as we got here and that couldn’t be picked up in a local store.”

“That’s what I did pack. All of that is absolutely essential,” Becca waved a hand at the bag.

Jaime just rolled her eyes and shouldered her sister’s bag. “Come on, there’s supposed to be someone waiting for us with a car.”

“What? We don’t even have our own car?” Becca let out an exasperated noise and waved her hands.

“Will you just let me finish,” Jaime shook her head and shifted Becca’s heavy bag. When Becca clamped her lips shut Jaime started again, “There is supposed to be someone waiting for us with a car. We do not have a car at the moment because I’m supposed to be getting for lack of a better term a company car.”

Becca nodded and crossed her arms over her chest. “When are you getting it? You know I’m supposed to be getting my learner’s permit soon.”

“I know and you’re not letting me forget it.” Jaime shook her head and headed out towards the pick up area.

Jaime and Becca stepped out of the airport and onto the sidewalk outside. There was a row of cars waiting outside some of them holding signs. Jaime used her bionic eye to scan the row of people looking for a sign that said ‘Sommers’. At the far end of the line there was a small man with glasses holding up that particular sign. Nodding her head at Becca, Jaime lead her sister down the row of cars towards the sign that read Sommers.

The little man was twitching and looking around desperately. Jaime walked up to him smiling. “Hi I’m Jaime Sommers.”

His glasses glinted, as he looked up at her a nervous little smile crossing his face. “Hello, I’m Sergeant Walter Herriman,” he rocked back and forth on his heels a bit. “I’m supposed to take you and your sister to your house and then run you over to the base.”

“The base?” Becca looked up at Jaime confused for a moment. “Why are you going to a base?”

“Contracting,” Jaime just gave Becca a small smile and turned back to Walter. “Thank you Sergeant, we appreciate it.”

“Can I help you with your bags?” Walter reached out ready to take the bags from Jaime.

Jaime shook her head, “No I’m fine. Could you open the trunk?” Jaime waved a hand at the trunk of the car.

Walter looked a little downtrodden for a moment and moved quickly to unlock the trunk. Opening up the trunk he moved out of the way so that Jaime could shoulder her bags into the trunk. She gave Walter a warm smile and a quiet ‘thank you’. Walter hurried around the car and quickly unlocked the door opening them for the sisters. Jaime and Becca both slid into the car and Walter closed the door behind them. He quickly raced around to the driver’s side door of the car and hopped into the seat starting the engine.

Coughing gently Walter began to steer them out of the airport and into the city. As Walter drove them towards their new house he began to give something of a guided tour and history of Colorado Springs. Becca at various moments rolled her eyes dramatically and made scoffing noises. Jaime kept pinching her sister and trying to shush her. Honestly sometimes she couldn’t believe how childish Becca could be, especially when she was trying to convince Jaime that it was time for her to get her learner’s permit.

Berkut had been nice enough to provide Jaime with a new house for her and Becca. Well Jaime supposed that it might have something to do with the fact that they didn’t want Jaime turning into the next Sarah Corvus but she would like to think that they were doing it to be nice in some fashion. Probably if she dropped dead or went crazy they’d let Becca keep the house. Maybe she should consider getting that in writing, having a contingency plan for if she suddenly dropped dead would probably be a good idea.

Jaime snapped out of her thoughts as the car pulled to a stop outside of a modest but well kept looking house with a nice yard, flowers and even hell, a white picket fence. Becca leaned across Jaime’s lap staring out the window at the house.

“Seriously? A white picket fence?” Becca twisted her head and looked up at Jaime who just shrugged.

“Its certainly homey looking,” Jaime gave a small smile and opened the door climbing out.

Walter came around the car after opening the trunk and helped Jaime lift the bags out of the back. He let out an oomph of effort when he lifted Becca’s bag out and Jaime gave him a small smile. She easily lifted the bag swinging it over her shoulder and grabbing her own smaller bag.

“After you,” Jaime waved a hand indicating that Walter should lead them towards the front door.

Walter eyed Jaime carefully for a moment before nodding. “Alright, now I haven’t been in here myself because it was purchased by your employer but I do have your key.” He held up the key and looked back and forth between Jaime and Becca.

“Take the key Becca,” Jaime nodded her head at Becca who walked over and took the key from Walter.

Becca grinned as she clasped the key in her hand and raced up to the front door. Practically bouncing with excitement she unlocked the front door and raced inside before quickly coming back to the front door. She leaned out gripping the doorjamb in her hand. “Hey our stuff is here.”

Becca immediately disappears back into the house and Jaime just shook her head. Honestly the girl complains endlessly about having to move and as soon as they get to their new house she’s running around it like a kid at Christmas.

Jaime smiled at Walter, “Thank you for the ride and the um, tour.” Jaime tried to avoid the urge to nervously clear her throat. She didn’t want to let him know that she had zoned out during his nice little tour.

“You’re welcome, I can give you a few minutes to get settled in but I was told to bring you over as soon as possible.” Walter rubbed his hands together nervously. He seemed a little uncomfortable at the thought of having to hurry someone along.

Nodding Jaime shifted the bags and went into the house with Walter following slowly along behind her. Jaime stepped into the house and let the bags slowly slide from her shoulder onto the floor. Apparently Berkut had gotten to the house first. The place was half empty because Jaime only had had enough furniture to fill a medium sized apartment not a small house. Obviously they were going to have to do some shopping.

Slowly Jaime walked around the house feeling oddly out of place. Moving into the kitchen she opened the various cabinets and the fridge. No food had been provided even though all of their stuff had made it to the house. Sighing Jaime rubbed a hand over her forehead. Apparently furniture shopping was not all the shopping that she would have to do. All of a sudden Becca came rushing into the room.

“Hey none of the furniture is where it’s supposed to be and we do definitely not have enough to fill this place,” Becca jerked a thumb at the half empty living room behind her.

“I know, we have to go shopping but the Sergaent says I have to report to the base. So I am going to leave you here to unpack and make sure everything’s in the right room. When I get back tonight we’ll order some takeout and start our official moving in.” Jaime smiled and rubbed a hand over Becca’s arm.

Becca let out a dramatic sigh crossing her arms over her chest, “Fine. You’re always running off to do work though.”

Jaime quickly hugged her sister, “I know but its because of my time consuming and annoying job that I am able to provide all of this for us.” Waving her hands Jaime gestured at the half empty house.

Nodding Becca gave Jaime a small wave, “Alright go on. Go do your big important job. I’ll be here, being bored,” With a roll of the head Becca stomped off into another part of the house.

“I love you Becca,” Jaime shouted after her sister and grabbed the key off the box where Becca had dropped it when she had first come in. “I’m taking the key, don’t go out.”

Jaime walked out the door and pulled it closed behind her. She noticed Walter was waiting in the car. Walking over she climbed into the passenger side. “You could have come in you know,” Jaime looked over at Walter slipping the key into her purse.

“Its fine, I was happy to wait out here.” Walter smiled and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

Turning on the car he backed out of the driveway and headed towards Cheyenne Mountain. Just as he had in the ride from the airport to the house he started in on his tour. Apparently you didn’t just get the dime tour with Walter but the whole dollar tour. They pulled up to the gates of the base and Walter flashed some id the guard waving them on through.

“Before I can take you down into the base to meet the General I’m afraid you’re going to have to get your id,” Walter pulled the car into a parking space near a door.

Jaime climbed out of the car and followed Walter into a tiny labyrinth like hallway with various little rooms. She paused for a moment in the hallway staring at the long blank walls. This place was oddly reminiscent of Berkut’s underground medical facility, the facility where they had made Jaime and more importantly the facility where they had made Sarah. With a brief shiver she started walking again following behind Walter.

Walter led her into a room with a door marked ‘Personnel.’ Four grueling hours later Jaime was finally allowed to leave that room again with nothing more to show than a dinky looking little id badge and a set of dog tags. Slipping the tags around her neck and clipping the badge to her shirt she stepped out of the room to find Walter waiting.

“If you would just follow me please,” Walter waved a hand and began to lead Jaime through the maze like corridors of the facility. Coming to a large freight elevator he slid his id badge and waited for the doors to open. “Until you’re given the codes you’ll have to use your id badge to access the elevators. I suspect though for the meantime at least you’ll usually be with someone and they’ll access the doors for you. General Landry will explain the exact specifics of your posting.”

Jaime nodded and crossed her arms as the elevator suddenly began to descend. Looking up she noticed that the floors went as low as thirty. “Huh, and I thought Berkut had the monopoly on secret underground bases of operation.”

Walter looked over at Jaime with a confused expression on his face. Jaime shook her head and just waved a hand, “Sorry, something of an inside joke.”

Walter just nodded and turned so he was staring straight forward again. Jaime shrugged and wrapped her arms around her middle. The ride took forever, the elevator had to be the slowest one in creation and they had to go twenty-seven some odd stories down. When the doors dinged open Walter waved a hand for Jaime to step out first.

“Now I don’t know what General Landry will want you to do first but I do know that you’ve been stationed with SG-1 our premiere team. They’re the best of the best,” There was a sort of glow about Walter and a twinkle in his eye when he spoke about SG-1.

Jaime wanted to label it as hero worship but it could have also been something else. Tucking her hands into her pockets she followed behind Walter as he led her down a long hallway to an office labeled, General Landry. He knocked sharply on the door before stepping back. A muffled ‘come in’ came from inside the room.

“Just go right on in,” Walter shuffled away quickly obviously off to do something.

Sighing Jaime stepped forward and opened the door moving into the room. A middle-aged man dressed in a blue military uniform was moving around behind the desk. Jaime paused halfway through the door not sure what she was supposed to do next. The man, General Landry obviously, looked up and waved a hand at her.

“Come in, you must be Miss Sommers. I’m General Landry, welcome to Cheyenne Mountain,” the General stepped forward taking Jaime’s hand and shaking it slowly.

Jaime stepped forward taking the General’s hand and giving it a firm shake. “Thank you. Your Sergeant was really very helpful.”

“That’s Walter, sometimes it feels like he can read my mind.” The General flashed Jaime a rueful smile. “Sit down,” He waved a hand at the seat on the other side of the desk.

Jaime took the seat clearing her throat and crossing her legs. Laying her hands in her lap she tried not to look too uncomfortable.

“Well I see you took care of the boring parts, getting your id and such allow me to give you an overview of what you’ll be doing here. You can read about the specifics in the report we’ve prepared for you,” Landry paused then eyeing his desk and looking for the file.

All of a sudden there was a click and the General’s intercom came on, “Its in the middle drawer of your desk sir.” Walter’s desk crackled over the intercom.

Shaking his head Landry reached out hitting the button on his intercom, “Thank you Walter.” Looking up Landry gave Jaime a meaningful look, “See, psychic.” Opening up the drawer Landry pulled out the file folder and passed it across the desk to Jaime.

Jaime took it with a smile eyeing the almost inch thick folder. Looking back up at the General she hoped that her face didn’t show any queasiness. Giant piles of paperwork always intimidated her.

“Well, I’m sure Walter told you that you would be stationed with SG-1. The team consists of team captain Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Teal’c. They’re all some very interesting characters and I’m sure you’ll have fun getting to know them.” Landry flashed her a wry little smile. “Now in addition to being available for the research necessary to evaluate your condition,” Landry coughed gently obviously not comfortable with actually saying it. “As well as going on various missions with SG-1.”

“Sure,” Jaime nodded slowly. “As I understand it though I also need to be available whenever Berkut calls.”

“Yes I am aware of that but there is something I want you to understand.” Landry’s voice dropped a few degrees and he leaned forward resting his elbows on the table. “I know you don’t work for us but if you do anything to compromise my team or cause them any harm I will do everything in my power to destroy you.”

Jaime raised an eyebrow and resisted the urge to laugh. She knew that the General was being sincere but it felt like she was a boy being threatened with a shotgun by an irate father who’s just found out his daughter has been sneaking out at night. “I have no desire to get anyone hurt. I’m just here following orders and trying to make sure my little sister doesn’t wind up as a bigger juvenile delinquent than she already is.”

Landry nodded slowly clapping his hands together, “Good. We’re in the middle of something of a crisis here right now but I’m sure you’ll get used to it. Being in the middle of a crisis is something of a regular occurrence around here.”

The intercom started to crackle again and Walter’s voice came over the line, “We’re ready for you sir.”

Landry reached out hitting the button on the console, “Thank you Walter.” Rising from his seat behind the desk Landry moved around and waved a hand for Jaime to get up. “We’ve just received a message from Ba’al, Colonel Mitchell and Dr. Jackson are on their way to watch it with us.”

“Ba’al?” Jaime raised an eyebrow as she rose from her chair following along behind Landry.

“Ba’al is one of the former system lords of the Goa’uld. We’ve received intelligence that indicates he may be on Earth and the Jaffa are currently hunting him as well. We’re trying to keep it all from turning into a blood bath.” Landry lead Jaime out of the side door of his office into a conference room.

“System lords? Goa’uld? Is all of that in this file?” Jaime looked hopelessly between Landry and the stack of papers in her arms. She was starting to wonder if maybe she shouldn’t have a book as thick as War and Peace.

Landry spared her a glance as he checked over the video Walter had set up. “The Cliff Notes version is in there. If you want any detailed information you’re going to have to read the various mission reports.”

Jaime nodded slowly and looked down at the file. She was definitely going to have to start reading this thing soon. Maybe she could get the audio version. Walter gave her a small smile when she sat down in one of the chairs and flipped open the file. The words ‘Brief History of the Stargate Program’ were written at the top. Accompanying it were the words ‘page one of thirty five’. With a small groan Jaime rubbed a hand over her forehead.

The sounds of voices and footsteps caught her attention. Lifting her head she listened in to the conversation of the two men approaching, “Or Kiss is back on tour.”

Through the open doorway came two men who bore a suspicious resemblance to each other. One had glasses and less well kempt hair and the other looked military through and through. Landry paused in what he was doing with Walter a remote clutched in his hand.

“Mitchell, Jackson, meet Jaime Sommers.” Landry waved the remote at Jaime. Jaime gave a small smile and a wave before Landry started talking again. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other later but we’ve just received this and I think you need to see it.”

Hitting the play button on the remote Landry ran the video. A very sleek looking guy began to deliver a message. Jaime thought he bore a strange resemblance to the bad buy from Aladdin but his goatee wasn’t as pointy. The wonder twins looked just as confused as Jaime felt but when he got to the deal part she thought their eyes were going to fly out of their heads from all the rolling. At the mention of Naqahdah bomb everyone looked worried and Jaime began to flip quickly through her files looking for what Naqadah was.

“Right,” Jackson paused rocking on his heels a bit. He looked over at Jaime and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to get Carter and who is she?”

Landry sighed and looked over at Jaime, “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner but we there was a lot of negotiating going on between Berkut, the IOA and the air force so I didn’t want to say anything until it was a sure thing.”

“Berkut?” Mitchell looked over at Landry having never heard of the group before.

“Not the notoriously secret organization that operates outside of the legal system Berkut?” Jackson looked Jaime over carefully not sure he completely believed she was from Berkut.

“We prefer to be called a private clandestine group dedicated to stopping rogue organizations from ending civilization as we know it,” Jaime shrugged a shoulder and flipped closed the file.

“Yeah,” Jackson drawled out the word looking back at Landry.

“Whatever you want to call it she’s on loan to SG-1 from Berkut. Ms. Sommers has some unique abilities that we’ve been given the opportunity to study,” Landry cleared his throat still not completely comfortable with saying it.

“I’m not like other girls,” Jaime gave a small smile and tapped her fingers on the file folder.

Mitchell just gave her an odd look while Jackson seemed to want to roll his eyes again. Landry just sighed and put down the remote.

“Look we don’t have time for this right now so for the meantime we’re going to let Miss Sommers get up to speed on everything she needs to know and make sure she has the necessary certifications and medical clearances. “ Landry looked over at Jaime who just raised an eyebrow.

“Just for a point of reference I’m not a big fan of guns,” Jaime gave a small smile not wanting to let how uncomfortable she felt show through.

“That aside, I don’t think this is the right assignment for Miss Sommers to jump into. You can all get to know each other at a later date,” Landry gave Jaime a small smile and looked back over at Mitchell and Jackson who were watching Jaime with carefully guarded apprehension. “Walter would you mind taking Miss Sommers down to see Dr. Lam and Dr. Lee?”

