Going North
Dec. 16th, 2012 02:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinkhcTitle: Going North
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis - AU
Prompt: Hazing
Medium: FIC
Rating: PG
Word Count: 5,074
Benchmark +50
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: Evan Lorne is an elf without a home, and so he decided to go north for the winter work.
A stocky elf wearing a black leather jacket more suited to a human living in one of the big cities than a toy workshop approached Evan as he stood shivering on the train platform. His coat wasn’t warm enough for the north, as he had feared.
“Are you Lorne?”
“Yes,” Evan replied, shifting his bag of tools and paints into a more comfortable position on his shoulder.
The elf waved a hand. “I’m Rodney, I’m here to take you the rest of the way north.” He held a hand out and Evan shook it, then declined when Rodney nodded towards his pack and offered, “I could carry that for you.”
“It isn’t heavy, thank you.” Which was sad, since the pack contained everything Evan owned. Evan followed him away from the platform, which was nearly vacant of travelers, most elves were already where they needed to be for the season, Evan’s decision to go north had been made at the very last minute. He hoped he had not chosen the wrong path.
“We’ll be taking the Gate, have you been through before?”
Shaking his head, Evan replied quietly, “I’ve never left the grove before.”
That made Rodney pause in mid step and stared at Lorne with wide eyes. “Never? And you came all this way alone the first time? You’re brave. My sister Jeannie brought me the first three times I came North, when I was still an apprentice.”
“I don’t have anyone that could have brought me.” Not anymore, his family had been gone for a very long time. Most of the grove was now gone too, thanks to the wildfires. North and the winter work had been the best of very few options open to him.
Rodney gave him a sad look and nodded. He led the way to an open sleigh. As they approached, Rodney held a hand out and patted the noses of each of the two harnessed reindeer. “Easy now, we’ll be away soon, Jumper old boy.” When Evan approached the second reindeer, his eyes surely as wide as saucers, Rodney glanced over at him and smiled. “Don’t let your feet get under Puddle there. He was aptly named. He’s wrecked the points of many a pointed winter shoe.”
Tentatively, Evan reached a hand out to stroke Jumper’s neck. “They’re so much bigger than the deer back home.”
Chuckling, Rodney nodded. “They have to be, in order to drag the sleighs through the Gate. Especially the big sleigh, fully loaded, that one takes eight of these guys to pull. Hop on up there,” Rodney pointed to the seat that was covered in lush red velvet with gold piping.
He settled on the seat and Rodney climbed up beside him. With a snap of the reins and a click of his tongue, Rodney had the team in motion and the sleigh slid forward across the snow. The wind blew at Evan’s hair and even stirred the tassel at the end of Rodney’s green stocking cap.
His breath caught in his throat as the reindeer took to the air and the sleigh lifted. He couldn’t resist leaning over the side a tiny bit to watch the ground fade away behind them. A strong hand grasped the hem of his woolen jacket and tugged him backwards. “Careful, you don’t want to fall from up here,” Rodney cautioned.
He settled back in his seat and enjoyed the new experience of flying in the open air. It was a little cold, but it was also exhilarating. “This is wonderful!” he exclaimed, smiling over at Rodney, who returned his grin and nodded.
“So what do you do, Lorne?” Rodney asked.
“I paint. What do you do?”
“Computers and engineering.”
“What does that mean?”
“Huh?” Rodney gave him an odd look.
“Com… what you said. I don’t know those words.”
Rodney clucked his tongue. “Oh, you’re one of THOSE elves, the anti-tech set. You seem like a nice sort so let me warn you Lorne; don’t go around preaching about the evils of electronics and the ruination of the toy business and most especially, don’t antagonize the Naughty and Nice Department.”
Antagonize? Evan was completely lost now. “What does the Naughty and Nice Department have to do with electronics?” He wasn’t a complete idiot; he knew what electricity and gadgets were, in principle. And he had no intention of preaching about anything, good or evil, he was just there for the winter work.
“We’ve digitized the entire Naughty and Nice list, the NP - the North Pole - has gone paperless. My team was pivotal in installing the new system, a bit of genius on my part, actually. More hands to do the actual toy making now, less paperwork.” Rodney looked a little smug, but Evan supposed that improving things on a grand scale was probably something to be smug about, so he didn’t fault Rodney his pride in his achievement.
“My grandfather worked on the lists, when he came north for the winter work. He taught me the calligraphy when I was small.” Evan remembered spending many hours sitting with his grandfather, practicing the swirls and curls and swoops of the letters over and over again. He had figured if they didn’t have work for a painter this winter, he could always work the lists. But if what Rodney said were true, then the lists… “No one writes the lists anymore, do they?” he made a motion with his hand, miming writing.
Rodney shook his head. “All data entry now.” He wiggled all his fingers in front of him. “Computers. Electronic tools to collect and store data.”
