Chapter 12

Sightseeing was never my thing, but doing it in the city you once lived in a thousand years after you actually lived...is a whooooole different matter.

"Where are we going now?", I ask Jack.

His eyes are snapping open.

"Oh, you're done? How about going to go to...where did you live again?"

"Washington D.C.", I say. I know I haven't even told him once where I once lived. Even when I was rarely in town.

There's a silence that lasts a minute.

"I...I will take a look at the computer, if you'll excuse...."

He walks to a computer and comes back after a few minutes.

"It's district 16", he explaines and goes to a transporter.

"Mh...not much imagination, don't you think?", I ask and join him at the transporter.

He types in the number of the district and just scruggs.

"Didn't make them, did I?"

In seconds I find myself in a new place. A wide area and at the ends walls of glass grow in the heaven just like they did in the other parts I visited.

But still it is different here. Here is nature. Trees, grass, earth, flowers. The air smelled like life. There is no building.  Just the platform with the keyboard.

A deer steps out of the bushes and comes towards me. It seemes to have lost his fear from humans. The deer licks my hand.

Jack takes out something from his pocket and hands it to the deer. It eats the something and I realise it is something to eat.

"That's unbelievable...", I mumble, "In all this technique, with all this, you still kept the nature..."

"This is a district", Jack states, "All districts are biotopes. We get fresh air, food and everything else we need and we can study the animals, plants and whatever we find in a saver place, thats surrounded by water."

"Unbelievable...", I breathe out again and look after the deer that just leaves.

"You want to see more?", he asks me.

"Offcourse!"

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We had spent the whole day looking what the earth had become like. And now we sit in a café.

I order a black coffee.

"And what do you think about us?", Jack asks after he ordered his chocomilk .

"I think...the world has changed. It's different to the one I knew, but somehow I've known that", I sigh, "It's no longer my home. I'm afraid it never really was... Atlantis had become my home long time ago."

"Understandable", Jack says,"Atlantis is more beautiful than any place in the universe I've ever seen."

"Yeah...the first day I got there, I thought I was dreaming. We weren't able to get back, but we all knew that this would happen. And we didn't fear it. After a few months we started calling it home. We got used to the sound of the waves, the stars..."

"I grew up in this city. My parents too. I never knew anything else. When I left the planet for the school on Athos I nearly cried, but I love the adventure. That's why I go on missions."

"Yeah, John was just like that. Couldn't sit down for a moment. And his reports always came too late", I said, looking at the passing people in clothes, which remind me of uniforms. Straight and correct.

"Atlantis had slowly become my home. Like I said. When I left for earth I couldn't sleep and all was...different. We bad spent a year, searching for a way to get back, but when we were there...somehow we just wanted back home. I mean...Atlantis."

I think back to the moment I stepped  through the gate...

"Dr. Weir, major Sheppard. It's good to see you two back home."

I smile.

"It's nice to be back home", I answer.

"The IOA had sent a fraction. We'd like you to come to the briefing tomorrow at 1000", General Landry says.

"Sure sir", the major anwers.

"No major", Hank said, "Just the Dr."

The way he'd said major Sheppards rank was weird. He said it like Sheppard was not worth that much and I already have a bad feeling.

Later that day I drive to Simons house. I knock at the door nervously. I don't want to know how I look like. I'm tired and feel like a car had hit me.

The door opens and the smile on Simons face fades to surprise, but there is something else.

"Elizabeth?", he asks.

"Hello, Simon", I say smiling.

We are both saying nothing. We just look at each other. It's an awkwardeness that's so thick, I can hardly breathe.

"Come in", he said after a while.

I do so and when my feet hit the ground I have an odd feeling. The house smells different. As if-

"Come take a seat at the couch", Simon says and hurries in the kitchen, "Tell me how it's been. What happened."

"Well... first we had no energy and wvery single time we found some either the people on the planet hit our asses, the ZPM, what is kind of a huge battery, was empthy or the wraith tried eating us."

"Wraith?"

"Yeah. Some gray-green guys that suck you life out off your chest", I say, "At least they think Atlantis is destroyed. My 2IC nearly died by putting a naquada generator in the atmosphere. He would have died, if not Colonel Coldwell had beamed him out."

"That doesn't sound really safe", Simon says, placing a cup of coffee in front of me.

"It's not, but it's beautiful there. When you stand at a balcony at night, you can see so many stars. It's unbelievably. When you sleep in you can hear the waves crashing at the piers and the air is salty and fresh. Every day feels like a dream. No matter how many enemys are behind you, no matter what you went through the day, you know that the city saves you", I lean closer and wisper, "I know that might sound weird, but it's like you could feel the aura of Atlantis. Like a soul."

Simon smiles.

"That really sounds...great."