“Not a problem sir,” Walter gave Jaime a small smile and led her out of the room.

As Jaime was leaving the room she heard Mitchell and Jackson start in on Landry about her.

“I wasn’t aware that I was going to have a new addition to my team, sir.” Mitchell worded his sentence very carefully not wanting to let how infuriated he was show through.

“I think the larger issue here is that we’re babysitting for some Berkut stooge,” Jackson ground out the words. A few years ago SG-1 had had a bad run in with Berkut and its secrets. “And I do mean baby-sitting, she looks like she’s barely out of high school.”

“I don’t think this is the time or the place to be discussing this,” Landry moved to the doorway and peered out down the hallway.

Jaime who was halfway down the hallway turned her head and raised an eyebrow before turning around again.

“Besides, she can hear you,” Landry turned around and walked back into the room closing the door.

“She can hear us?” Mitchell tried to keep the shock out of his voice.

“Yes, I won’t go ever the exact details until we have the whole team together. I don’t want to have to say these things more than once. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable.” Landry shook his head and walked towards his office. “Let me know when Teal’c and Carter get here.”

Mitchell and Jackson shared a long look. This was not how they had imagined this day going and some how things just kept getting worse. Once they were done with this Ba’al business they were going to have to have a serious talk with Landry about their new little addition.

Jaime held back a smile as she walked down the hall with Walter. Landry’s uneasiness with the whole bionic thing was even greater than her own when she first found out about the bionics. And they were inside of her. Walter led her into a clinic of some sort. It was as Spartan as the rest of the place and made her briefly wish for the downright coziness of Ruth’s single plant in Berkut.

Standing in this very sparsely decorated medical facility was a woman in her thirties with long brown hair and Asian features. When she saw Walter she flashed him a quick smile before walking over. She stopped in front of Walter and Jaime with a file clutched in her hands.

“So is this Miss Sommers? Miss Sommers let me introduce myself, I’m Doctor Lam,” The doctor held out a hand.

Jaime smiled and reached out a hand shaking it slowly. “Thanks. Nice place you got here,” Jaime released Dr. Lam’s hand tucking her arms behind her back.

“It’s got a unique charm to itself. Thank you Walter for bringing Jaime here but I think we need to get started.” Dr. Lam smiled at Walter who gave a small wave and left the clinic. Dr. Lam turned back to Jaime with a smile still painted on her face, “Well let’s get you into some scrubs and then I’ll be running the initial tests on your physiology. Dr. Lee and Colonel Carter will be handling your bionics.”

Dr. Lam directed Jaime over to a curtained off area where she could get changed. Slipping into a pair of light blue scrubs Jaime silently subjected herself to the boring and occasionally demeaning medical tests not limited to an MRI, stress and lung capacity tests. By the end of it she had spent nearly six hours in testing. With a groan Jaime checked her watch, she had to get home soon or Becca was going to start freaking out.

After she had finished getting dressed again she walked over to Dr. Lam. “Um, I don’t want to rush this but I need to get home and check on my little sister. I left her alone in our new house like seven hours ago she’s probably freaking out.”

Dr. Lam looked up from her notes and flashed her a smile. “Sure. We’re done for today anyway and it’s nice to find someone who actually wants to spend time with their family.”

“Thanks,” Jaime turned to leave but then something occurred to her. “Oh yeah, is there a way I can get a car ride home.”

Dr. Lam looked up and seemed to consider it for a moment. “Let me make a call.”

Jaime nodded and muttered a quick thanks. Reaching up a hand she tucked a scrap of hair behind her ear. She was starting to feel the exhaustion from the traveling and packing weighing down on her. All she really wanted to do was go home and go to bed and sleep for eighteen hours. Somehow she didn’t see that in her future.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sommers, Jaime,” Dr. Lam called Jaime’s name snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Yes?” Jaime looked at her crossing her arms over her chest.

“General Landry wants to meet you in the conference room,” Dr. Lam looked apologetic but Jaime just nodded. “Do you need me to walk you down there?”

Jaime shook her head, “No I think I can find my way there. Thanks though.” With a last handshake Jaime walked out of the infirmary.

Sighing Jaime followed the blank walls until she made her way back to the conference room. Knocking lightly on the doorjamb she opened the door to the conference room and stepped inside. Five heads snapped around to stare at her. She recognized Landry, Mitchell and Jackson but the guy with the gold symbol on his forehead and the blond woman were new.

“Ah Miss Sommers, I’m sorry we stopped you from going home but I wanted to introduce you to the rest of the team and go over your unique situation.” Landry who had risen when she came into the room sat back down. “Please have a seat,” He waved a hand at a seat next to the blond woman.

Jaime pulled out the chair and sat down slowly. Landry cleared his throat and flipped open the file in front of him, “Right, Colonel Carter, Teal’c please meet Jaime Sommers.” Landry gestured at Carter and Teal’c respectively. “You already know Dr. Jackson and Colonel Mitchell.”

“Sir, if I may interrupt and I mean no disrespect but why is she coming on our team? You didn’t really give us a clear answer before.” Mitchell pointed at Jaime his good ole boy drawl coming through more heavily than normal.

“Well I was going to get to that Colonel, if you had just given me a moment,” Landry looked over at Mitchell an annoyed look on his face. “So as I was going to say, Berkut has loaned us Miss Sommers as part of a technology development program. Berkut is one of our largest developers of alien technologies into civilian ready products however they’ve hit a bit of a snag with their bionics program and as a result Miss Sommers is going to be spending some time with us. Now we’ve been given access to Miss Sommers as a resource as well and I felt she would be most helpful to SG-1.”

“That makes no sense General, are you telling me she’s some sort of robot? You’re sticking a civilian developed robot on our team?” Jackson looked incredulous waving a hand at Jaime.

“Hey I’m not a robot you jerk, I’m bionically enhanced.” Jaime glared across the table at Jackson.

“Actual Daniel it makes perfect sense,” Carter interrupted Jackson before he had a chance to get started again. “I actually signed off on the project. Berkut’s unique approach to bionics has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Granted it has some problems but we’ll be working on fixing those problems and until then Miss Sommers unique abilities will be an asset to the team.” Carter gave Jaime a warm and welcoming smile.

“What unique abilities are we talking about here?” Mitchell looked between Jaime and Carter.

“Enhanced strength, speed, stamina, an eye capable of seeing up to 2000 feet away and an ear capable of hearing up to two miles away. A super soldier,” Carter looked over at Jaime instantly feeling a bit guilty about talking about the girl like she wasn’t there.

“50 million dollars worth of hardware and it starts breaking down after just six months,” Jaime forced a nervous smile onto her face. This whole thing was feeling more and more uncomfortable.

“Right,” Jackson drawled out the word very slowly.

The only one who wasn’t saying anything was Teal’c who was just regarding Jaime carefully. Jaime looked down at the table really wanting out of this room. Out of this conversation and to go back to her half empty house and eat bad Chinese take out.

“That’s kind of cool,” Mitchell smirked slightly and looked over at Jaime. He seemed to be reconsidering her. “So they developed it using the replicator technology?”

Carter nodded, “Yes and to make it function with humans and not have the bionic parts take over her body they created anthracites which act as a sort of anti rejection drug to the bionic parts. The bionics and the body no longer compete with each other and instead work together.”

“Then why is she here apparently getting repairs?” Jackson gave Jaime a careful look not really sure he was buying the whole thing.

Jaime flashed Jackson a dirty look hating the whole repairs crack. She really hated it when people treated her like she was a thing and not a person just because she had a few after market parts for lack of a better term. “Just because someone designs something to work a certain way doesn’t mean it actually works,” Jaime said the words in her most serious voice not really wanting to go into the whole dead in less than five years thing.

There was a pause in conversation as Jaime and Jackson stared at each other for what felt like hours. A cough form Landry broke the tension. “Alright you two that’s enough. I think we’re all a bit tired and its time for everyone to head home. Now Miss Sommers before I can clear you for off world missions the science team wants to run some tests and you need to pass your various proficiency exams.”

Jaime nodded and went to stand up but Landry just waved a hand at her. “Now I hope that you can be comfortable here and that this partnership between Berkut and the SGC is a successful one. That’s all, you can go now,” Landry gave a small smile and a nod of the head before rising and heading back to his office.

The End of Chapter 1.
Please review, reviews are always appreciated and constructive criticism is always carefully considered.

madscietist @ 2007-09-04T22:06:00

2007-09-05T02:05:28Z

Title: Little Girl Lost
Author: madscietist
Rating: PG? For now at least
Chapter: 01/??
Summary: How do save the world when there was never a cheerleader?
Author's Notes: An AU Heroes story. This is a Peter/Claire, Issac/Claire story where Claire is raised as the adopted daughter of Angela Petrelli. She grows up alongside Peter and Nathan but how do you save the world without the cheerleader? In this Claire is 17 and not Nathan’s daughter.

“Claire!” Hands were gripping her arms and shaking her. Claire just groaned and tried to roll away from the hands but they would stop shaking her. Reaching out she tried to bat them away but the hands just grabbed hers and the voice wouldn’t stop.

“Claire wake up,” The voice was growing more excited and desperate. Claire wanted to kill who ever the voice belonged to. It was the most annoying voice on the planet.

“Claire!” The voice shouted in her ear again and finally Claire couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“What?” Claire shot awake and screamed at who ever was shaking her. It was just barely seven a.m. and the sun was just starting to peak in through her window. Glaring through bleary eyes Claire tried to make out the shape of who was shaking her. She could see dark hair hanging into dark eyes. Groaning Claire pulled away and flopped back on the bed. Covering her hands with her face she made a disgusted nose.

“Go away Peter.” Claire rolled over and tried to pull a pillow over her head. Peter grabbed the pillow and yanked it away.

“Claire this is important I really have to talk to you,” Claire made a disgusted scoffing noise and tried to hide under the other pillow on her bed. Peter just pulled that one away and threw it away.

“Peter seriously? I’m trying to sleep here,” Claire sat up in bed her hands barely holding her up. Her hair spilled over her shoulder in messy golden waves partially obscuring the pale blue silk pajamas she was sleeping in.

Peter shook his head and grabbed Claire’s arm. “Claire this is more important than sleep. This is, this is, this is the most amazing thing ever.”

Claire rolled her eyes, “What did Simone tell you she loved you?”

Peter made an exasperated noise and shook Claire again. “Claire I’m not joking here this is important.”

A little worried Claire nodded and tried to pry her arms free of his hands. “Ok Peter, but you’re freaking me out. You come into my bed at seven a.m and wake me up so you can tell me about some amazing event.”

Peter nodded and looked completely serious, “I can fly.”

Claire stared at Peter for a moment, her mouth slowly working. Then all of a sudden she opened her mouth and shouted, “MA!” Peter clamped his hands over her mouth.

“What are you doing Claire?” Claire glared at him over where his hands covered half her face. She bit down on his hand and he hissed and pulled it away. Not really noticing when it healed immediately.

“I’m calling for Mother because you’ve obviously lost your mind and need to see a doctor. Or at least take a Valium.”

“I’m not crazy Claire I can really fly and I’ve been having these dreams,” He looked at her hopefully his eyes wide with that unsure smile on his face. Claire just stared at him looking worried and scared all at the same time.

“Peter, are you ok?”

Peter sighed and shook his head, “I’m fine Claire, I’m better than fine, I can fly Claire.” He looked so serious and so excited. His grin got wider and he nodded his head trying to convince her. This was Claire after all, his baby sister, the sweetest girl in the world, the girl who always believed him and was always his stalwart defender. He knew he had to tell her first and now he wasn’t so sure if she believed him.

“Peter, I’m really worried about you. You came bursting in here and you woke me up to tell me you can fly. Peter, people can’t fly this isn’t some comic book.” Peter shook his head pressing his lips together. He got up slowly off the bed still shaking his head.

“I thought you would at least take me seriously, you of all people.” Peter stared down at her carpet and started to pace.

“I want to take you seriously but you’re acting a little crazy. I mean this isn’t normal behavior even for you. I know you’ve always wanted to feel special Peter but you don’t need to feel special when you already are special. I think you’re just manifesting that one these dreams of you,” Peter rolled his eyes and threw his head back.

“Claire don’t try to analyze me using stuff you picked up off Law and Order and I’m not special, I’m a hospice nurse.” Claire played with her bed spread sadly.

“You are special Peter, the way you care for people is special.” Peter just shook his head and kept pacing. “I wish you would stop doing these things to yourself though, I mean, you don’t have to be like Nathan or better than Nathan or whatever you think makes you better than Nathan to be special Peter. You’re a good person Peter, a genuinely good person and that is special.”

Peter bit his lip and shook his head again. “That’s not it Claire, I can fly, I know I can fly and I’m going to prove it to you. Look, I’m going to go talk to Nathan today. Maybe he’ll believe me.” He stomped off, throwing open her door.

“Peter stop,” Claire called out to him but he was already gone. Sighing Claire collapsed back in bed. She couldn’t believe he was doing this; Nathan was going to be even less understanding than she was. Sighing she leaned her head back against her pillow less mattress. Peter just believed things so whole-heartedly sometimes and for no reason. Rubbing her hands over her eyes Claire turned her head and looked at her clock. There was no point in going back to sleep she would have to get up and get ready for school soon anyways.

Pushing herself out of bed she went to get ready for the day. When she was finally dressed with her styled into luxurious blond curls wearing her school uniform she went down to the kitchen. She found Nathan sitting alone at the counter drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. Walking up to him she cleared her throat and waited for him to look at her. Nathan slowly lowered his paper and gave her that look. The look that meant he hadn’t wanted to be disturbed. He held the paper up signaling that he was prepared to go back to reading it at any second.

Speaking quickly Claire scooted closer to Nathan, “Has Peter been to talk to you yet?”

Nathan shook his head and laid down the paper. Mentioning Peter always got Nathan’s attention, “No, what has he done now?”

Claire shook her head, “Its not that he’s done anything, it’s more what he’s saying.”

“Claire I don’t have time for guessing games or yours and Peters childish pranks, what do you want?”

Sighing dramatically Claire moved closer obviously not wanting anyone to overhear should they walk in. “I’m worried about him Nathan. He came barging into my room this morning to wake me up and tell me he could fly.”

“Fly?” Nathan looked worried for a moment but it was quickly covered up.

“Yeah fly. He’s been like this ever since,” she paused not wanting to say the word accident. It was a delicate subject in the house. “I’m worried that he’s loosing it a bit.” Not that Claire was going to bring up her own strange occurrences. She hadn’t told anyone and she certainly wasn’t going to tell Peter when he was ranting about being able to fly.

Nathan just nodded slowly and watched Claire carefully, “And what would you like me to do about this?”
“He’s going to come to talk to you about it and I just, I want you not to do that thing you do. I’m worried about him, he’s really delicate right now and if you push him he could do something monumentally stupid.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow, “What thing?”

Claire poked him in the arm an angry pout on her face. “That thing, the thing you did just now, that older brother condescending thing. You need to not take him seriously but you can’t be mean to him either.”

“Claire, you’re overreacting this is just another one of Peter’s little flights of fancy,” He paused a little smirk on his lips but it quickly died when he saw Claire wasn’t going to laugh at his quip. Sighing he picked up the paper and tucked it under his arm, “I’ll talk to him alright. I’ll calm him down and maybe he’ll just forget about this and move on.” Claire nodded slowly.

“Ok, but Nathan,” Claire paused when she saw Heidi rolling into the room. Claire put on her best sunny smile when she saw Heidi. Heidi returned but looked a little worried when Nathan just stopped to give her a kiss and hurried out of the room. Heidi looked over at Claire expecting an answer. Nervously glancing down Claire took a moment to try and think of something to say. She couldn’t lie to Heidi, Heidi always knew but she didn’t really want to tell Heidi what was going on.

“What is it Claire,” Heidi rolled over and stared up at the girl who she had come to think of as her little sister.

“Peter,” Claire was playing with the cuff on her uniform sweater.

“What about Peter?” Heidi reached out and took Claire’s hand holding it in a comforting grip.

“I’m just worried about him, that’s all, he hasn’t been ok since,” Claire looked meaningfully down at the chair and Heidi just nodded. “I think he was really worried about loosing Nathan and I want Nathan to talk to him. But you know Nathan, whenever he tries to talk to Peter he just acts like Nathan.” Claire didn’t need to say anymore, Heidi nodded in understanding.