“Oh.” He would have asked for more information, but Rodney had to pay attention to the team as they approached the Gate, a large stone ring floating in the air. He opened a door on the dash and Evan gawked at the array of glittering crystals. Rodney jabbed a finger at seven of them, each one lighting in turn as he touched it. “Is it magic?” There was so little magic left in the world, so little that Evan had never seen anything magical in his entire life.
“No. Science,” Rodney replied. “The reindeer, of course, come from old magic, descended from the first enchanted team that pulled the first sleigh. But the rest is science.” The Gate began to glow and blue lights spun around the edge. Suddenly there was a loud noise and a splash of blue, just as if an invisible whale had jumped from the sea and crashed down again. Rodney steered the reindeer towards the swirling blue and dove into the pool and disappeared before the sleigh. Then they were sliding through and the world began to tilt and whirl around them. Evan clung to his seat and thought that magic and science were surely one and the same.
And then they were out of the swirling blue and the world was winter. The reindeer flew through a valley of ice and snow as icy flakes swirled around them. The sleigh tilted this way and that as the reindeer rode the air currents. He heard Rodney muttering something about snowstorms and interference and system crashes. He grew nervous when he heard the word crashes, but Rodney seemed to have the sleigh under control, so Evan decided he was grousing about something else.
The lights of the village came into view in the distance and Evan sucked in a breath at the size of the settlement. He had grown up living in the coastal redwoods near the sea. He had heard the stories about the city at the top of the world, every one of his people knew the tales, but to see it for himself was something he would never forget. “It’s beautiful.”
“I guess it is. I forget, sometimes, living here,” Rodney agreed with a nod. He looked over at Evan and stared for a few moments before turning back to the team.
There were five points to the city, like a snowflake. White and blue lights danced on the snowy landscape around the buildings and through the spires that rose from the center and along each point. “So big!”
“Close your mouth, you’ll freeze your tongue, country elf.” Rodney warned, though he laughed as he said it and reached over to tap Evan’s chin with one finger. He had nice eyes, Evan decided. Very blue, like the sea near his home.
“Do you live here all the time?”
Rodney nodded. “I’ve been here most of my adult life. Except for the time when I went to the human lands to study. I have four PHDs out there in their world.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Instead of mocking him, Rodney just laughed and patted his shoulder. “I wish I was still as green as you. You still have the trees in your blood. I lost that a long time ago. A PHD is what you get when you finish a course of study at the human university.”
“Like a prize?”
“Yeah, sort of like a prize. I’m going to set us down on the West Pier, that’s where the reindeer barn is.”
His neck was going to be sore from all the swiveling around he did with his head as they dashed past the various buildings on the way to the barn. When they landed, Evan was slow to follow Rodney from the sleigh. He sat for a few moments, committing his arrival to memory, certain that someday he would look back on the day fondly, as his grandsire had done.
“Hey, c’mon, this way,” Rodney called as he handed the reins off to another elf that had come from the barn.
Shivering, as his heaviest wool coat was still not warm enough for North Pole, he patted the reindeer on his way past them with one mittened hand. Rodney led him inside and through wide, brightly lit corridors. Tinsel, garland, wreaths and ornaments glittered along the ceilings and decked the doors, catching the light from every direction. Everywhere, so much light!
They went inside a tiny room and the door closed behind Evan. Rodney pressed a finger to a design on the wall and then the door opened behind him and they were in a different corridor. More magic?
Evan felt very out of place as Rodney led him through the hallways. He was dressed quite differently from the other elves he saw, his clothing seemed drab and simple compared to the bright colors of the others. He was brought to a room where the baldest elf Evan had ever seen was sitting behind a table staring at a strange box in front of him.
The elf stood and leaned over the table, extending his hand. Evan reached out to clasp it. “Hello, you must be Evan Lorne, I was told by the Head Office to expect you today. I’m Richard Woolsey, I’m in charge of Toy Production. How was your trip through the Gate?” He pulled his hand back.
“It was very strange. Quite exciting,” Evan replied with a grin at Rodney, who was now leaning against the wall, watching him.
“Some take to it, others refuse to ever go through again.” Woolsey waved a hand at an empty chair and Evan perched on the edge of it, nervously hugging the sack in his lap that held his possessions. Woolsey looked at the box again, then over at Evan. “You have no assembly line skills?” When Evan gave him a blank look, he motioned with his hands and clarified, “Making things with your hands.”
“I can paint.”
Woolsey tapped his chin. “We have machines to do most of that now, very few things get painted by hand anymore.”
“I have a steady hand for calligraphy, my grandfather taught me the North Pole script,” Evan said hopefully.
“Again, we’ve automated many of the time consuming tasks.” Woolsey said and behind him, Rodney grunted, but otherwise did not elaborate. “How do you feel about learning a new task? We need someone down in Action Figures.”
Evan gave a mild shrug. “I suppose if that’s all that’s available.”
“Good, good. Now I’m sure you’ll do fine. McKay, please take Lorne down to Action Figures and turn him over to Kavanaugh.”