“I know, Nathan will be Nathan. Those boys will straighten it out in the end though, you’ll see.” Heidi patted Claire’s hand and gave her a reassuring smile. “Now have you had breakfast, because I haven’t had any and I could really go for a muffin.” Claire nodded and started to put together a breakfast plate for herself and one for Heidi.

At first after the accident it had seemed really hard to have to help Heidi out all the time. It wasn’t that anyone minded it was just such a big change to the routine. Now though it had almost become second nature. Claire could remember the night of the accident very clearly she had woken to hearing her mother scream, a scream that nearly brought the mansion down. She had rolled out of bed in shock and fright and hit her head. Stumbling to the bathroom Claire had checked her face in the mirror but there wasn’t even a bruise. Rubbing the area it didn’t even feel sensitive. Shrugging Claire thought that the bruise would appear in a few days but it never did.

A day later in the shower when she had been shaving her legs she had nicked herself but it had just dried up. She wrote it off as not being a real nick. It wasn’t until she had fallen down the stairs that she really noticed something was wrong with her. She had gotten up late one night to go get a glass of water and taken a header down the staircase. Landing at the bottom she had clutched her wrist to her chest it pain. It felt broken but as Claire pressed on the bone it just snapped back into place. By the time everyone had come running down the stairs to check on her it didn’t even hurt.

She played it off saying she had stumbled but she was fine. She claimed her wrist was still sensitive and Mother had taken her to the doctor that morning. The doctor had checked her out and declared her a very lucky girl saying she didn’t even have a sprain. Her mother had chided her for being clumsy and then taken her out to lunch. That was how her mother dealt with everything a lecture and then some present. Some days she just wanted a hug but that’s what she had Peter for. Peter was the one who had always hugged her and kissed her boo boos when she was little. Nathan would just pick her back up and tell her to get right back on the horse, so to speak.

She had loved it when Nathan married Heidi. Heidi was the mother slash big sister Claire had always wanted. She would take Claire shopping just to shop, she taught her how to apply make up and was there for her when her first boyfriend broke her heart. When Brody had dumped her because she wouldn’t put out she wanted to go to Peter but she knew exactly what would happen then. Peter would tell Nathan and like the good big brothers they were they would go beat him up. Already mortified enough she had been able to confide in Heidi who just held her and told her she was too good for Brody.

When Claire thought Heidi would die it was like someone had ripped out a piece of her heart. She couldn’t loose her only fellow girl in the household. Mother didn’t really count, she was old enough to be Claire’s grandmother and always seemed to be trying to break Claire of habits Claire didn’t even have. Sighing Claire sat the muffin plate in front of Heidi and started to pick at her own. Heidi thinking Claire was still obsessing over Peter reached out a comforting hand and rubbed her arm.

Claire smiled at Heidi but her smile vanished as soon as she saw her mother stride into the room. Angela Petrelli was probably the scariest person Claire had ever met, sure Nathan could be intimidating but Claire also remembered when he used to grab her up and spin her around making air plane noises. She had also seen him do the same thing with his boys so it just ruined the scary face he liked to make sometimes. Angela though barely broke a smile around Claire. Angela always liked to remind Claire that she had rescued her and given her a life that most children just dreamed of. Claire always thanked her mother then but she couldn’t help but feel like it was a slap in the face.

“Claire dear why are you still here? You’ll be late to school.” Claire nodded and tossed out her muffin.

“Yes mother, I’m sorry I was dawdling.” Angela gave Claire that fake smile of her and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Have a good day at school dear.” Claire just nodded and turned to Heidi bending down to give her a kiss.

“Have a good day at school sweetie, don’t forget Simon and Monty have that pageant tonight and you know they want Aunt Claire front and center.” Claire smiled at the mention of her nephews. They weren’t that much younger than her and had always felt more like little brothers to her.

“Tell them I’ll be there ready to cheer them on.” Claire smiled one last time and waved good-bye to her mother and Heidi. She walked out the front door and got in the car waiting for her. She could probably walk to school but Angela always insisted Claire take the car since she was convinced Claire would be snatched off the street. When the car dropped Claire off at school she walked up the front steps and went inside, she hid for a bit and waited for the care to drive off.

When she was sure the car was gone Claire sneaked right back out and ran down the block. Waiting around the corner was her best friend Zach. He grinned at her and held up his hand for a high five. Rolling her eyes she returned the gesture.

“Way to evade the man Petrelli,” Claire shook her head.

“He’s not that hard to get away from he probably had to get home to take Ma somewhere.”

Zach nodded and tucked his hands into his pockets, “So are you ready to see this artist?” Zach started walking and Claire followed. They were headed towards the subway to take it just a few stops over to a local art gallery featuring the work of Issac Mendez, Zach’s favorite comic book artist.

“Sure, I mean you said he was amazing.” Zach nodded and bounced a little as he walked.

“He also repudiated to be incredibly handsome, you know that whole Don Juan Latin Lover thing.”

Claire just rolled her eyes and tried not to smile too much. Zach liked to pretend he was some guy expert but whenever another gay boy approached him he always chickened out. He said it was because he didn’t want his parents to find out and freak out but Claire thought it was just because he was shy. Wrapping her arm around one of Zach’s the two-walked arm in arm to the subway. The ride was short and Claire felt like taking a shower afterwards. The way guys kept staring at her made her insides feel dirty. Tugging down her skirt a bit more she followed Zach to the gallery.

He pushed opened the door and they walked in. Looking around Claire spotted the name of the owner on the wall. Something was so familiar about it. Zach had already raced ahead and was staring entranced at one of the paintings. Claire remained where she was contemplating the name not even noticing when two people entered one bumping into her. Gasping Claire turned and was instantly dazzled by a pair of soulful brown eyes. Claire stared into them and smiled softly before quickly blushing and looking away. The guy smiled at her and tried to turn his head to get a better look at her.

“Issac!” An authoritative voice pulled Claire out of her pink bubble. Turning her head Claire’s bubbled popped and spilled toxic goo all over Claire’s good mood. Standing not three feet from her was Satan’s handmaiden, Simone, the object of Peter’s undying affections and generally the bane of Claire’s existence. While Claire and Simone had never met in person she had been shown enough pictures by Peter and been told enough things by Peter to know exactly who this was. That’s when it clicked; why the gallery owner’s name sounded so familiar this was Simone’s gallery.

All those thoughts were broken off though when one panicked one broke its away to the front like a runaway locomotive. Oh god don’t let her have seen pictures of me and know I’m skipping school. Apparently she hadn’t or was too preoccupied because Simone just stomped over and grabbed Issac’s hand and started dragging him away. The gorgeous man stumbled after Simone but kept smiling at Claire. Blushing Claire looked away but not before she gave him one last look. Simone was speaking harshly to Issac and she only caught clips.

“Come on Issac we really need to talk, stop staring at the jail bait, you’re going to get arrested just from the way you’re looking at her.” Simone’s voice got harsher and eventually the pair disappeared into some back room office out of Claire’s sight. Claire resisted the urge to lean after them to see if she could catch a last glimpse.

Suddenly Zach was at her side staring down at her, “Claire you just had eye sex with Issac Mendez.”

Claire looked up at Zach confused, “What?”

Zach shook his head and patted her on the shoulder, “Claire you had eye sex with the sexiest comic book artist in the world. It’s ok; if I had the opportunity to have eye sex with him I would take it. You’re one lucky girl,” Zach sighed meaningfully and turned back to look at the paintings. Claire giggled and followed him over to look at the artwork.

Her mind kept wandering back to those sexy eyes those and how much they reminded her of another pair of brown eyes. She pushed those thoughts back to the deep recesses of her mind. You didn’t have fantasies about your older brother. Even if you weren’t technically related because he had seen you run around naked when you were two. That probably killed any desire on his part to see you run around naked now. Sighing Claire leaned against Zach and contemplated the painting in front of her. It was rather grim showing a woman about to be run down a bus.

She didn’t notice how much time passed just kept moving around the gallery with Zach. She didn’t even notice what was going on until a soft cough broke her thoughts. Turning around Claire blushed when she saw it was Issac. Sucking her lips into her mouth she tried not to look too embarrassed. He held out his hand, it had paint stains on it and rough fingernails. Nervously Claire reached out to take it and shook it slowly.

His voice was like honey, “I’m Issac Mendez, I saw you admiring the work. Anyone in particular strike your fancy?”

Nervously Claire shook her head and tried to find her voice. “I’m Claire, and I,” she looked helplessly at Zach who just gave her a thumbs up.

Issac smiled at her and pulled his hand away. That’s when Claire noticed she had been clutching it. Nervously she stuck her hand behind her back. “Well you know if you ever want a painting you could just come by my studio,” he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a card. It was wrinkled and looked like it had been there for a while.

Claire stammered and took the card, “I don’t think, I mean I couldn’t really afford.” Issac just waved a hand.

“On the house if you agree to model for me,” Claire blushed and looked down at the card.

When she finally found her voice she cleared her throat, “It doesn’t have to be nude modeling does it?”

Issac laughed then and shook his head; he was starting to look a little shaky though and kept rubbing his arms. “No, I just want to do a portrait of you. You have the most gorgeous eyes.”

Claire knew she had to be beat red by now and just nodded, “Ok.”

Issac smiled and gave her a small wave, “Alright, call me when you have a chance.”

Claire just nodded and watched him walk out of the gallery. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Simone glaring at her. Internally she did a little victory dance. Simone the she-devil’s boyfriend thought she had gorgeous eyes. Zach came over and give her a wide grin nudging her with his shoulder. Claire giggled and looked down at the card. Turning it slowly in her hand she noted the time, “Shoot.”

“What?” Zach looked confused.
“We have to get back, I have to be there at school for when the driver comes to pick me up to take me to the play.” Zach nodded and they rushed out of the gallery. Issac’s card was momentarily forgotten and Claire just stuffed it carelessly into the front pocket of her bag.

Claire and Zach ran to the subway and then from the subway back to school. They slid into the building with ten minutes to spare. Fanning themselves they went to freshen up. Claire didn’t want to look like she had run a marathon when the driver showed up. She adjusted her uniform and checked her hair. She had to hold back the urge to gag when she saw Jackie and her little minions strut into the bathroom. Jackie and Claire had been friends at one point but ever since Claire had started to notice things being different about her she didn’t want to hang around with Jackie anymore.

It was another thing her mother always chastised her about. Jackie was exactly the sort of girl her mother wanted her to be friends with. Sighing Claire did a quick make-up check and hurried out of the bathroom. Zach was waiting for her and he walked her out. Her driver was waiting and he looked none the wiser. Giving Zach a secret smile she walked over to the car and climbed in. The driver her took her back to the mansion first picking up her mother, Heidi was already at school with the boys. They stopped again at the campaign office for Nathan before continuing on to the school.

When Claire tried to ask Nathan about Peter, Nathan just said Peter hadn’t come to see him yet. Her mother didn’t even bat an eyelash just fixed her make up. Obviously not caring what her middle child was up to at the moment. Though Claire was the youngest Angela had always babied Peter the most so it was surprising when she seemed to show no interest. They pulled up to the boy’s school and got out. They found Peter already waiting with Heidi wearing a long coat over his scrubs. Claire sat next to Peter but Peter seemed intent on ignoring her. Sighing Claire looked down at her lap.

The play started up moments later. It was a typical kids play, hardly Shakespeare, but Claire clapped and called out at the appropriate moments. Peter, Claire and Heidi were the most enthusiastic while Nathan and Angela clapped in what could be considered a dignified manner. After the play Nathan disappeared to shake hands with fellow movers and shakers who had children in the school. The boys rushed their mother, then Peter and finally Claire. She gave them both big kisses even though they ewwed and called it gross. Simon came back for a second hug though and gave Claire a quick kiss on the cheek before going to stand with his mother.

They exited as a family but traveled back to the mansion in two separate cars. Claire rode with Heidi and the boys while Peter and Nathan rode with their mother. The boys talked endlessly about preparation for the play and about all he little boy back stage gossip. Apparently Jimmy Mitchum had only gotten the lead because he had cried when the teacher had given him a different part and his dad had donated a bunch of money. Claire and Heidi listened attentively providing the appropriate responses. By the time they got back to the mansion the boys were still pretty wound up. They raced into the house shouting with Claire following behind helping Heidi.
Heidi was first in the door but Claire paused hearing something. Looking up she gasped as she saw a piece of metal fall from the roof. It went straight through her hand. Tilting her head up she saw Nathan and Peter staring at her from the roof.

End Chapter 1.

madscietist @ 2007-09-01T19:25:00

2007-09-01T23:23:26Z

Title: These Past Years
Author: madscietist
Rating: R, Pairecest, nothing explicit yet just a lot of dirty thoughts.
Chapter: 04/??
Summary: Set during the Five Year future timeline. They saved the cheerleader but what if they still had a chance to save the world?
Author's Notes: Some minor changes have been made, Issac's alive and Claire escaped before Matt got her and is now working as a stripper in Vegas. Last chapter was what I call a ‘bridge’ chapter. I needed to establish one or two things, obviously Nathan isn’t Sylar but the question is where is Sylar?

Last time on Heroes…
Her form began to shift and the world around her seemed to vibrate as she transformed into a high school cheerleader with blond hair. A tongue came out and licked the lips, a decidedly unfeminine voice said, “Claire” and the figure in the mirror smirked.

Chapter 4

Claire lay stretched out in her bed with Peter’s arms wrapped around her. Their foreheads were pressed together and they were just staring at each other. Peter’s hand just kept stroking over her hair not saying a word. Claire knew there were things that they had to talk about but she couldn’t bring herself to spoil the moment.

Peter rubbed his nose against hers and pressed a soft kiss to the tip. Sitting up Peter rubbed his hands over his thighs. He started shaking his head and patted Claire on the knee. “Claire, I can hear your thoughts.”

Rolling her eyes Claire rubbed a hand over her forehead. “I know you can, I just thought.”

Peter nodded, “I know. We should talk though.”

Nodding in agreement Claire rubbed a hand over her bare stomach. Peter reached down and took Claire’s hand in his. “What do you want to talk about?”

Looking down at Claire, Peter shook his head. “Claire you know what we need to talk about. We did things before the world fell apart and we need to talk about them.”

Curling up in a ball Claire pressed her head against the curve of Peter’s back. Looking up at him she sighed, “Do we have to talk about them now?” Her face took on a petulant pouty expression.

Laughing Peter reached down and stroked a hand over her cheek. “Yes, we have to talk about them now. There’s not going to be a better time than now.”

Claire sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. “I don’t want to do this Peter.” Peter rubbed a thumb over her cheek and sighed. Sitting here with Claire he almost felt like his old self again, that happy kid who was more of a puppy than a person and just wanted to save the world.

“Claire, you’ve done things you haven’t wanted to do before and this won’t be so painful it’s just a conversation.”

“But if we talk about it, it will all become real.” Peter reached down and pulled Claire tightly against his chest. He rubbed his hands over her back.

“I know babe, but we have to. We owe it to ourselves to be honest.” Claire looked up at him with that familiar expression, the one of total trust. She believed in him even now.

“I don’t know where to start,” it was hard to just simply recount five years of your life. Did you start from the moment they parted or did you just say what had happened in the past few months? Or did she start at the moment they did something monumentally stupid?

“I’ll start. Claire, when they took you from me and hid you away I didn’t know what to think. I mean, I thought that they knew,” Peter looked down at their laps and shook his head. “Turns out I was wrong they didn’t know anything they just wanted to get you away. I was so scared for you and Nathan wouldn’t tell me where you were. He just kept telling me that they were keeping you safe and that was all that mattered. I wanted to believe that I really did.”

Peter shook his head and ran his fingers through Claire’s hair. “I let myself get lost in this world. I wanted to forget so that I wouldn’t come looking for you. So I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“You’d never hurt me Peter,” Peter shook his head running his fingers through her hair.

“Once Nathan started to go bad I knew that if they found you that you would be in danger. I couldn’t bear to think of you in danger.”

Claire shook her head and looked down at her hands now resting in her lap. “I was always in danger Peter but the trouble was I was always alone. At the first sign of trouble my Dad would move me. He just kept moving me and moving me and making me change. I mean one day I was Hilary lowly secretary in a San Francisco office complex and the next I would be Sandra the brunette waitress in the diner.”

Peter nodded and then gave her a little half smile, “Then Becky, stripper in a Las Vegas club.”

Claire nodded, “Yeah then Becky. Parkman he came to my house the other night, I thought he had me that time.” Peter nodded and stroked a hand over Claire’s hair.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, you’re safe here and I’m going to take care you.”

Claire smiled softly and leaned up pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Peter smiled and ran his fingers through her hair, twirling his pointer finger around her hair. “For better or for worse, remember?” Peter pressed a kiss to her nose.

Claire laughed and tilted her head to the side. “Yeah, for better or for worse. I don’t think I’ve been too good about the love, honor and cherish part though.”

Peter just shook his head and pulled Claire’s head against his shoulder. “Its ok, I haven’t really done my best on that part either.”

“So we’re even,” Claire looked at him with a sad look in her eyes.

“Yeah, we’re even.” Peter kissed her softly and pulled her back against his chest. With their arms wrapped around each other they stayed there on the bed.

Downstairs Issac stared at the canvas in front of him. It baffled him to no end. He could remember doing a painting of Nathan in the White House years ago but it was nothing like this. Instead of just Nathan standing in the oval office behind him was Heidi but in the place where her reflection should be on the glass of one of the photos on the wall was Sylar’s face. Sylar’s face mimicking Heidi’s dark smirk.

Stepping away from the painting Issac threw down his paintbrush. None of this made any sense. Why would Heidi be mirroring Sylar? Sighing he stomped out of the room he used as a studio. The place was an old warehouse they had converted into sort of a home base. The upstairs that had been offices was now bedrooms and the downstairs had been portioned off into various rooms. A make shift kitchen and meeting room, a studio for Issac and a sort of rough bathroom. Showers that were not much more than jugs of water with holes poked in them.

Walking into the kitchen Issac began to slowly wash the paint off his arms. Using the rough soap he began to scrub the various colors off his skin. The multi colored soap washed down the drain in a rush of soapy bubbles. Hiro was sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea and quietly contemplated the painter. He spoke suddenly not wanting to frighten Issac just alert him to his presence.

“Peter brought home that stripper from the club,” Issac spun around splashing water.

“The brunette?”

Hiro nodded and took another sip from his tea. “I thought he only brought home blonds?” Issac picked up a towel and wiped down his arms.

“I guess not, apparently he’s moved on to brunettes,” Hiro just shrugged and set his teacup down. “You paint anything?”

Issac nodded, “Yeah I think its something we need to talk to Peter about though.” Hiro nodded in agreement, he had long ago stopped doing anything without Peter.

“I’ll go get him,” Issac nodded at Hiro and watched the Japanese man head up the stairs towards Peter’s room. Hiro walked down the hallway towards Peter’s room. He knocked on the door but when he didn’t get a response he opened it slowly. There was no inside confused Hiro stepped back and turned around only to find Niki staring at him.

“He’s in her room, I can’t hear them talking anymore but they seemed to be getting pretty cozy in there.” Hiro nodded and walked down the hall to the room where he knew Niki had put the stripper in. He knocked lightly on the door and waited for an answer.

Hearing the knock Claire and Peter broke apart instantly. A voice spoke through the door, “Peter we need to talk to you.” Looking at each other Peter broke away from Claire and got up off the bed.

End Chapter 4. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far.

madscietist @ 2007-08-28T17:23:00

2007-08-28T21:23:31Z

Title: These Past Years
Author: madscietist
Rating: R, Pairecest, nothing explicit yet just a lot of dirty thoughts.
Chapter: 03/??
Summary: Set during the Five Year future timeline. They saved the cheerleader but what if they still had a chance to save the world?
Author's Notes: Some minor changes have been made, Issac's alive and Claire escaped before Matt got her and is now working as a stripper in Vegas. Some more character introduction in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Not mine, if it wast he guys would be getting more under aged ass.
Notes: Some minor changes have been made, Issac's alive and Claire escaped before Matt got her and is now working as a stripper in Vegas. This is chapter 3 out of I don’t know how many.

Last time on Heroes…
The door slamming open was an instant cold shower for both of them. Standing in the doorway glowering down at them was Niki. She was practically spitting. “What the hell Peter? One stripper isn’t enough for you? You bring some tramp home to fuck her in what’s supposed to be our safe house?”

Chapter 3

Peter coughed and moved to try and cover Claire up. Claire ducked her head in shame her face turning bright red. Grabbing his own shirt he pushed it in front of Claire and tried to help cover her up. Gulping nervously Claire pulled her shirt more tightly against her chest. Standing up slowly Peter held out a hand.

“Calm down Niki, its not what you think?”

Niki crossed her arms and glared at Peter. “Alright, explain,” she snapped at him practically hissing out the word explain.

Claire slowly pulled the shirt on not sure what Peter was going to do. All she knew was that she didn’t want to be half naked in front of this Niki girl. Tugging the shirt down as far as she could, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

Peter looked at Claire a little confused and worried. An expression he hadn’t worn in years but one that was heartbreakingly familiar to her. Taking a deep breath Peter turned back to Niki, “Niki this is,” he searched for a name looking at Claire for help.

“Becky,” Claire automatically piped up.

Peter nodded, “Yeah this is Becky. She’s like us Niki and she needs our help. Her boss he was going to hurt her and I brought her here to keep her safe.” Coughing Peter tried not to look nervous. He didn’t want Niki to know he was lying.

Niki nodded slowly not completely buying Peter’s story but not finding an obvious hole in it. “Fine, what are we supposed to do with her?”

Peter looked over at Claire helplessly, “We need to find a place for her to stay and something to maybe keep her busy, ok.” He looked back at Niki and waved a hand to make Claire come forward.

Claire stretched her hand out tentatively and took Peter’s letting him push her towards Niki. “So why don’t you find a place for her Niki,” Peter gave Claire a light shove towards Niki.

Claire looked back over her shoulder at Peter but kept walking towards Niki. Scoffing Niki lead Claire out of the room. Walking down the hall she followed Niki towards a room at the end of the hall. Stopping there Niki pushed open the door.

“Here Becky,” she spat out the name, “this is your room.” Claire smiled at Niki and stepped into the room.

“Thank you,” she said softly and looked down at the floor. Niki rolled her eyes and stomped off down the hallway. Closing the door behind Niki, Claire sighed and flopped down on the bed.

Peter appeared in her room and walked over to her. Sitting down next to her he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. Claire spun around and wrapped her arms tightly around his body. Peter rubbed his hand slowly up and down her back. He laid his cheek against the top of her head and rubbed it against her hair.

“Oh Claire, I didn’t know you were still alive. I’m sorry about earlier, I let myself get a little out of control. I just, I hadn’t seen you in so long and I had to kiss.” He rubbed a hand over the back of her neck his cheek resting more snuggly against the top of her head.

Smiling against the side of Peter’s neck Claire just nodded her head. It felt like a miracle, to be like this finally, after years of being apart. Pulling away slowly Claire looked up at Peter, “Peter we.” He stopped her placing a finger on her lips.

“Shh, Claire we can talk about it later. It doesn’t matter right now. We’ll deal with all of it later.”

Claire gave him a soft watery smile and let him pull her back against him. Wrapping her arms around him she leaned her head against his arm hiding her worried expression from his eyes and clearing her mind. She didn’t want to burden him just yet with everything that was going through her head.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Matt Parkman was like a pit bull, as soon as he got a hold of something he didn’t let go until it submitted. Right now his query was Claire Bennet but she wasn’t easy to get a hold of. He had found her in Texas after a run in with Daddy Bennet but she had slipped away during the night. Jumping out a ten-story window, hitting the ground and still running. He suspected she had reset some of her limbs on the run. By the time they had gotten down she was gone or hiding far enough away that they couldn’t find her.

It had taken a little creative computing from the technopath they had on staff but they had tracked where Bennet had sent her. Las Vegas, and if her current appearance was anything to go by they would find her here at this hotel strip club. The Blushing Kitty was a respectable enough looking place inside but the idea of women flashing themselves for money had never sat well with Matt. Sure he had jerked off to Playboy as a kid but as he got older, he began to think of it as degrading.

He found the assistant manager in his office chain smoking and drinking himself into a stupor. Not even wanting to bother with having to talk to the guy he sat down across from him and just stared at him. Thoughts began to come to him, stupid fucking Becky; I don’t want to be manager; Grover dead. It didn’t make much sense and Matt decided not to waste his time. The Haitian signaled him from the other room and lead him back to the dressing room.

Still on the floor were two pools of blood. The Haitian looked at him and then leaned down speaking softly.

“One of the girls said that the boss was killed as well as a bouncer. Earlier today a girl got choked by a man who was kicked out and when one of the girls came back to see how she was doing she found the boss and the bouncer dead. Someone killed them both and the girl who got choked is gone.” Matt nodded slowly and looked around the room.

“I want this place dusted for fingerprints and hair samples. I want to know who was in this room.” The Haitian nodded and took out his cell phone. Matt rubbed a hand over his chin and began to look around the room. Something just was not right about this set-up. It was all a bit too coincidental. He arrives where Claire is supposed to be but the new girl has vanished and the boss is dead. He didn’t think the little cheerleader had it in her but five years on the run could have changed her. It had changed him.

Shaking his head he walked out of the dressing room. He was going to have to make a tough call now. He hated having to call the president. Taking out his phone he dialed the private number at the white house. The phone rang a few times before picking up. A cool professional sounding female voice comes over the line, “Hello Nathan Petrelli’s phone, Heidi speaking.”

Matt pressed his lips together and tried to sound happy to be speaking to the first lady. Personally he didn’t like her, something was just off about her. “Hello Mrs. Petrelli, this is Matt Parkman, I was calling to speak to your husband, its rather important.”

The voice took on a decidedly too sweet tone, “Of course Mr. Parkman I’ll go get Nathan.” There was the sound of someone calling for Nathan. Within a few moments Nathan came and took the phone from Heidi.

“Hello Parkman, what do you have to tell me?”

“Well sir I tracked her to Vegas but she seems to have escaped. I don’t think she’s gone far and I think she may have another accomplice. I’m running prints and DNA now and I think once I have this other accomplice I’ll be able to find her.”

Nathan smiled and turned to give Heidi a wide smile but Heidi remained impassive. “That’s great news Parkman, bring my girl home.”

“Yes sir,” Matt hung up the phone and sighed. He shivered a bit, something just wasn’t right about Heidi Petrelli.

Nathan smiled and closed the phone turning to his wife, “Good news honey, Parkman thinks he’s getting close to finding Claire. Soon she’s going to be home with us and you’ll finally have that daughter you always wanted.” Heidi at her husband and took the phone from him playing the dutiful wife. As soon as she was gone she turned and looked in the mirror behind her.

Her form began to shift and the world around her seemed to vibrate as she transformed into a high school cheerleader with blond hair. A tongue came out and licked the lips, a decidedly unfeminine voice said, “Claire” and the figure in the mirror smirked.

End Chapter 3. Stay tuned for Chapter 4 when things really start to heat up.

madscietist @ 2007-08-27T18:50:00

2007-08-27T22:50:39Z

Title: Progeny
Author: madscietist
Rating: PG-13
Chapter: 01/??
Author's Notes/Summary: A future fic, takes place about 6 years in the future. This is set in the future but not in the 5 years future, just a future vaguely like it. Claire and Sylar had a baby and the Petrellis and Bennets hid Claire and her baby from Sylar. Sylar’s been out looking for them though and he’s closing in. Nathan is really President, Issac is still alive and living with Hiro in the New York loft, Peter is hiding out with Niki in Vegas, DL took Micah somewhere, Mohinder works for Nathan and Matt is a secret service agent. Claire is twenty-two, she was sixteen when Sylar first came after her.

Stockholm syndrome is a funny word. Claire could remember the first time she had heard it. Her father had said she had it because Sylar had held her so long. Her bio-dad had said it because Sylar had been playing mind games with her. Peter had said it was because Sylar was a sick fuck. Everyone had had his or her own version of Sylar twisting her mind to make her love him but she knew the truth. She knew that Sylar loved her and the baby they were going to have together. That Sylar looked at her and could hear the baby’s tiny heart beat inside of her.

Lying on the cheep mattress in the tiny apartment in Midland, Texas Claire rubbed a hand slowly over her stomach. She remembered how Sylar used to lay next to her with his head pressed against her stomach stroking a hand over it as he listened. She had never been more terrified than when she thought they would take his baby away from her. It had taken some very convincing lying and a lot of talking to an approved shrink before they agreed to let her little angel stay with her. Rolling onto her side she stared out of her bedroom and across the small hallway to her son’s room.

Her little Gabriel was over there now sleeping peacefully. She had never imagined a child could have such perfect dreams but he never seemed bother during the night. Closing her eyes she rolled back onto her back and stared at the ceiling. Sleep eluded her again. All she could think about was her darling killer and his dark eyes. Gabriel had those same eyes and the dark hair. Though Claire supposed those could be the Petrelli genes in him but it didn’t matter. To the Petrelli’s he looked like one of them, proof that Claire was really theirs but to Claire he looked like a miniature version of his father.

Sighing Claire got up from her bed. Sleep wasn’t coming tonight so she might as well do something productive. Walking over to her tiny closet she opened it and began to pull out birthday presents and wrapping paper. Gabriel’s birthday was days away and he would be turning four. He was getting so big so fast. It scared her to think sometimes that as he got older if he started to ask the wrong questions he might just suddenly disappear. The thought of her baby being gone terrified her. Taking out the paper that had teddy bears holding birthday balloons she began to wrap the few presents she had for him.

She knew that both of her families would probably find a way to send her things but she didn’t want them. She wanted Gabriel to be attached to as few worldly possessions as possible just in case his father ever came for them. Snapping the tape off the roll she stuck the pieces together. Picking up a bow she wrapped it around the box and tied it into a bow. Finishing up wrapping she stuck the boxes back in the closet. Frustrated she closed the doors of her closet and leaned back against the bed. Sighing she rubbed her hands over her face. Leaning her head back against the bed she found herself staring at the ceiling again.

Far away from the trashy little apartment in Midland, a man stood in front of a computer glaring down at the screen. It yielded nothing to him no matter how long he stared at it. There was nothing of use in it. You would think that Mohinder would keep something of use in this damn computer. With a shout he threw the computer across the room. Reaching up he rubbed a hand over his forehead. Where were they hiding her? There had to be a record of her somewhere, something to tell him where he could find her.

Looking around the room he spied a file cabinet in the corner. He hadn’t searched there yet. Pushing away from the table he walked towards the file cabinet. Pulling open the drawers he dug through them. There was one reading Sandra tucked all the way in the back. Reaching in he pulled it out and bean to flip through it. Paper clipped to the front of the file was a picture of a dark haired version of his Claire holding a little boy. Holding up the picture he rubbed his thumb over the face of the woman. She looked so much like his girl.

Licking his bottom lip as he remembered how amazing she used to taste. Turning the picture over he read the back multiple times. ‘Claire and Gabriel, Midland Texas, August 2011. The boy looked barely two years old. Gabriel, she had named their baby Gabriel. Smirking Sylar tucked the picture into his pocket and tossed the file folder into the cabinet. God bless Mohinder, he was always so helpful.

Grinning Sylar practically raced out of the apartment. Texas wasn’t that far. He could be there by the evening and have his Claire back before tomorrow and their Gabriel. That was his girl his clever, clever girl, naming their baby after him.

Claire was exhausted she had been on her feet all day and Gabriel was being fussy. Sighing she opened her front door and locked it behind her. Gabriel kicked Claire in the leg. Sighing Claire sat her son down on the floor and let him run to his room. Rubbing the burgeoning bruise on her thigh she walked into the kitchen and opened up a cabinet. Taking out a glass she set it on the counter. Andy had been bugging her all day about going out with him again and Gabriel had been going on non-stop about his birthday.

She knew little boys got excited about this sort of thing but this was practically manic. Turning on the water she slowly filled her glass before turning it off. Taking a slow sip from the glass she set it back down on the counter, this was getting to be too much, she couldn’t keep doing this. Leaning her forehead against the counter she took a deep breath and prepared to do battle. It would take extraordinary measures to get Gabriel to take a bath tonight she knew it.