~*~
This was not what he had imagined doing when he decided to come north. The machines were noisy and the plastic used to make the weird dolls smelled funny. He had been given the job of examining the finished figures as they came down the conveyer belt, making sure there were no sharp edges and that all the limbs moved properly.
Kavanaugh, the head of the department, was tall, wore glasses, had a ponytail and what seemed to be a permanent frown etched on his face. Evan saw him smile just once, and it had not been pleasant.
He had been moving at a good pace, keeping up with the steady flow of little men coming from the machines to his station. He moved their arms and legs, and twisted each head, putting aside any that didn’t meet the standards that had been explained to him.
There was a cocoa break, which he almost spent sitting alone, until Rodney had turned up and sat beside him, offering him a gingerbread cookie. “They never tell the new guys where the cookies are. They like making you find them yourself. They’re around the corner from the cocoa, in the big basket, if you ever want some.”
Accepting the iced, man-shaped cookie, Evan smiled at Rodney. “Thank you, I was feeling a little hungry.”
Rodney gave him an odd little look and then leaned over and whispered, “I think you should watch out for Kavanaugh and his team. They’re notoriously hard on new people.”
“So far it hasn’t been bad. Boring, but not terrible,” Evan replied.
The whistle blew and they had to go back to work. Rodney patted his shoulder and left to go back to his department. Watching him go, Evan realized that Rodney had come from another building just to have his cocoa. He had come into the break room and looked around and gone straight to Evan’s side. It made him feel good, imagining that Rodney had sought him out.
Things started to go wrong after the break. The figures started to come out of the machine at a faster pace, very soon too fast for Evan to keep up. Frantically, he tried to check each one, but he couldn’t do it quickly enough to meet the flow. He ended up dropping two onto the floor in a pile beside him and examining each third figure and sending it along to be packaged.
Eventually, Kavanaugh strolled over, hands clasped behind his back. He looked at Evan, then at the growing pile beside him on the floor. “What have we here? Not able to keep up, are we? You’ll have to make sure that entire pile is checked before you may go to dinner.”
“Yes, sir,” Evan mumbled, reaching for another unnaturally colored doll.
Kavanaugh paused and looked at the cuckoo clock on the wall. “I won’t have you keeping the packing staff late because of your ineptitude.” He hit a button on the machine and the conveyer belt in front of Evan stopped. “Come along, you’ll need to learn how to pack them.”
That was when he saw the nasty little smile cross Kavanaugh’s face, just before he turned away to lead Evan to the packing room. He was shown how to line up the figures to be packaged by the big, noisy machine. Kavanaugh made him do about a dozen before taking him back to his post to continue inspections.
It seemed that the dolls came down the line even faster, he was only able to examine each fourth one when he started back up. By the time the whistle blew, Evan had two huge piles on the floor to each side of him, each higher than his waist. As the other elves filed past him on their way to their dinner, they pointed, laughed and slapped each other on the shoulders when they saw Evan’s predicament. When he saw some of the elves from packaging poke their heads in and snicker gleefully, he suspected that he was the victim of an organized prank. He didn’t like it, but there was nothing to be done. He needed to work.
He continued examining the figures, placing them into a rolling bin that Kavanaugh had pushed over to him for the purpose, since the conveyer belts were shut down for the evening. When he filled the bin, he would need to take them to packaging and wrap them. He figured he had enough of the little dolls stacked up on the floor to fill the bin four or five times over.
Sullenly, he worked the little arms and legs of the ugly little man in his hands. This was a toy? The expression on the little face was angry and snarling. He dropped it into the bin and picked up the next one.
“There you are... oh dear, they got you, didn’t they?” Rodney came through the door and walked over to where Evan was working. “You’ll miss dinner if you’re not there by seven. Show me what you’re doing.” He picked up one of the figures and moved the arms the way Evan was doing. Rather than protest or refuse the help being offered, Evan showed Rodney how to do the check and the process went much more quickly with two of them doing it together.
It turned out to be a very good thing that Rodney had come to find him, because the packing machine had not worked when he turned it on. After making a weird trumpet noise with his lips, Rodney had pulled the side off the intimidating piece of equipment and found a wadded up piece of cardboard gumming up the works. He scowled at it and tossed it aside. Neither of them voiced the opinion that the machine had been deliberately sabotaged.
They were able to finish just in time to get to the dining hall for the meal. His suspicions turned to certainty as Evan passed the elves from Action Figures and Packaging and their jaws dropped in surprise. He saw someone elbow Kavanaugh and toss his chin in Evan’s direction. “You were supposed to finish before coming to dinner, Lorne,” Kavanaugh snapped as Evan neared his table.
“He’s done,” McKay replied sharply. Then he stopped and turned to Evan and said in an unnaturally loud voice, “Hey Evan, did I tell you about the new quality control system we installed? It monitors all the machinery in the production departments and sends a video feed back up to Control. So don’t you worry, we’ll be reviewing the video logs on that machine to figure out why it malfunctioned so that it won’t happen again.”