She didn’t even hear it as the door opened, the sound of someone carefully unlocking and relocking the door. But she did feel the heavy hands suddenly landing on her shoulders. Gasping Claire tried to pull away but the hands held her in place. A head leaned down and lips brushed softly over her temple.

“Hello angel,” The voice was soft and husky like a dark rich honey, Claire gasped, she knew that voice. Relaxing back against the body behind her she grinned up at him. Hands slowly stroked up and down her arms pulling her more tightly against his body.

“I didn’t think you would ever find me,” Claire turned around in his arms and laid her hands on his chest. She stared up at him wide-eyed and hopeful. So much like the little girl he had first met. Reaching out a hand Sylar made a clucking noise and traced a finger down her cheek.

“You should know that I always come back for what’s mine and you my angel are mine.” His fingers came up to thread through her hair and he tugged on it lightly. “I don’t know how I feel about this brown hair though.”

“It wasn’t my choice. They made me do it, they made me hide from you.” Claire curled her fingers into Sylar’s shirt.

Sylar stroked a hand over Claire’s hair and laid her head against his chest. “Shh, it’s alright my darling. It’s alright, I’ve come for you my angel and I’m going to keep you safe.”

Claire moved to speak up, “But.”

Sylar put his fingertip over her lips, “Shhh angel, it will be alright. I’ll take care of everything.”

“But, Gabriel, there’s something I need to tell you about.” Sylar smirked and reached into his pocket and pulled out the picture. He held it up in front of her.

“Do you mean this?” Claire nodded slowly.

“Yes, Gabriel he’s your son.” Sylar looked at the little boy in the picture. He smiled at her.

“You named him after me.” Claire nodded slowly looking a little worried.

Sylar stroked a finger over Claire’s cheek and whispered soothingly to her. “It’s ok angel, I’m not angry with you. I’m going to take you and Gabriel away and we’re going to be a family.”

Claire smiled and leaned towards Sylar. “I’ve been waiting so long for you to come say this to me. To take me away from all of this.”

Sylar grinned and cupped the back of Claire’s head in his hands. Leaning down he pressed a soft slow kiss to her lips. “And I’ve been looking for you for so long.”

End Chapter 1.

Sylar and Claire love bars

2007-08-27T13:54:11Z

So I was a little bored this morning waiting for my Heroes episodes to download and inspire me to write. In the interim I made some Sylar and Claire love bars.

madscietist @ 2007-08-25T16:16:00

2007-08-25T20:14:29Z

Title: These Past Years
Author: madscietist
Rating: R, Pairecest, nothing explicit yet just a lot of dirty thoughts.
Chapter: 02/??
Summary: Set during the Five Year future timeline. They saved the cheerleader but what if they still had a chance to save the world?
Author's Notes: Some minor changes have been made, Issac's alive and Claire escaped before Matt got her and is now working as a stripper in Vegas. Up much faster than I normally get fics. Its the weekend and I was feeling inspired.

Last time on Heroes…

Peter who had been so focused on fantasizing about the girls legs didn’t even notice until she was practically in his lap. He jerked back in his seat and stared into the biggest green eyes he had seen in years. He breathed out the name before he even realized it, “Claire?”

Chapter 2

Before Claire could even blink a hand shot out and started choking her. She stared horrified into Peter’s furious gaze, his fingers wrapping tighter and tighter around her throat. He pulled her towards him and growled into her face.

“Who are you? Why do you look like her?”

Claire tried to furiously beat at Peter’s arm and get him to release her. She wanted to send out a telepathic message that it was her but she couldn’t concentrate that much. Peter was holding her so tightly she was starting to black out. She could vaguely hear shouting in the background as the bouncers rushed towards them. They started hitting Peter with nightsticks and pulling him away. When he finally let go Claire collapsed coughing and gagging.

They pulled Peter out of the club but he really went willingly. Claire stared after him wide eyed and terrified. Where had her hero gone and who was this man who had tried to kill her? Shaking in fear and shock she barely registered it as one of the bouncers lifted her up off the table and carried her into the back. Setting her down in a chair they had the casino’s doctor come look at her.

The bruises were gone within seconds and the doctor waved a hand saying she was merely being hysterical. Tearing her wig off Claire threw it aside. She stared into the mirror her own face haunting her. Her boss was glowering down at her and all Claire could think about was the terrifying expression in Peter’s eyes. When Claire tried to wave her boss off he just grabbed her hair and shook her head. Wincing she pulled away trying to look hurt when he pulled her hair out.

Her boss glowered down at her and reached out again grabbing harder, “I think you need to listen to me and listen to me good little girl. If you want to keep this job you’ll learn to not throw a hissy fit every time some guy gets grabby. So what if he wants a little something extra, if he pays for it he gets it.” Claire stared at him horrified. Stripping was on thing but prostituting herself was just crossing that invisible line.

“So Becky dear, I think you’re going to have to learn.” Her boss let go of her hand but his hands started to go to his belt. Horrified Claire moved to back up but one of the bouncers appeared behind her and held her steady. Shaking her head she chanted a mantra of no as her boss started to lower his pants. Struggling against the bouncer’s strong hands she tried to free herself. Kicking out she knocked herself off her chair but it just made the bouncer force her to her knees.

Sobbing Claire bit down on her lips and refused to open her mouth. As she watched in horror as her boss began to pull himself out of his pants Claire clamped her eyes shut. So focused on keeping her eyes and mouth she didn’t really hear the sudden sharp gasp of pain from her boss or the gurgle as the bouncer’s throat was cut. All she felt was the hard grasping hands leave her body and strong arms pulling her against a hard chest. A cheek lay against the top of her head and someone was whispering soothing words to her.

Hands stroked up and down her back whispering softly to her but not really saying anything. Then there was a tugging feeling around her belly button as the world vanished around her. When the tugging stop Claire could feel a soft carpet underneath her knees not the hard linoleum of the dressing room floor. More worried about how she had moved locations so quickly than her impending rape she snapped open her eyes.

Gone was the tacky dressing room filled with mirrors, Lucite high heels and probably peepholes. In its place was a luxurious looking bedroom. There was a single window through which the city lights streamed. The neighborhood outside looked seedy but the room itself was well appointed. Turning her head she started into the eyes of the person who had rescued her. There was Peter looking deeply apologetic and worried. His hands moved away from her back and came up to cup her face.

“Oh Claire, I’m so sorry baby girl, I didn’t know it was you.” He leaned forward and pressed a soft chaste kiss to her forehead.

“Peter,” the word was whispered out softly as though she was afraid that if she said it all of this would vanish.

“Yeah its me, a little bit ashamed but still me,” his voice had changed. It was deeper and rougher much like his face. It was like something had broken inside of Peter and the roughness was grating on his vocal cords. “I’m so sorry Claire, I would never have hurt you if I had known it was you.” He stroked a hand over Claire’s hair running his fingers through the now dark brown strands.

“I thought you were dead,” her words were hushed and tentative. Her hands remained curled tightly into fists against her legs. She didn’t want to touch him and have the illusion vanish.

Peter shook his head looking sad as he played with her hair. The brown hair suited her but he longed for his blonde cheerleader. All the women he had been with in the time since he had exploded had been blondes. He couldn’t get Claire out of his system and he had never wanted to.

“No baby girl, just hiding like you. Nathan,” he looked down ashamed and shook his head. He didn’t need to say anymore they both understood. They were both hiding from the same man. Looking up Peter rubbed a thumb over Claire’s cheek and down to her lip. “What were you doing there? In a strip club of all places?”

Swallowing slowly Claire looked down ashamed now that she knew Peter had seen her dancing for those other men. Tears dripped down her face, sniffing she shook her head, “I was only there for a few days. I had to leave again, they found me in Texas and I had to get somewhere they wouldn’t find me.” Her heart broke a little as she thought of Andy. That poor sweet boy, he was probably still in interrogation somewhere and she couldn’t even bother to spare him a thought.

Nodding in understanding Peter rubbed a reassuring hand over the back of Claire’s neck. “It doesn’t matter now, you’re safe here. I’m going to keep you safe.” Leaning in Peter kissed her. It was a shock at first but Claire leaned eagerly into the kiss her hands coming up to wrap around his neck. Their lips moved against each other and a soft whimper escaped Claire’s mouth as she felt Peter’s rough lips move against hers. It felt so good to be touching him again and it had been so long.

Her hands slid down and underneath his shirts. She stroked her fingers along the top of his jeans trying to worm her fingers into his pants. His hands came down and slowly undid the clasp on her bra. She shivered as the cold air brushed against her flesh but his warm hands instantly banished any thoughts of the cold.

The door slamming open was an instant cold shower for both of them. Standing in the doorway glowering down at them was Niki. She was practically spitting. “What the hell Peter? One stripper isn’t enough for you? You bring some tramp home to fuck her in what’s supposed to be our safe house?”

End Chapter 2.

madscietist @ 2007-08-24T10:07:00

2007-08-24T14:08:33Z

Title: These Past Years
Author: madscietist
Rating: R, Pairecest, nothing explicit yet just a lot of dirty thoughts.
Summary: Set during the Five Year future timeline. They saved the cheerleader but what if they still had a chance to save the world?
Author's Notes: Some minor changes have been made, Issac's alive and Claire escaped before Matt got her and is now working as a stripper in Vegas.

She was sin.

Standing on stage her body arched into a seductive pose, her hands stroking up and down the pole, she was sin personified. Spinning around the pole her dark red wig flying she resembled an ice cream cone with a cherry on top. Tossing aside her bra she continued to dance, gyrating and moving her body across the stage. She had lost some weight since her teen years and now looked lean and trim. Still petite she was forced to wear extra tall heels to give her body that illusion of being long.

Finishing her routine she walked off stage and put back on her clothes. Shrugging into a long robe she walked over to the bar. Sitting down she began to slowly drink. She hated Las Vegas but she needed to be here. Just a few days ago she had been a waitress in a diner in Texas. Then someone had gotten wise to where she was and she had to leave again. She had wanted to run here with Andy to go married but she never got the chance. They had come to their house in the night and Claire had to run.

The guilt about leaving Andy behind would plague her for the rest of her life. It wasn’t that she ever held any strong feelings for him but he had helped fill an emptiness within her. Taking another slow drink from her glass she sighed and stared at the liquid. A few years ago she would never have imagined that this would be her life but here she was sitting in a strip club on the Vegas strip taking off her clothes for money. It wasn’t a great job but no one would be looking for Claire Bennet-Petrelli here.

Sighing again she put down the glass and smiled at the bartender. Getting up she went to the back and began to fix her make-up. She had another hour left on her shift before she could go home. Her heels were killing her and all she wanted to do was take a bath. You would think that the shoes wouldn’t bother her what with her indestructible body but there was something psychologically engrained into her that just by looking at the shoes her feet started to hurt.

Getting up she pulled on another wig this one a short black bob and turned to see her boss standing behind her. He passed her a card and a couple hundred dollars in tip money, technically she was supposed to get the full five hundred but the boss always skimmed and she wasn’t going to fight him for it.

“Table three wants a private dance, you’re becoming quite popular Becky.” There was something in the way that he said Becky that just made her skin crawl. Shrugging it off she tossed away her robe and went out to the table.

Some of the tables had been equipped with stripper poles and were available for private dances if you paid enough. Usually it was only VIPs who got the tables though. She held back a shudder at the thought of some gross old man feeling himself up under the table as she danced. She couldn’t think about that or she’d never be able to perform. She had to think of it like cheerleading or imaging that she was dancing for one person and one person only. Someone who was long dead.

Walking over to the table she smiled at the handsome looking vaguely Hispanic guy sitting there. This wouldn’t be so bad. He wasn’t hideous and he didn’t look like a pervert, just a guy who wants to see a pretty girl sort of naked. Maybe he was having a hard time with his girlfriend and wanted to use the stripper cheating loophole. Since you’re only looking and never touching some guys claimed it wasn’t cheating. Climbing onto the table she smiled and began to dance for him.

She swung around on the pole and held herself upside with just her legs. All those years of cheerleading and gymnastics paid off. Pretending the pole was a man she began to dance around it moving her body against it. The guy was watching her interested but he also seemed to be looking for someone. Something about the whole thing didn’t feel on the level but she wasn’t going to question it. Just another three minutes and she would be out of here and off to do another private dance.

As she kept dancing another guy slid into the booth next to the first. A popped up collar on his long black jacket hid his face so she could only see the top of his head. The first guy stopped even pretending to pay attention to her and started talking to the other guy. Great, just great, was all Claire could think. These guys were here to do some sleazy deal and they were using her as cover. She just prayed the cops weren’t anywhere near by. She didn’t want these two jerks to blow her cover. Why did the weird ones always seem to find her?

And then as if it was some sort of sick joke another guy slid into the bar. This guy was of Asian descent with his hair pulled back in a long ponytail. The three guys kept talking and Claire kept her eyes on the clock. One more minute and she would be out of here. She felt a light touch on her ankle and looked down, the Hispanic guy was holding out more money to her. He wanted her to keep dancing. Trying to appear nonchalant she slid down the pole and looked the Hispanic guy dead in the eye.

“Look, I don’t know what you three are up to but you better not get me busted by the cops,” she snatched the money away from the guy and slid it into her top.

The Hispanic guy just smiled and turned back to his friends. Claire was so focused on making sure she got her money to stay in the tiny bikini style top of her outfit that she didn’t see the one guy staring at her. Shock written on his handsome but scarred face. He just kept starring up at her as his friends tried to draw him back into their conversation. Shaking his head he turned back to the other two guys but kept sneaking looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

It couldn’t be, was the only thought racing through his head. Not his baby girl, not his cheerleader, she was dead. Granted this gorgeous, thin, tanned, dark haired girl had sounded like her but she certainly didn’t look like her. She didn’t have the same aura of innocence as his girl. Brushing it off as his mind playing tricks on him he refocused on the guys.

They were planning a raid of Linderman’s facilities. They had heard a few of their old friends were being held there and they wanted to get them out. The only real problem they could foresee was Jessica. If she was still working for him and still loyal they’d have to take her out without hurting her too bad. She didn’t go down easily though, so it prevented something of a paradox. Agreeing on a safe place for Peter and Hiro to meet up the three men broke apart. Hiro was the first to leave the booth without even giving the girl in front of him an appraising eye.

Issac, nudged Peter obviously wanting him to leave but Peter was stuck. Even if the girl wasn’t Claire, maybe he could stick a blond wig on her. And if he took her from behind he wouldn’t even know. It would just be him and his girl again. He doubted he could get the stripper to mimic that unique throaty gaspy moan of Claire’s but it wouldn’t hurt to try. Rubbing a hand on his jeans he glared at Issac and the painter got up and left. Peter just kept watching the girl wanting nothing more than to lean forward and lick his way up her calf.

She had great legs. They were like Claire’s short but perfectly shaped. The heels she wore made them look a bit longer but they were still the legs of a much shorter girl. When the second five minutes was up she looked down at him and nearly fell off the table. There sitting in front of her larger than life was Peter. A jagged scar ran down the middle of his face but it was still Peter. She looked around nervously hoping her boss wouldn’t notice. Kneeling down on the table she moved towards him.

Peter who had been so focused on fantasizing about the girls legs didn’t even notice until she was practically in his lap. He jerked back in his seat and stared into the biggest green eyes he had seen in years. He breathed out the name before he even realized it, “Claire?”

End Chapter 1. Please review!

madscietist @ 2007-03-24T18:03:00

2007-03-24T22:02:43Z

Disclaimer: Oh this is so not mine.

Notes: A sort of flip-flop of Greys canon. Mark and Meredith were happily married until he cheated on her with his long time friend Addison. We’re going to skip the initial couple of episodes and so Izzie and George have already moved in at this point and that’s how we begin the story. This will be a Meredith/Mark story even though there may be some bumps and grooves in the road.