Evan saw Kavanaugh blanch and his eyes go wide. Rodney took him by the elbow and led him to the other side of the dining hall. ““Miko, Radek, Corrigan, this is Evan. He’s the new guy I was telling you about,” Rodney introduced him to the people sitting at the table he brought him to. Ducking his head, Evan hid his smile and the blush he felt heating his cheeks. Rodney had been talking about him to other people?
“Hello, Evan,” Miko said, patting the chair beside her in invitation.
Nodding in welcome, Radek looked at him and then over at Rodney. “Yes, is as you say.”
Rodney blushed and waved his hand at Radek as he sat beside Evan. “This is my team, ignore most of what they say, they’re very stupid.”
Rather than be angry,they all laughed at Rodney’s words. “Rodney thinks he is smartest elf in the universe,” Radek told him.
“Well, evidence suggests...” Rodney started to say, which made Miko cover her mouth with one hand and giggle, while Radek rolled his eyes. Rodney didn’t finish what he was saying, he reached for a piece of bread instead.
“What brings you north, Evan?” Corrigan asked as he reached for a bowl of vegetables. The food was being placed on the tables in front of them on platters and in bowls to be shared. Evan took a small piece of whatever was in the bowl in front of him, Rodney grunted in disapproval and dropped a second piece on the plate.
“I needed the work, really. And a place to stay for the winter. My village is gone, destroyed. This seemed like the best option, since I don’t have the experience to make it in the human lands,” he answered honestly.
The others looked sad. “Too many villages fell last year, all over the world,” Miko said quietly. They ate in silence for a while. The food was surprisingly good, although he decided he didn’t like the orange vegetables in the syrupy, sticky, sweet sauce.
Stifling a yawn, a thought occurred to Evan. “Uh, Rodney, do you know where I’m supposed to sleep?” He had gone straight to work, his pack with everything he owned was under his chair.
“Woosley didn’t give you a room assignment?”
Evan shook his head. “He sent me straight to work.”
“He’s so concerned with production, he probably forgot. He Gates home every night, he’ll be gone by now. We’ll have to get you squared away tomorrow. There’s a spare bed in my room, you could stay there tonight,” Rodney offered.
“I guess that will be fine, if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.”
Rodney’s room was large, with many objects scattered around that Evan didn’t recognize. He was too tired to give the place more than a cursory examination. He was unnerved by the washing up room, but thankfully, Rodney didn’t mock him, he just showed him how to operate everything. He stripped down to his small clothes and climbed beneath the covers. He was asleep as soon as he put his head down.
~*~
After the morning meal, Rodney took him straight up to Woosley’s office. He made Evan wait outside while he went in to talk to the administrator. After a short time, Rodney came to the door and beckoned to him. When he entered the office, Woolsey gave him a tight smile. “Lorne, good morning. Forgive me my oversight of yesterday. I had planned to place you in the bunkhouse with your department. But, well, after some consideration, perhaps Action Figures isn’t the best fit for someone straight from the woods. I think you might do better working with the reindeer, McKay will take you down to the West Pier. You’ll find a bunk there, and the work might suit you better..”
“Thank you, Mister Woolsey,” Evan was glad he wouldn’t have to go back to Kavanaugh’s department.
Rodney showed him how to operate the transporter, so that he could get to the dining hall on his own for the midday meal. “Look, if you don’t want to sleep in the barn bunkhouse, it can be a little smelly, you can use that spare bed in my room. It’s up to you, there if you want it.”
Smiling gratefully at Rodney, Evan replied, “Let’s see how it goes today. We can meet for the midday meal?”
“Sure. The reindeer guys are a little weird. Nice, but weird,” Rodney finished under his breath as they went out a door to the snowy West Pier.
There were elves and reindeer outside, running all over the place. Evan blinked in surprise at what seemed like chaos before him. An elf in a red hat and scarf spotted Evan and Rodney and called out in warning, “Hey! Watch out for Dancer!”
“Dancer?” Rodney said, looking to the right. “Oh, no.”
“Dancer, no! Dancer stop!” yelled another elf in a striped blue and white scarf. His dark spiky hair was lightly dusted with snow. He was running towards Evan and Rodney, slipping and sliding on the snow, despite his winter boots. “DANCER!”
Before he could react to the warnings, Evan heard a wet snuffling and then he was being licked all over his face, neck and head by an exuberant reindeer. The deer, presumably Dancer, pressed so close that Evan was knocked over, which did not stop the tongue assault, the reindeer followed him down.
Both elves skidded to a halt beside them and wrapped their arms around the huge reindeer, pulling him off Evan. Rodney got his hands under Evan’s arms and hauled him to his feet, brushing the snow off him as he muttered about horny reindeer.
“Sheppard! Mitchell! What the heck? Have you no control down here? The lead team is running amok all over the place.” Rodney pointed at the reindeer cavorting in the snow.
The one in the red hat shook his head and patted Evan’s arm. “Are you okay?” He had a friendly smile. Evan nodded.