Meredith sighed and stared down at the ring of coffee on the table in front of her. She reached out a finger and slowly swirled her index finger around in thick brown liquid. He had been the worst about coffee stains. He was always leaving his half drunk Starbucks cups and empty coffee mugs in the kitchen, a mess at home and the picture of perfection at the hospital, a weird mix of a man. Groaning she pushed away from the table and finished off the last of the coffee in her mug. Tossing the mug into the sink she turned and walked out of the kitchen. George and Izzie were rushing in front of her throwing their clothes on.
Grabbing her bag and coat she followed her roommates out of the house. Closing the door behind her she let the lock click before walking to the car. The ride to the hospital was short and quiet. It just wasn’t going to be a good day. Meredith could sense it. It was the day itself and it was going to cause nothing but trouble for her. Life so far had been easy, relatively quiet, she could focus on things like having to carry around a penis and sleeping with her attending in the name of not having to deal with the other stuff in her life.
And well there was Derek. Derek, who was sweet and kind and gave her that sweet puppy dog look. A look she didn’t think ever worked on her. She wasn’t that kind of girl, she was the girl who fell for the guy with the smirky teasing grin, the guy who was a bad boy and made deadpan jokes with her. But here she was having a thing with the nice guy. And she never fell for the nice guy. Groaning she pushed her hair out of her face.
Getting out of the car she followed behind George and Izzie into the hospital. Riding in the elevator she stared at the floor numbers as they slowly lit up. She was numb to George and Izzie’s conversation as they talked around her. Her feet dragged as she stumbled into the locker room. Opening her locker she stuck her purse inside and pulled her scrubs out. In a series of economical motions she changed her clothes and sat down on the bench. Pulling off her shoes she changed into her sneakers. Tying her sneaker laces tightly she pushed off the bench. Cristina gave her an odd look.
“What is with you today? You’re like the living dead.”
Meredith shrugged and waved a limp wristed hand, “Its just a bad day for me. This isn’t a really good time.”
“Alright,” Cristina shrugged and stuck her hands in her lab coat. Meredtih just nodded and drifted around the corner.
Derek, sweet, too good for her Derek was just casually leaning against the counter flipping through a patients file, when he saw her his face lit up in a giant smile. He started walking towards her and Meredith in a brief moment of panic swerved to avoid him. Ducking around to the far side of George she crossed her arms over her stomach and tried to avoid the laughing smile on Derek’s face. Derek came walking around behind her slowly and stood in front of her tapping the file on his knuckles.
“Are you avoiding me in an obvious fashion, Meredith?”
“No, Dr. Shepherd, I’m just waiting to do round with Dr. Bailey.”
Derek gave a little laugh and leaned closer to her and smiled, “Alright Dr. Grey,” he dragged her name out and smirked. Meredith bounced a little bit in spot as her phone vibrated in her pocket. Reaching down she looked at the screen in shock. Derek who had been watching her closely raised an eyebrow at her. Sticking the phone back into her pocket she gave him a nervous smile.
“Who was that?”
Meredith just shook her head, “It was no one.”
“Ok,” Turning away Derek walked over to Bailey and gave her a charming smile. Bailey merely glared at him and looked t her interns. “Karev, O’Malley you’re with Burke, Yang you’re with me, Stevens,” Bailey turned and looked at Derek. “You’re going to be with Dr. Shepherd since he obviously wants an intern and Grey you’re in the pit.”
Nodding Meredith didn’t even put up a fight as Bailey sent her down to the pit. Heading to the stairwell Meredith dragged her feet down the stairs as the phone in her pocket kept vibrating. She knew who the call was from and she really didn’t want to look at the phone. She certainly was never going to answer the phone. Shuffling into the ER she was directed to perform some sutures. Sitting down on the stool she examined the persons arm and slowly began to clean and suture it.

The day dragged by for Meredith. She did suture after suture and barely seemed to feel it. Returning to the locker room was like the completion of an imperfect circle. Opening her locker she changed her clothes and ignored the conversations around her. Looking at her phone she saw seven missed calls. Flipping it open she saw that they all were from him. Putting her phone in her purse she closed her locker door with a soft clunk. Following George and Izzie out she tucker her hands in her pockets. She trailed after them like a beaten puppy.
All of a sudden Izzie and George started to talk excitedly to Cristina about something. Lifting her eyes Meredith saw him standing there. He was talking to Derek who was smiling that stupid smile of his and the chief who seemed to be very excited about something. Ducking behind George she tried to slide away and hope that he wouldn’t see her. But she knew he would. He was here to see her and he had something. Suddenly Derek was calling her name and laughing to him about she had been avoiding him all day.
Turning Meredith saw the look in his eye. It was clearly saying, no she’s been avoiding me. Cristina turned and looked at her, then pushed her towards them. “Go, go right now, this might snap you out of your funk. You need a good surgery.”
Meredith tried shaking her head no but Cristina kept pushing. Shuffling her feet she stuck her hands in her pockets and walked over to the chief, Derek and him.
“Still avoiding me Meredith?” Derek smiled at her and brought the chart closer to his chest.
“No,” Meredith’s voice was soft and she was looking at the ground.
“I don’t think she’s been avoiding you, Dr. Shepherd,” he was smirking, she wasn’t even looking at him and she knew he was smirking. He had the smirking sound in his voice.
“I’m not avoiding anyone.” She could hear a phone snapping open and some buttons being pressed.
“I called you seven times and you never answered your phone,” Meredith snapped her head up as he held up the phone with the call log on the screen.
“Oh you two know each other?” Derek looked back and forth between them.
“In a manner of,” he cut her off in an instant.
“We’re married.” Meredith snapped her head up to glare at him.
“Mark Sloan,” she hissed the name out.
“Mrs. Sloan,” Mark smirked and leaned down towards her with that smile on his face. “Happy Anniversary,” he held up the small box he had in his hand.
“You don’t get to call me that,” she pointed a finger at him.
“You’re married?” Derek’s voice was soft and had that beaten puppy tone to it.
“Technically yes, but we’re separated,” she glared at him.
“Are we separated because I thought you just took off without a word,” Meredith just shook her head and waved a hand in defeat.
“You don’t get to talk to me about that, and I’m not working on this surgery.” Spinning on her heel Meredith stomped off away from the dumbstruck Derek and the still smirking Mark and the silent chief. Her friends were just staring at her in shock Meredith turned away from them and practically ran out of the hospital.
She could hear Mark following behind her calling her name. He caught up with her just outside the front door and grabbed her arm. He pulled her up against his body and held her against him.
“Meredith, what are you doing? Why are you running away from me?”
“Let me go,” she waved her fists and tried to hit him with them but he held her arms captive.
“Meredith we need to talk about this.”
“No we don’t, you need to stop and we need to talk about this. We can work through this. This isn’t the worst thing that could have happened.”
“You slept with your best friend? You cheated on me!” She smacked his chest and tried to push away. Mark held her tighter and pulled her hard against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned his cheek against the top of her head.
“I love you, I didn’t mean it, and we can work through this Meredith.” Pressing a kiss to the side of her head he rubbed his hands up and down her back.
“You need to let me go Mark.”
“No I don’t. We’re going to fix this Meredith.” Mark nuzzled his cheek against the side of Meredith’s head. Meredith just let her shoulders slump. She couldn’t fight him. Not when he was being like that. Not when he was being Mark the perfect husband. Not Mark the beautiful husband who loved her and did wonderful little things for her.

Meredith sat at the kitchen table staring at Mark who was sipping slowly from a coffee cup. She knew George and Izzie were on the other side of the door listening in. She knew they were curious but she wasn’t going to let them in for this. This had to be a private family thing. She could see his hand wanting to creep across the table and grab her hand.
“Meredith, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can repeat enough how sorry I am. I love you and I want us to be able to save this.”
Meredith nodded and sipped her coffee. “You slept with Addison, Mark. In our bed, in our house, while I was studying so I could graduate from med school.”
“I know I screwed up, but I also know I love you.”
“Why did you wait two months?”
“I had to take care of things in New York, I had to close my practice, find other doctors for my patients, I had to take care of things for us in New York. I just couldn’t fly out to Seattle and leave my life in a shambles.”
“I couldn’t stay,” Meredith looked down at the table. There was a coffee ring on the table in front of him. He was leaving a ring stain.
“Why couldn’t we talk about it? You just ran out.”
“You were having sex with Addison in our bed, I couldn’t sleep in that bed again, and all I could think was that I wanted to burn the sheets, maybe with Addison in it,” she muttered the last part underneath her breath.
Mark laughed and smirked at Meredith across the table. “I think if you had stayed you would have done it too.” Meredith shook her head and rolled her eyes.
In sneaky snaking motion Mark slid his hand across the table and grabbed Meredith’s hand. “I love you Meredith, we’re going to make this work. We’re going to be a happily married couple again, I know we will.”
Sipping from her coffee cup she nodded and set her cup down. Mark took the little box that was sitting next to him and pushed the box across the table towards her.
“Do you want to open up your anniversary present?”
“What is it?” Meredith picked up the box and opened it slowly. Inside were her wedding rings sitting nestled in the ring box.
“You already gave me these once before.”
“So, you left them and I’m wearing mine and I want you to wear yours.” Meredith rubbed her finger over the rings. They were simple, just a gold band and a gold band with a simple diamond in the middle. It wasn’t fancy but it was just right. It was her.
“I don’t know if I can wear them. I don’t know if this marriage can even work.
“We can make this work Meredith, we just have to try, you can’t just throw in the towel. You always do that. You take what you should do and you avoid it. You look the right decision in the eye and you just avoid it as much as possible, if its even moderately hard or difficult you avoid it. You can’t avoid this Meredith, this is our marriage and we need to make this work.”
Sighing Meredith sipped her coffee slowly and took the rings out of the box. She stroked her fingers slowly over the band. “I don’t know if I can wear them yet.”
“We’re going to get through this Meredith,” Mark reached out and pulled her hand across the table and kissed her fingers. “You’ll see Meredith, we’ll get through this.”

The End of chapter 1. I don’t know if I like it. My muse has been iffy lately. Please review.

madscietist @ 2007-03-13T09:40:00

2007-03-13T13:42:20Z

Disclaimer: Not mine because if it was McSteamy would win any day of the week.

Notes: Part 2 of Life’s Mysteries. More on peoples reactions to Mark and Meredith. Sorry about the delay on this chapter, I’ve been very busy lately. And I sometimes have problems writing multi part stories and I didn’t want to rush this and make it feel forced.

It was dark when Meredith woke up again. The lights in her room were off and she could see the skeleton crew that was the graveyard shift through the cracks in the blinks on her windows. Turning her head she looked around her room. It was empty, no Christina, no Izzie, no George and no Mark. Squeezing her eyes shut she tried to push away the thought that maybe he had left. Given up when faced with the reality of their relationship being revealed and just left.
The door creaked open and a shaft of light slid into the room. A large figure slipped through the door closing it quickly behind them. They slid across the room and climbed into her bed. Curling up against her big familiar arms wrapped around her body. A hand stroked down her arm and pulled her more tightly against it. Mark pressed his face into Meredith’s neck and nuzzled against the side of her neck. He quickly kissed her cheek before pressing his face back down into the curve of her neck.
Reaching up a hand Meredith stroked it softly down his cheek. Mark just let his head lay next to Meredith and he pressed his nose into her hair smelling it, it didn’t smell like Meredith. It smelled like the hospital and the bay, not the sweet Meredith smell of lavender and scrub caps. Marks hand slid over and began to rub in slow circles over Meredith’s stomach. It was so peaceful so sweet, so much nicer than the weeks they had spent fighting.
“How do you feel?” Mark was rubbing his hand slowly over Meredith’s stomach in a completely non-sexual way. Which felt sweet and odd all at the same time.
“Like I drowned in a freezing cold bay,” Smirking Meredith let her head fall back against his shoulder so she could see him just out of the corner of her eye.
“Well you did so that might be part of the problem,” Smirking Mark pressed a kiss to Meredith’s temple.
“Really? I had kind of forgotten about that part,” She started to laugh softly but she just wound up coughing into the pillow. Mark moved his hand from her stomach to her back and rubbed it in slow soothing motions.
“Did I already tell you I was sorry for not being there?” Meredith nodded into the pillow and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.
Nodding Mark pressed another kiss to the back of Meredith’s head. “Why does this feel like we’re behaving like a real couple?” Meredith shrugged.
“Maybe because we are.”
“It’s a scary thought,” Mark wrapped his arms more tightly around Meredith and leaned against her. “Especially since we’re supposed to be the ultimate non couple couple.”
“Non couple couple?”
“What? You and your little friends are always coming up with weird things and you have your Mc nonsense, can’t I get in on the action?”
“I thought you liked being McSteamy?” Meredith smirked at him and brushed a finger across his nose.
“I like being your McSteamy,” he smiled at her giving her what Meredith had dubbed the McSteamy face. Laughing softly Meredith kissed the end of Marks nose.
Snuggling back against him Meredith just let her body relax against his. “Is this ok you being in here? No one’s going to come in and throw you out again are they?”
Shrugging Mark stroked his fingertips along Meredith’s arm, “I don’t know. I’m going to stay in here as long as they’ll let me.” Smiling Meredith just let her head slump down and let her body drift off to sleep with Mark wrapped around her.

When she woke up for what felt like the fifth time in barely a day her back was cold. Mark was sitting in the chair next to her bed flipping through what looked like a magazine stolen from the waiting room. Grinning Meredith reached out and tried to grab at the magazine. Mark intercepted her though and grabbed her hand squeezing it.
“I have to go soon but I didn’t want you to wake up alone.” Getting up he moved over to the bed. He sat down on the edge and leaned down closer to her. “Your friends are going to bring some things by for you later but you can’t leave for a few days. They want to monitor you.”
Meredith nodded and brought a hand up to rub it over Marks leg. “Now I have to go make people beautiful.” Bending down Mark kissed Meredith’s forehead. Squeezing her hand one last time Mark got u p and left the room. Letting her head fall back Meredith just stared up at the ceiling. The next few days were going to be torture. She was going to be trapped in this hospital but not working.

Opening the door Izzie leaned in and gave Meredith an odd look. Her friend was lying on her back making spit bubbles at the ceiling. Walking into the room Izzie stared down at Meredith. “What are you doing?”
Groaning Meredith let the words drip out, “I’m so bored.” Smiling Izzie held up the bag in her hands and waved it at Meredith.
“What is that?”
“I brought you some stuff from the house,” Izzie sat the bag down on the edge of the bed. Opening the bag she took out a couple of books and magazines setting them down on Meredith’s bedside table. Opening the drawer of the table she took some sweats and clean underwear and socks out setting them in the drawer. From the bag also emerged some toiletries.
“Thank you Izzie,” Meredith smiled and nodded at the various items, the smile was a little forced but she knew Izzie was doing all of it out of the goodness of her heart.
“You’re welcome. So about you and McSteamy?” Izzie quirked an eyebrow and looked down at Meredith.
Meredith sighed and rubbed her hand over her forehead, “Yeah me and McSteamy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about McSteamy?”
Meredith shrugged and pushed her hair out of her face, “For the same reason I didn’t tell anyone else.”
“Meredith you know you can talk to me about anything, why couldn’t you talk to me about this?” Closing her eyes Meredith just shook her head.
“Izzie, I didn’t want to hear you guys go on about how he used to date Addison and how I was with Derek and he is Derek’s ex best friend and all the various complexities. I just couldn’t hear it all, it was our secret.” Meredith waved a hand as if trying to explain it all with that simple gesture.
Izzie nodded a little sadly and took Meredith’s hand, “I understand how sometimes we can be judgmental,” Izzie sighed a little bit, “But none of that matters anymore. You’re ok, you weren’t ok and now you’re ok.” Izzie waved at Meredith’s body, gesturing at the machines.
Meredith tried not to laugh but she just nodded. Sighing she reached up a hand and pushed her hair out of her face. “I’m ok Izzie.”
Izzie nodded, “Yes you’re ok. And you and McSteamy are ok?”
Meredith nodded and smiled, “Yes, Mark and I are very ok.”
Smiling Izzie nodded again and stroked her hand over Meredith’s forehead. “You’re going to be ok then.” Nodding again Izzie pulled away and waved her hand at Meredith. “I have to go get back to work but I’m going to stop in to see you again at the end of the my shift.”
Meredith nodded and let her head fall back against the pillow. She watched Izzie walk out of the room and sighed. This was going to be her life for the next few weeks. This was going to be all she had until they let her out. Sleeping in this bed and watching people drift in and out of the room. Coming and going, leaving her in total silence. Groaning Meredith looked over at the stack of books and magazines next to the bed. Nothing jumped out at her and she couldn’t bring herself to pick any of them up. Even the TV remote held no interest.
All she wanted to do was get out of the bed and go to work. She didn’t want to be here in this bed and not be able to work. It didn’t matter how tired she felt, she just wanted to get back to work and she had worked longer hours before. She almost wished she was back in the water. At least then she wouldn’t be lying here bored out of her mind and ready to go running for freedom. She knew what would happen eventually. Derek would come looking for her to talk like he had some kind of right to her life; George would come looking for an explanation, maybe even Webber would stop by to talk to her about Mark. Her falling into the water paled in comparison to her being with Mark.
She didn’t want to deal with everyone putting in their two cents about her and Mark. That was why she had kept it a secret. So she didn’t have to listen to all of it. So that she didn’t have to put up with the constant questioning and the constant running of their mouths. She just wanted it to be about her and Mark, not about her, Mark and everyone else in their lives. She didn’t want to hear about all the things she shouldn’t do in her life, about how Mark was the biggest no no ever. The one thing she should never say yes to.
Sliding her hand over her face Meredith looked at her heart monitor. Reaching up she began to slowly peel the monitoring pads off her chest. The machine next to her started to blare like crazy and Meredith groped to find the cord to unplug the blasted machine. Olivia, the nurse, came rushing in and started to smack at Meredith’s hands.
“Dr. Grey! You can’t pull off your monitoring pads,” whacking at Meredith’s hands she pushed the pads back onto Meredith’s chest. “Are we going to have to restrain you Dr. Grey?” Olivia put her hands on her hips and glared at Meredith.
Sighing Meredith crossed her arms over her stomach and shook her head. “No, that’s my only escape attempt.” Olivia nodded and checked the machine again before walking out of the room and closing the door tightly behind her.