Crossing his arms, the one in the striped scarf said, “Don’t worry, McKay, they aren’t amok, they’re just playing a game.” He patted the rump of the reindeer that was rubbing his face against Evan’s arm. “Off with you, Dancer, go play tag. Leave the new guy alone.” The reindeer trotted away after giving Evan’s arm one last bump with his nose.
“Dancer is a bit enthusiastic welcoming new people, I’m Cam, this is John. Woolsey called down, said he was sending someone new. You’re Lorne, I assume?”
“Evan, yes.” He shook their hands when they each offered them.
“I need to go now, before the monkeys wreck my systems. I’ll see you for midday meal, Evan.” He pointed a finger at John’s nose, “No tricks, he had enough yesterday from Kavanaugh’s minions.”
Cam slapped Evan’s shoulder as he waved to McKay. “Ugh, they stuck you in Action Figures? Well, we’ll forgo the traditional stall shoveling, dirt candy canes and reindeer poop initiations, I think you’ve been punished enough for one winter.”
His day was much more pleasant working with Mitchell and Sheppard than with the machines and Kavanaugh. By the time the midday meal came around, he was worn out from exercising with the reindeer. The lead team, the eight that pulled the sled on Christmas Eve, were affectionate, intelligent and rowdy. It seemed to Evan that they didn’t stop moving. He set up an obstacle course for them and kept the times that it took for them to run through it. They were quite competitive, he quickly learned. The fastest two would lead the sleigh, and they were constantly practicing for Christmas Eve. There were other reindeer to care for too, the ones that pulled the other sleds and sleighs.
John had promised that he and Cam would start teaching Evan how to drive the sleighs when midday meal was over, which had him looking forward to the rest of the day. He and Cam had walked to the dining hall with Evan and accompanied him over to the table where Miko, Corrigan, Rodney and Radek were already seated.
“Evan, how’d you cut your face?” Rodney asked, looking him over with concern in his eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had worried, even a little bit, about Evan. It made him feel good.
“I’m fine. I played tag with the reindeer. I caught Vixen and she decided to fly and I was still holding onto her neck. I fell a few feet and landed on the ice. I’m just a little bruised.”
Rodney scowled and glared across the table at Sheppard, who held his hands up and tried to look innocent. “I warned him that Vixen plays rough, and I told him not to hold on when they start to buck.”
“I forgot. It’s fine, Rodney, really. I had fun.”
His assurance seemed to pacify Rodney, and the meal passed pleasantly, with jovial conversation and good natured ribbing. When the whistle blew and it was time to go back to work, Rodney walked beside Evan and then pulled him aside before he could get into the transporter with Sheppard and Mitchell. McKay waved them on.
“Be careful, Evan, okay?” Rodney said. “Fliers are a weird lot.”
He smiled and patted Rodney’s arm. “I’ll be fine, Rodney. It’s nice that you’re concerned, though, it’s been a long time since I had anyone to look out for me.”
“It’s been a long time since I felt the need to...” Rodney blushed. “Uhm, okay, we need to go back to work. I’ll see you later.” Rodney shuffled his feet and jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the transporter. When Evan moved to the door, Rodney cleared his throat. “Uhm, wait,” When Evan turned back, Rodney leaned down and touched their lips together in the barest of kisses. When he pulled away, he looked nervous.
“Oh,” Evan whispered. He stepped into the transporter and Rodney followed. Evan pressed the indicator for the West Pier. When the door opened, he went up on his toes and kissed Rodney’s lips quickly and ducked out the door. His steps were lighter as he went to meet John and Cam by the sled barn.
John and Cam teased him several times about the apparently goofy grin he had on his face for the rest of the day. Evan just laughed it off. He was having too much fun for this to be work; flying the sleighs was exciting, once he got the hang of it. Mitchell and Sheppard were a little different than the other elves Evan had met, but he thought that he understood them. Maybe that made him weird too, but he didn’t care.
When he met Rodney for dinner, he was grinning broadly, and he babbled on about flying so much that Rodney reached over and stuffed a dinner roll in his mouth and laughingly told him to eat his meal before it got cold. He grinned and shoveled food into his mouth.
When the meal was almost done, Evan looked around the table at his new friends. His future looked so much better now. “I’m glad I came north,” he told them. He looked straight at Rodney and returned his smile. “So glad I came north.”
The End
Also for slashing_lorne 12 Days of Lorne
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis - AU
Prompt: Hazing
Medium: FIC
Rating: PG
Word Count: 5,074
Benchmark +50
Warnings: No standard warnings apply
Summary: Evan Lorne is an elf without a home, and so he decided to go north for the winter work.
A stocky elf wearing a black leather jacket more suited to a human living in one of the big cities than a toy workshop approached Evan as he stood shivering on the train platform. His coat wasn’t warm enough for the north, as he had feared.
“Are you Lorne?”
“Yes,” Evan replied, shifting his bag of tools and paints into a more comfortable position on his shoulder.
The elf waved a hand. “I’m Rodney, I’m here to take you the rest of the way north.” He held a hand out and Evan shook it, then declined when Rodney nodded towards his pack and offered, “I could carry that for you.”
“It isn’t heavy, thank you.” Which was sad, since the pack contained everything Evan owned. Evan followed him away from the platform, which was nearly vacant of travelers, most elves were already where they needed to be for the season, Evan’s decision to go north had been made at the very last minute. He hoped he had not chosen the wrong path.
“We’ll be taking the Gate, have you been through before?”
Shaking his head, Evan replied quietly, “I’ve never left the grove before.”
That made Rodney pause in mid step and stared at Lorne with wide eyes. “Never? And you came all this way alone the first time? You’re brave. My sister Jeannie brought me the first three times I came North, when I was still an apprentice.”
“I don’t have anyone that could have brought me.” Not anymore, his family had been gone for a very long time. Most of the grove was now gone too, thanks to the wildfires. North and the winter work had been the best of very few options open to him.
Rodney gave him a sad look and nodded. He led the way to an open sleigh. As they approached, Rodney held a hand out and patted the noses of each of the two harnessed reindeer. “Easy now, we’ll be away soon, Jumper old boy.” When Evan approached the second reindeer, his eyes surely as wide as saucers, Rodney glanced over at him and smiled. “Don’t let your feet get under Puddle there. He was aptly named. He’s wrecked the points of many a pointed winter shoe.”
Tentatively, Evan reached a hand out to stroke Jumper’s neck. “They’re so much bigger than the deer back home.”
Chuckling, Rodney nodded. “They have to be, in order to drag the sleighs through the Gate. Especially the big sleigh, fully loaded, that one takes eight of these guys to pull. Hop on up there,” Rodney pointed to the seat that was covered in lush red velvet with gold piping.
He settled on the seat and Rodney climbed up beside him. With a snap of the reins and a click of his tongue, Rodney had the team in motion and the sleigh slid forward across the snow. The wind blew at Evan’s hair and even stirred the tassel at the end of Rodney’s green stocking cap.
His breath caught in his throat as the reindeer took to the air and the sleigh lifted. He couldn’t resist leaning over the side a tiny bit to watch the ground fade away behind them. A strong hand grasped the hem of his woolen jacket and tugged him backwards. “Careful, you don’t want to fall from up here,” Rodney cautioned.
He settled back in his seat and enjoyed the new experience of flying in the open air. It was a little cold, but it was also exhilarating. “This is wonderful!” he exclaimed, smiling over at Rodney, who returned his grin and nodded.
“So what do you do, Lorne?” Rodney asked.
“I paint. What do you do?”
“Computers and engineering.”
“What does that mean?”
“Huh?” Rodney gave him an odd look.
“Com… what you said. I don’t know those words.”
Rodney clucked his tongue. “Oh, you’re one of THOSE elves, the anti-tech set. You seem like a nice sort so let me warn you Lorne; don’t go around preaching about the evils of electronics and the ruination of the toy business and most especially, don’t antagonize the Naughty and Nice Department.”
Antagonize? Evan was completely lost now. “What does the Naughty and Nice Department have to do with electronics?” He wasn’t a complete idiot; he knew what electricity and gadgets were, in principle. And he had no intention of preaching about anything, good or evil, he was just there for the winter work.
“We’ve digitized the entire Naughty and Nice list, the NP - the North Pole - has gone paperless. My team was pivotal in installing the new system, a bit of genius on my part, actually. More hands to do the actual toy making now, less paperwork.” Rodney looked a little smug, but Evan supposed that improving things on a grand scale was probably something to be smug about, so he didn’t fault Rodney his pride in his achievement.
“My grandfather worked on the lists, when he came north for the winter work. He taught me the calligraphy when I was small.” Evan remembered spending many hours sitting with his grandfather, practicing the swirls and curls and swoops of the letters over and over again. He had figured if they didn’t have work for a painter this winter, he could always work the lists. But if what Rodney said were true, then the lists… “No one writes the lists anymore, do they?” he made a motion with his hand, miming writing.
Rodney shook his head. “All data entry now.” He wiggled all his fingers in front of him. “Computers. Electronic tools to collect and store data.”
“Oh.” He would have asked for more information, but Rodney had to pay attention to the team as they approached the Gate, a large stone ring floating in the air. He opened a door on the dash and Evan gawked at the array of glittering crystals. Rodney jabbed a finger at seven of them, each one lighting in turn as he touched it. “Is it magic?” There was so little magic left in the world, so little that Evan had never seen anything magical in his entire life.
“No. Science,” Rodney replied. “The reindeer, of course, come from old magic, descended from the first enchanted team that pulled the first sleigh. But the rest is science.” The Gate began to glow and blue lights spun around the edge. Suddenly there was a loud noise and a splash of blue, just as if an invisible whale had jumped from the sea and crashed down again. Rodney steered the reindeer towards the swirling blue and dove into the pool and disappeared before the sleigh. Then they were sliding through and the world began to tilt and whirl around them. Evan clung to his seat and thought that magic and science were surely one and the same.