It didn’t take very long before Miranda Bailey was striding in tapping her clipboard on her leg and glaring down at Meredith. “You wanna tell me about what you were trying to do earlier?”
Meredith shrugged and played with the blanket on the bed. “I was just feeling a little restless.”
Bailey shook her head and put her hands on her hips, “Girl you have been in this bed for less than twenty four hours, you were dead for almost four hours barely twenty four hours ago, and you need to stay in this bed. You will not pull another stunt like that or even think about pulling another stunt like that.” Pointing a finger at her Bailey glared down at Meredith.
Meredith nodded and played with the blanket more. “Ok, I know, I will stay in bed.”
Bailey nodded. “Good, don’t make me come back here to check on your skinny ass.”
Nodding like a scolded child Meredith watched Bailey walk out of the room. This sucked.

It was the end of the day before Mark came in to see her again. He swaggered in with the McSteamy look on his face and Meredith knew she was in trouble. He was pulling his white coat around him in that way that if you saw him from the back you could see his tight butt. Meredith rolled her eyes at that thought, he was obviously here for something and it wasn’t sex. Mark always tried to cajole her before he gave her the McSteamy face.
He sat down on the side of the bed and scooted up towards her. “So I here you made an escape attempt.”
Meredith nodded and waved a hand; “Bailey already came and chewed me out for it.”
“Were you that desperate to come and jump my bones,” Mark leaned down over Meredith and smirked at her.
Shaking her head Meredith reached up and stroked her fingertips over Marks face, “I just didn’t want to be here any longer. I don’t like being in this bed.”
Mark nodded and turned his head kissing her fingertips, “You need to be in this bed though. I don’t have to remind you of the whole drowning thing again do I?”
Smiling Meredith shook her head. “No, you don’t, I remember.”
Grinning Mark leaned down closer to Meredith and pressed a soft quick kiss to her lips. “Good. I can’t wait until you’re well enough to leave because you’re going to have to make up all these days we lost,” Mark stroked his hand over the inside of Meredith’s arm.
Meredith laughed and brought a hand up to cover her face. “Oh you are a piece of work.” Mark grinned and leaned down pressing his face into the curve of Meredith’s neck.
“I’m your piece of work.” Meredith smiled and stroked her hand over Marks hair running her fingers through the shorter pieces.
“Yeah you are. And as long as I’m on recovery you’re not getting any,” Mark smiled slowly down at her and sat up a little.
“Well obviously we’re not going to be going at it in the hospital but once you’re at home on bed rest,” Mark stroked a hand down Meredith’s leg. Meredith smacked Marks hand.
“Even if I’m on bed rest you’re not getting any until I’m off bed rest.” Mark gave her his face and tried to stroke a hand down her face and she smacked his hand away. “Don’t even think about trying it mister, if I have to suffer you have to suffer.” Groaning Mark turned his body and lay down next to Meredith.
“This is cruel you know, cruel and unusual punishment.” Meredith laughed and leaned her head against Marks shoulder.
This was nice. After everything that had gone on this was nice.

Alright I’m ending it. I kind of lost my way on this story so I’m going to end it before I wander too far. So, I’m going to start working on my AU but I can’t decide yet if I want to have Meredith be married to Mark or Derek. I’m torn. They would be two very different stories. So I’ll probably wind up writing them both.

madscietist @ 2007-03-04T20:06:00

2007-03-05T01:06:17Z

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Notes: This starts after the ferryboat incident with some sort of vagueish flashbacks. This is the sequel to Understanding, since everyone wanted to see what happens when other people start finding out about Mark and Meredith. This will be a multi parter, how many parts I don’t know yet but at least two. And my proof of McSteamys sweetness is how broken up he looks when Meredith gets back together with Derek at the end of Boys.

As the water closed over the top of her head all Meredith could think was where was her knight in blue scrubs? Where was her man with his McSteamy face? Her own personal poison well? As her body slipped farther down into the water she just let her mind slide away let the water wash away her pain as it cooled her body. The dirty looks that her friends gave her these days, the way Mark would barely even touch her when they were alone, how strained and stressed everything felt these days. Every time she and Mark made eye contact he would look away first. She knew it tore at him to keep it hidden.
That was Mark though. He always wanted to be out in the open. Everything he did had to be a production, maybe because he hadn’t gotten hugged enough as a child or maybe it was because he just had such an inflated sense of self that he never felt the need ever to hide. Whatever it was Mark never felt the need to keep anything to himself. It didn’t matter if it was just something as simple as having lunch together in the cafeteria to making out in the middle of a surgery; he just always wanted to be out in the open. Mark was a no bullshit kind of guy, some people thought he was an ass but he was pretty honest in all things.
And the more they hide, the more angry Mark got. The angrier Mark got the less she wanted to be around people. She just couldn’t seem to connect with anyone anymore. Her friends had turned their backs on her as she distanced herself from them. They wanted her to talk but she couldn’t talk. Maybe that’s why she stopped kicking, why she stopped scrambling to the top. Who would want to go back to something where no one would understand? Where she couldn’t even talk to the one person who would understand because it always turned into a fight.
So she just let go. And in the back of her head Meredith knew she should just keep fighting, that there was something waiting for her. But no matter how hard she tried to conjure up what it was she couldn’t think of it. It was on the tip of her tongue and nothing she tried would make it come to her. The next time she even tried to think she was laying on her back with something stuck to her chest and electrical shocks moving through her body. Staring at the ceiling above all she could think was I was dead. Someone’s hands were gripping her feet and she was pretty sure they weren’t Mark’s hands. They felt small and delicate.
Letting her eyes slipped close Meredith tried not to think about it. Not about how big and gorgeous Marks hands were or how they felt sliding over her skin. Her brain just started to process that before completely shutting off. Her body felt exhausted, her brain felt exhausted and she just let go again.

The next time she began to feel anything there was a thumb rubbing over the top of her hand. A soft voice was talking in her ear. “I’m so sorry, all I was thinking about was Izzie and her stupid surgery on the fly. I should have been there, I should have been with you.” The hair of his mustache brushed against her ear and his soft voice kept drifting into her ear. “I should have been the one to pull you out of the water.” A kiss was pressed to the curve of her ear and she could feel his beard scratching against the side of her face.
Cracking open her eyes she turned her head slowly and let her cheek brush against his nose. She stared straight into his eyes that were inches away from her face. She couldn’t see but if she could she would know that curtains were closed and they had privacy. Smiling she brought her hand up and let it brush limply against the side of his face. “Hi,” it was soft but it slipped out through her lips. She let her tongue slip out and rubbed it slowly against her lower lip. He sat up and pulled away from her. Reaching over he took a cup of water off of the table next to the bed.
Holding it up to her, she wrapped her lips around the straw he held out to her. Sipping from it slowly she swallowed. Laying her head back she let him move the glass away from her mouth. He scooted closer to the bed and leaned down towards her. “You gave me such a scare Meredith.” She smiled softly and shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” the voice was soft and crackly. His hand reached out and stroked out over her forehead.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m sorry Meredith, I was so scared because I thought I would loose you and all I had left you with was this huge fight.” He bent his head down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Climbing up onto the bed he curled himself around Meredith’s body and pulled her as gently against him as he could. Bending his head down he pressed his forehead into the curve of her neck.
“I won’t leave you,” he whispered the words softly against the skin of her neck. Smiling softly Meredith let her eyes slipped close, for the first time in the weeks she felt at peace. All the things she had thought of as she had slipped father down into the water just drifted away. It was better than therapy or sex or chocolate. This was her piece of heaven on earth.

The funny thing about heaven is how quickly is can be shattered. At one moment there was nothing but peace and quiet. Things were just as perfect as they could possibly. Like those late nights when it felt like nothing could touch them and then suddenly it was all gone. There were people shouting, orders being made, Mark was suddenly sliding out of her bed and her back was empty and cold. Cracking her eye open she tried to lift her head up to see what was going on.
Bailey was in the room, Shepherd was in the room, Cristina was in the room, Addison was in the room, Dr. Webber was in the room, at this point she was sure half the hospital was in the room. And she was lying down in a bed and couldn’t sit up. At least Addison wasn’t wearing those awful salmon colored scrubs. That would have just been far too offensive. Mark was shouting with everyone in the room and it felt like some bad episode of General Hospital. Groaning Meredith tried to lift her hand to rub it over her face.
In that instant Mark was turning around talking at her so fast she couldn’t keep up. Bailey was trying to push him out of the way, Webber was shouting and Cristina for once was strangely quiet. Mark was leaning down next to her, pushing her hair out of her face and talking to her. Then Derek was shoving at him, demanding to know why he was in bed with Meredith. Then in that way that only Bailey had she was shouting everyone quiet. She started shoving, pushing everyone out of the room.
Then Bailey was staring down at her shaking her head. “You are just one constant flow of trouble.” Shaking her head Bailey checked her monitors and wrote the notes down on the chart. Setting the chart Bailey walked out of the room.

Mark glared at Derek as he shoved at his shoulder. “What the hell were you doing? Why were you in her hospital bed?”
“Why? Why? Because I sleep with her almost every night, because I have been with her for weeks now and this whole damn time you’ve been too caught up in yourself and Addison to notice. I was in her bed because she’s my girlfriend and I love her.” Mark shoved back at Derek’s chest pushing him away. The assembled interns just stared in shock as the two doctors started in on a shoving match.
“How can you be in love with her you barely know her?” Derek shoved at Mark’s chest pushing him back away.
“I know her better than you think, just because I don’t wander around this hospital making sad little puppy dog eyes at her doesn’t mean I don’t care.” Mark glowered down at Derek and shoved at him again.
Bailey slipped between the men and put her hands on their chests pushing them apart she glared at both of them. “You two will stop acting like children fighting over a toy and calm down. This is not helping anyone and certainly not helping my patient. Now I want you both to clear your damn selves out off this floor and go have a pissing contest somewhere else.”
The assembled interns looked around nervously and Izzie raised a helpful finger, “I think I’ll go back to the house and get Meredith’s things,” Izzie grabbed George’s arm and started to tug him towards the locker room.
Cristina looked at Alex and then away and the pair of them scattered. Sighing Bailey walked back into Meredith’s room and looked down at her patient. “Girl you have managed to get yourself into a whole heap of trouble.”
Meredith just gave sort of a halfhearted shrug as her eyelids drooped a little bit more. Her chest hurt when she moved her shoulders so she let her shoulders fall back onto the bed. Bailey patted Meredith softly on the hand and left the room. Meredith just let herself drift away. She knew in some part of her that she should focus more on what’s going on and the repercussions of being found in bed with Mark. What people were going to say? What her friends were going to say?

When Meredith came around next Cristina was sitting in the chair next to her bed. Her friend was passed out and holding her head in her hand with her elbow perched precariously on the bar of the chair. It looked like at any moment her elbow would slip off and her head would crash down, straining her neck. Rolling her eyes around she tried to look for something to use to pull herself up. With nothing in sight Meredith just let her head fall back from the few inches she had lifted it above the pillow. Turning her head she looked over at Cristina and waited for her to wake up.
Obviously staring at her had to have some effect because the longer she stared the more Cristina started to rock in her sleep. Eventually her friend’s eyes cracked open and her elbow slipped off the chair and her whole body jerked down. Recovering in that speedy Cristina way of hers, she scooted the chair over next to the bed. Grasping Merediths hand she squeezed it softly in hers.
“Hey,” Meredith smiled softly at Cristina.
“Hi,” Meredith’s voice was soft.
“Meredith, there’s something I have to tell you,” Cristina took a slow breath and stared down at her friend.
“Its my mom, she’s dead isn’t she?” Meredith looked Cristina in the eye. Cristina nodded and squeezed Meredith’s hand a little tighter. Meredith nodded and let her head roll to the side. Giving her one last pat on the hand Cristina got up from sitting next to Meredith’s bed. She walked out of the room almost sneaking back to visiting patients.
Meredith rubbed her lips together and spoke quickly, “Where’s Mark?”
Cristina turned around and looked at Meredith she averted her eyes quickly. Sighing Meredith tapped her fingers on the blankets. “Are you angry at me Cristina?”
Cristina tapped her hand on her leg and then stepped towards Meredith, “I’m your person, you’re my person and you couldn’t tell me about this?”
Closing her eyes Meredith tried to push away the urge to cry. “Would it make it any better if I told you I was afraid of what you would say?”
Shaking her head angrily Cristina glared at the ground, “No it really wouldn’t. I mean I can understand not telling Izzie or George, but I’m your person Meredith. You’re supposed to tell me these things,” Cristina practically spit the words out.
Meredith just shook her head and sniffed, her voice sounding rougher, “I couldn’t tell anyone. It wasn’t something you tell other people, it wasn’t something that other people would understand. It was our secret, his and mine, we made each other happy when no one was looking and that was enough.”
Glaring at her Cristina put her hands on her hips, “Why did it have to be a secret?”
Shrugging Meredith played with the blankets, “I don’t know, it made it special by having it be our secret.”
Sighing Cristina collapsed down into the chair next to Meredith’s bed, “You should have told me.”
Rolling her head to look at Cristina, Meredith just raised an eyebrow. “We agreed not to tell anyone.”
Cristina just gave her that look and Meredith closed her eyes. She could feel Cristina’s hand stroking over hers and it lulled her back to sleep.

The End of Part 1.
I’m going to finish this up probably in Part 2, Three Parts at most. I did however come up with an AU idea that has been bugging me. What if Meredith and Derek were married and Meredith caught Derek sleeping with their friend Addison so she leaves to move to Seattle, where she meets Mark Sloan. And they start to have a steamy affair.

madscietist @ 2007-02-28T14:28:00

2007-02-28T19:29:28Z

Disclaimer: Not mine, because if it were Addison would never get any booty

Notes: After all the great reviews and positive responses to my last fic I decided to write the prequel. I have plans for two more fics to follow up. This is only going to be a one shot but the others might be longer. I’m bending canon reality here for the purposes of my story. So here is how Mark and Meredith hooked up. The Prequel to Understanding.