And then they were out of the swirling blue and the world was winter. The reindeer flew through a valley of ice and snow as icy flakes swirled around them. The sleigh tilted this way and that as the reindeer rode the air currents. He heard Rodney muttering something about snowstorms and interference and system crashes. He grew nervous when he heard the word crashes, but Rodney seemed to have the sleigh under control, so Evan decided he was grousing about something else.
The lights of the village came into view in the distance and Evan sucked in a breath at the size of the settlement. He had grown up living in the coastal redwoods near the sea. He had heard the stories about the city at the top of the world, every one of his people knew the tales, but to see it for himself was something he would never forget. “It’s beautiful.”
“I guess it is. I forget, sometimes, living here,” Rodney agreed with a nod. He looked over at Evan and stared for a few moments before turning back to the team.
There were five points to the city, like a snowflake. White and blue lights danced on the snowy landscape around the buildings and through the spires that rose from the center and along each point. “So big!”
“Close your mouth, you’ll freeze your tongue, country elf.” Rodney warned, though he laughed as he said it and reached over to tap Evan’s chin with one finger. He had nice eyes, Evan decided. Very blue, like the sea near his home.
“Do you live here all the time?”
Rodney nodded. “I’ve been here most of my adult life. Except for the time when I went to the human lands to study. I have four PHDs out there in their world.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Instead of mocking him, Rodney just laughed and patted his shoulder. “I wish I was still as green as you. You still have the trees in your blood. I lost that a long time ago. A PHD is what you get when you finish a course of study at the human university.”
“Like a prize?”
“Yeah, sort of like a prize. I’m going to set us down on the West Pier, that’s where the reindeer barn is.”
His neck was going to be sore from all the swiveling around he did with his head as they dashed past the various buildings on the way to the barn. When they landed, Evan was slow to follow Rodney from the sleigh. He sat for a few moments, committing his arrival to memory, certain that someday he would look back on the day fondly, as his grandsire had done.
“Hey, c’mon, this way,” Rodney called as he handed the reins off to another elf that had come from the barn.
Shivering, as his heaviest wool coat was still not warm enough for North Pole, he patted the reindeer on his way past them with one mittened hand. Rodney led him inside and through wide, brightly lit corridors. Tinsel, garland, wreaths and ornaments glittered along the ceilings and decked the doors, catching the light from every direction. Everywhere, so much light!
They went inside a tiny room and the door closed behind Evan. Rodney pressed a finger to a design on the wall and then the door opened behind him and they were in a different corridor. More magic?
Evan felt very out of place as Rodney led him through the hallways. He was dressed quite differently from the other elves he saw, his clothing seemed drab and simple compared to the bright colors of the others. He was brought to a room where the baldest elf Evan had ever seen was sitting behind a table staring at a strange box in front of him.
The elf stood and leaned over the table, extending his hand. Evan reached out to clasp it. “Hello, you must be Evan Lorne, I was told by the Head Office to expect you today. I’m Richard Woolsey, I’m in charge of Toy Production. How was your trip through the Gate?” He pulled his hand back.
“It was very strange. Quite exciting,” Evan replied with a grin at Rodney, who was now leaning against the wall, watching him.
“Some take to it, others refuse to ever go through again.” Woolsey waved a hand at an empty chair and Evan perched on the edge of it, nervously hugging the sack in his lap that held his possessions. Woolsey looked at the box again, then over at Evan. “You have no assembly line skills?” When Evan gave him a blank look, he motioned with his hands and clarified, “Making things with your hands.”
“I can paint.”
Woolsey tapped his chin. “We have machines to do most of that now, very few things get painted by hand anymore.”
“I have a steady hand for calligraphy, my grandfather taught me the North Pole script,” Evan said hopefully.
“Again, we’ve automated many of the time consuming tasks.” Woolsey said and behind him, Rodney grunted, but otherwise did not elaborate. “How do you feel about learning a new task? We need someone down in Action Figures.”
Evan gave a mild shrug. “I suppose if that’s all that’s available.”
“Good, good. Now I’m sure you’ll do fine. McKay, please take Lorne down to Action Figures and turn him over to Kavanaugh.”
This was not what he had imagined doing when he decided to come north. The machines were noisy and the plastic used to make the weird dolls smelled funny. He had been given the job of examining the finished figures as they came down the conveyer belt, making sure there were no sharp edges and that all the limbs moved properly.
Kavanaugh, the head of the department, was tall, wore glasses, had a ponytail and what seemed to be a permanent frown etched on his face. Evan saw him smile just once, and it had not been pleasant.
He had been moving at a good pace, keeping up with the steady flow of little men coming from the machines to his station. He moved their arms and legs, and twisted each head, putting aside any that didn’t meet the standards that had been explained to him.
There was a cocoa break, which he almost spent sitting alone, until Rodney had turned up and sat beside him, offering him a gingerbread cookie. “They never tell the new guys where the cookies are. They like making you find them yourself. They’re around the corner from the cocoa, in the big basket, if you ever want some.”