Meredith stared at Derek and Addison as they chatted closely near the nurse’s station. It was a little twisted how she kept watching them but she couldn’t help herself. What made Addison so special that Derek would walk away from what they had? She had stopped feeling sorry for herself or at least had given it her best effort weeks ago but part of her couldn’t seem to let go of it. Every time she saw the two of them together it just seemed to bring back all those old feelings.
Not to say that she didn’t have friends to hang out with or other people to do things with but she still felt a certain emptiness when she saw them with their significant others and she knew she was alone. Sighing Meredith turned away from the sickeningly sweet scene in front of her. She couldn’t live this voyeuristic lifestyle anymore. It was slowly driving her out of her mind. She felt the urge to run towards the locker room and change as quickly as possible.
Pulling her scrub top over her head she tossed it into her locker. It would probably smell tomorrow but she didn’t feel like getting another one. Taking the shirt she had worn into work today out her locker she pulled it over her head and ignored the urge to sniff her armpits. Changing her pants quickly she tossed her scrub pants in with her top. Satisfied she was dirty but changed she closed her locker. Spinning the lock out of habit she turned away and walked out of the locker room. Other people talked to her and she gave halfhearted answers but she wasn’t focusing.
Her brain seemed to completely disconnect between the hospital and Joe’s. She was like a zombie just moving not thinking. Parking her car in front of Joe’s she slithered out and across the parking lot. Sliding onto a bar stool she tapped the bar in front of her. Joe shook his head in a familiar way and walked down setting a shot glass in front of her. He poured her a shot of tequila. Meredith smiled and knocked back the shot before tapping her finger for another one.
After what felt like hours of knocking back shots a body slid in the chair next to hers. Meredith turned her head and stared at him. He was big and broad and looked like he had been chiseled out of something. Grinning she bit her bottom lip in a drunkenly coy way and turned her head and raised an eyebrow at Joe. Joe just shook his head and walked down the bar pouring a shot for Meredith, Meredith jerked a thumb at the guy sitting next to her.
“And one for the Greek god right here.” The man laughed and took the shot giving her a little toast before knocking it back.
“Why thank you, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
Meredith grinned and shrugged, “Hey, I’m just,” she blinked bleary eyed at the back wall and shrugged again. She wasn’t completely drunk but she was definitely on her way towards that.
The man just laughed and shrugged with her, “I’m not going to say no and I’m going to enjoy this for what it is.”
Meredith grinned and waved Joe down for more shots. It was almost another hour of sitting there knocking down shots before Meredith was stroking her hand on the guy’s thigh. She didn’t care about what his name was, what he did, where he came from, all that mattered was that he was big, good looking and probably hung. She giggled when she thought the last part and leaned closer to him. The guy leaned in and rubbed his nose against her. He shifted and leaned over even more to whisper in her ear.
Giggling at his suggestion Meredith curled her fingers into his thigh. Stumbling as she stood up she followed him out her hand curled in the back of his shirt. Grinning against his shoulder she leaned on him as he lead her out to a cab. Turning Meredith eyed her car.
“My car,” she pointed at the car and stumbled a little.
The guy shook his head and wrapped his arm around her waist and pointed at the cab. “Cab.” He said simply. Somewhere in the back of Merediths mind she knew she making the right decision but now she wasn’t so sure about it. She waved her head from side to side and followed after him.
The cab ride was quick and painless. The trip in the elevator was filled with lots of groping, sucking and biting. Meredith couldn’t remember the last time she felt this free and loose. Giggling she stumbled backwards through his hotel door when he finally got it open and fell onto the bed. She pulled him down with her and it was all a blur after that.

Rolling over Meredith groaned into the pillow underneath her head. It wasn’t her pillow that much she was sure of. The arm thrown across her middle felt way too big to be Dereks and if for some weird and twisted reason it was Derek she was going to leap out that window. Lifting her head she tried to focus on the clock she cursed when she realized that she had about twenty minutes to get to work and she had no idea where she was. Struggling with the covers she fell out of the bed and landed with a thump on the floor.
Trying to stand up she kicked her legs and tried to untangle them from the sheets. A head leaned over the side of the bed and looked down at her.
“What are you doing?” The voice was silky and deep and definitely not Derek’s. Meredith rolled over and looked sheepishly at the man who was leaning over the side of the bed.
“Trying to get up,” She shrugged. He shook his head and smiled down at her. Reaching out he held a hand out to her. Sighing Meredith took it and let him pull her up onto her feet.
“Thank you,” Meredith looked down at her feet and started to shuffle towards the bathroom.
“Where are you going?”
She looked back at him and wrapped her blanket more tightly around herself. “Um, I was going to go take a shower,” she looked at him trying to think of his name. The guy smirked in a way that was far too sexy.
“Mark,” He said it slowly and he didn’t stop smirking.
“Right,” Meredith said nodding her head and shuffling faster to the bathroom. She slammed the door behind her and leaned against it. She sighed and pushed her hair out of her face. She had done it again. Taking the quickest shower known to man Meredith hopped out and pulled on a towel. Opening the door she stared at the man who was still lounging in the bed.
“Hi,” she said and scooted around the room picking up her clothes. The guy was still smirking.
“Hi,” he said it in a superior way and watched her get dressed. “Where are you rushing off to, we still have plenty of the morning left to enjoy.”
She shook her head and pulled on her shoes, “No I have to go, I’m going to be late to work. Where am I?”
“My hotel and I’m Mark and you are?” He watched her carefully still smiling.
“Meredith,” grabbing her purse she gave him a quick wave, “And I have to go.” She practically ran from the hotel room and down stairs. As much as she wanted to go to Joe’s and get her car she knew she just had to take a cab straight to the hospital. Waving down a cab she hopped in and gave the guy directions to the hospital.

Racing down the hall Meredith slammed into the locker room. Izzie and Christina were already in there and pulling on their shoes. “Don’t ask,” Meredith spat out the words and quickly opened her locker. She knew they would see the clothes and note they were the same as yesterday. Opening her locker she groaned when all she saw were the dirty scrubs from yesterday. Pulling them out Meredith changed and nearly made a face at the stench coming off of them.
Sighing she pulled her stethoscope around her neck and walked into the hallway. Christina was grinning at her in that way of hers and rocked from side to side as she walked.
“I told you, don’t ask.”
Christina grinned wider and shook her head, “What did you do last night?”
Meredith rolled her eyes and took the charts that Bailey gave her. “Its nothing to talk about, I just, I had a,” she dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned towards Christina, “one night stand.”
Christina grinned and nudged Meredith’s shoulder, “Good for you getting McDreamy out of your system once and for all.”
Meredith nodded and looked down at the charts. There was a doctor listed for a consult called, Sloan. Nudging Christina she pointed at the name, “Who’s that?”
Christina looked down and shrugged, “Don’t know. I hear he’s here temporarily for plastic surgery.”
Nodding Meredith headed down to the room of her patient. Walking in she set the chart down and started to do checks on the patient. She was checking off the last of the labs and writing down the last of his vitals when someone walked in. Looking up Meredith stared as her Adonis from the night before cruised into the patient’s room wearing scrubs.
Clearing her throat Meredith looked down at the chart and rewrote the vitals. The Adonis walked over to the other side of the patient and started to examine the wounds. She could feel his eyes on her and she did her best to ignore it. Coughing Meredith put the chart at the end of the patient’s bed. Walking quickly out of the room Meredith ignored it as Mark said to the patient that he would be back in just on minute. Someone came up behind her and set a hand gently on her lower back.
“Hello Meredith.”
Meredith turned her head and looked over at him, “Hi, um, Mark, I mean Dr. Sloan.” Reaching up she tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to walk a little faster.
He wrapped his fingers into the back of her scrubs and pulled her a little closer to him “You’re always running away from me was I that bad?”
Meredith stopped and turned around looking at him, “Look I just, I can’t do this again.” Waving her hands she started to walk away quickly. He didn’t give up though he kept following her.
“Do what again? We’re not going to have sex in the hallway but I’m not adverse to doing it again,” He leered down at her and crossed his arms over his chest, moving in front of her he stopped in front of her effectively stopping her from running away.
“Get involved,” Meredith waved her hands nervously and then quickly crossed her arms across her chest. She tried to make it look like she was having a casual conversation with him.
He just smiled at her and leaned down closer to her, “We’re not getting involved. We had casual sex and I think we should repeat the experience. With less alcohol and more sex.”
Meredith nearly choked on her tongue. He certainly didn’t no how not to be forward. “You can not say things like that to me.”
“What are you going to do sue me for sexual harassment?”
Shaking her head Meredith dropped her hands and then crossed her arms again. “No, but I also just can’t have you just saying these things to me in this hospital.”
Mark laughed softly and shook his head, “So when do you want me to say these things to?”
Rolling her eyes Meredith reached up and rubbed a hand over her forehead. “Look right now is not a good time to talk about this. I,” Groaning Meredith tried not to freak out.
“When is a good time to talk about it?”
“Some time after work.”
“Meet me at Joe’s?” Mark tilted his head smiling at her.
Meredith nodded, “I need to get my car, but we are not getting drunk and having sex again.” Mark just smirked and turned walking away from Meredith. Sighing Meredith rubbed her hands over her face and went off to find Christina. Christina would understand or at least listen for fifteen minutes.

Sighing Meredith sat at the bar. She was drinking seltzer water because she didn’t want to be tempted with the tequila. As soon as she started drinking she would be tempted and she didn’t want to wind up slightly hung over and lying on the floor of Mark’s hotel room again. Looking at her watch she groaned and leaned back in the stool and swung her legs around. Where was Mark? This was taking far too long.
Finished off the last of the water in her glass she began to tap her fingers nervously on top of the bar. Flipping her head around she checked the door again for her Adonis. Her Adonis? She really was loosing her mind. Maybe she did need a drink to have this conversation. Groaning she leaned her head back and waved Joe down for more water.
“Hitting the bottle early?” The smooth voice came from behind her and slid over her ear.
Whipping her head around she glared at Mark. “Its just seltzer water.” He smiled at her in that superior way of his and slid onto the stool next to hers.
“Oh really? Well I’ll have one of those too.” Mark waved down Joe and asked for a seltzer water.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Meredith turned her head to glare at Mark.
“Well I wanted to talk about the sex thing,” Mark waggled his eyebrows at her. Rolling her eyes Meredith sipped from her glass, “So talk.”
“I want to do it again,” He leaned closer to Meredith picking up his own glass and drinking slowly from it.
Meredith stared transfixed by the movement of his lips over the rim of his glass and the way his tongue slid out to lick the liquid off his top lip. Coughing she took a deeper drink from her glass. “Um, I don’t really think that’s such a good idea.”
Mark smiled, “When is sex ever a good idea? That’s the whole point of having meaningless sex, it’s a bad idea.” He took another drink from his glass and wiggled the glass around in his fingers.
Sighing Meredith looked down into her own glass before looking back at him. “I really can’t do this again?”
Turning his head Mark smirked at her, “Do what again?”
Shaking her head Meredith took a drink from her glass. “It doesn’t matter.”
Reaching out a hand Mark stroked a finger down Meredith’s cheek. “So it doesn’t matter and what we do doesn’t matter to anyone else. So let’s enjoy ourselves.” Leaning in he began to slowly nibble on the curve of her ear still whispering into it. “No one has to know, it can be our dirty little secret.”
Meredith giggled as she felt his tongue slide over her ear and the saliva cooled by his breath along it. “Our secret?” Turning her head she looked at him wide eyed.
“Our secret,” he nodded at her and leaned down nuzzling at her neck. Arching her head back Meredith let her eyes slide closed.
“Our secret.” The words slipped out from between her lips on a breath.

The End.
Please Review.

madscietist @ 2007-02-23T17:23:00

2007-02-23T22:24:27Z

Disclaimer: Oh so not mine. If it was, there would be much more random male nudity.

Notes: So this is my first Greys Anatomy fic and I never like the regular couples, I always get hooked on the odd couples. And Greys Anatomy has given me the Meredith – Mark odd couple. And after not being able to find enough Meredith-Mark I’ve decided to write some of my own. This is starting out as a one shot but it could possibly turn into a series.
Rated: PG-13 for mild mentionings, but nothing too exciting.

His lips brushed over her shoulder, soothing the marks left behind by rubbing his stubbled and bearded chin against her much softer skin. The skin had turned a glaring pink color and contrasted heavily against the surrounding white. When she changed in the locker room in a few hours she would have to put her scrubs top on as quickly as possible. Others would ask about the marks, they would want to know where she had been all night and who had been keeping her up late for the past few weeks.
As she laid her head back against his shoulder and let him brush his lips up her cheek and to her forehead she knew in her heart she couldn’t tell them. It wasn’t that she was ashamed, far be it, she wanted to parade him around but she knew they would never understand. It wasn’t something that you just explained to other people. They would stare at you as if you were crazy and whisper behind your back about how you had gone and done it again. Some days she just wanted to pin a scarlet letter to her scrubs.
His hand was running slowly up and down her arm, his slightly callused palm rubbing against her much smoother arm. The tips of his fingers sent tingles of pleasure running up her arm and into her brain. She wanted to squirm and moan in that moment. He knew it got her going and he was doing it on purpose. He knew they both had to be at work in a few hours and he didn’t even seem to care. But all thought flew out the window when he started to nibble on her ear and lick around the shell. Grinning she let him lay her back on the bed.

When she woke up a few hours later to the harsh ringing of the alarm on her cell phone, Meredith groped for it in the dark. Flipping it open she turned it off and let it drop with a clank back onto the bedside table. The large man beside her made a disgruntled noise and rolled over pulling a pillow over his head. He didn’t have to get up for at least two more hours and didn’t appreciate the interruption. Her body still tingling from the night she slid out of the bed and padded over into the bathroom.
Her morning routine was quick and efficient meant to clean her up as much as possible as quickly as possible. As much as she longed to spend hours in the shower and just let the hot water pulse over her she knew she had to be leaving in less than fifteen minutes. That was her greatest regret about being an intern, loosing those precious little moments to the hustle and rush of the job, like the simple pleasure of standing in the shower for an hour. That was what drove most doctors to do things like drink and have mistresses, when you lost the little things you have to start making up for them in bigger and bolder ways.
Turning off the water she stepped out of the shower. Pulling a towel around herself she stared in surprise when she saw he was sitting up in bed watching her. Even in the dark she could see that lascivious twinkle in his eye. Shaking her head she did a slow turn and pulled off her towel letting it drop in a faux seductive manner. She could hear his snort of laughter in the other room and the creak of the bed as he rolled over and went back to sleep. He brought that out in her sometimes, that teasing casual attitude towards sexuality.
Pulling on her clothes she shut off the bathroom light and walked out into the dark bedroom. He was lying on the bed on his back with an arm thrown over his eyes. Putting her knee on the bed and leaned down until she could press a kiss to his cheek. He smiled even though she knew he didn’t like it when she showed him those little bits of affection. Something he had always impressed upon her was that they weren’t going to give into sentimentality. That he wasn’t that kind of guy.
Sliding away Meredith climbed off the bed and headed out of the hotel room. The drive to Seattle Grace was a quiet one. It gave her a lot of time to contemplate what was going on in her life. It was really only in these quiet moments in the car that she ever had time to think anymore. It had all started out rather childishly. They were both drunk and unhappy about how things had been going with their respective Shepherds. Then there was kissing and naked skin and a lot of alcohol induced great sex. The only real problem with all of this was that it had led to more great sex and lots of sneaking around.
Which meant lots of nights that Meredith would lay awake with his arm slung across her stomach and wonder why she was here. She remembered as soon as he woke up or at least it all became much more clear that didn’t change the fact that it seemed some how wrong. Or at least so complicated that it could only happen on a tv show and never in real life. I mean how did you explain sleeping with your former lover sort of boyfriends ex friend and wife’s ex lover. That was just too much of a mouthful.

The hospital was moving at a frantic pace. Certain times of the day just seemed to bring out certain things in people. Stuck in the pit Meredith slowly stitched up small wound after small wound. Too many people cutting themselves open for no reason these days. No one ever seemed to pay attention anymore when it came to things like knives or other sharp objects. Finally done with what seemed like the worlds smallest finger laceration to ever need stitches Meredith tossed her gloves into a nearby trashcan and began to head towards the cafeteria.
She was halfway down the hallway before a large body slid up behind her. A hand rested lightly on her lower back and when she turned her head and raised an eyebrow he just smirked down at her.
“Afternoon Dr. Grey.”
“Good Afternoon Dr. Sloan,” She smiled slightly and tried to hold back a girlish giggle.
“You looked tired Dr. Grey hard night?”
At that she did roll her eyes, “Not really and not that long either.”
He grinned wider and leaned down close to her ear, “Now that’s hitting alittle below the belt don’t you think?”
“Hardly, you’re a good sized boy you should be able to handle it.” With a twinkle in her eye she pulled away from him and headed down the hall towards the cafeteria.
When she looked over her shoulder she could see him pausing for a minute to watch her walk away. Turning her head back she smiled to herself. Yes, no one would understand why she went to him nearly every night or what he did to her but that really didn’t matter.

The End.
Please review.