Accepting the iced, man-shaped cookie, Evan smiled at Rodney. “Thank you, I was feeling a little hungry.”
Rodney gave him an odd little look and then leaned over and whispered, “I think you should watch out for Kavanaugh and his team. They’re notoriously hard on new people.”
“So far it hasn’t been bad. Boring, but not terrible,” Evan replied.
The whistle blew and they had to go back to work. Rodney patted his shoulder and left to go back to his department. Watching him go, Evan realized that Rodney had come from another building just to have his cocoa. He had come into the break room and looked around and gone straight to Evan’s side. It made him feel good, imagining that Rodney had sought him out.
Things started to go wrong after the break. The figures started to come out of the machine at a faster pace, very soon too fast for Evan to keep up. Frantically, he tried to check each one, but he couldn’t do it quickly enough to meet the flow. He ended up dropping two onto the floor in a pile beside him and examining each third figure and sending it along to be packaged.
Eventually, Kavanaugh strolled over, hands clasped behind his back. He looked at Evan, then at the growing pile beside him on the floor. “What have we here? Not able to keep up, are we? You’ll have to make sure that entire pile is checked before you may go to dinner.”
“Yes, sir,” Evan mumbled, reaching for another unnaturally colored doll.
Kavanaugh paused and looked at the cuckoo clock on the wall. “I won’t have you keeping the packing staff late because of your ineptitude.” He hit a button on the machine and the conveyer belt in front of Evan stopped. “Come along, you’ll need to learn how to pack them.”
That was when he saw the nasty little smile cross Kavanaugh’s face, just before he turned away to lead Evan to the packing room. He was shown how to line up the figures to be packaged by the big, noisy machine. Kavanaugh made him do about a dozen before taking him back to his post to continue inspections.
It seemed that the dolls came down the line even faster, he was only able to examine each fourth one when he started back up. By the time the whistle blew, Evan had two huge piles on the floor to each side of him, each higher than his waist. As the other elves filed past him on their way to their dinner, they pointed, laughed and slapped each other on the shoulders when they saw Evan’s predicament. When he saw some of the elves from packaging poke their heads in and snicker gleefully, he suspected that he was the victim of an organized prank. He didn’t like it, but there was nothing to be done. He needed to work.
He continued examining the figures, placing them into a rolling bin that Kavanaugh had pushed over to him for the purpose, since the conveyer belts were shut down for the evening. When he filled the bin, he would need to take them to packaging and wrap them. He figured he had enough of the little dolls stacked up on the floor to fill the bin four or five times over.
Sullenly, he worked the little arms and legs of the ugly little man in his hands. This was a toy? The expression on the little face was angry and snarling. He dropped it into the bin and picked up the next one.
“There you are... oh dear, they got you, didn’t they?” Rodney came through the door and walked over to where Evan was working. “You’ll miss dinner if you’re not there by seven. Show me what you’re doing.” He picked up one of the figures and moved the arms the way Evan was doing. Rather than protest or refuse the help being offered, Evan showed Rodney how to do the check and the process went much more quickly with two of them doing it together.
It turned out to be a very good thing that Rodney had come to find him, because the packing machine had not worked when he turned it on. After making a weird trumpet noise with his lips, Rodney had pulled the side off the intimidating piece of equipment and found a wadded up piece of cardboard gumming up the works. He scowled at it and tossed it aside. Neither of them voiced the opinion that the machine had been deliberately sabotaged.
They were able to finish just in time to get to the dining hall for the meal. His suspicions turned to certainty as Evan passed the elves from Action Figures and Packaging and their jaws dropped in surprise. He saw someone elbow Kavanaugh and toss his chin in Evan’s direction. “You were supposed to finish before coming to dinner, Lorne,” Kavanaugh snapped as Evan neared his table.
“He’s done,” McKay replied sharply. Then he stopped and turned to Evan and said in an unnaturally loud voice, “Hey Evan, did I tell you about the new quality control system we installed? It monitors all the machinery in the production departments and sends a video feed back up to Control. So don’t you worry, we’ll be reviewing the video logs on that machine to figure out why it malfunctioned so that it won’t happen again.”
Evan saw Kavanaugh blanch and his eyes go wide. Rodney took him by the elbow and led him to the other side of the dining hall. ““Miko, Radek, Corrigan, this is Evan. He’s the new guy I was telling you about,” Rodney introduced him to the people sitting at the table he brought him to. Ducking his head, Evan hid his smile and the blush he felt heating his cheeks. Rodney had been talking about him to other people?
“Hello, Evan,” Miko said, patting the chair beside her in invitation.
Nodding in welcome, Radek looked at him and then over at Rodney. “Yes, is as you say.”
Rodney blushed and waved his hand at Radek as he sat beside Evan. “This is my team, ignore most of what they say, they’re very stupid.”
Rather than be angry,they all laughed at Rodney’s words. “Rodney thinks he is smartest elf in the universe,” Radek told him.
“Well, evidence suggests...” Rodney started to say, which made Miko cover her mouth with one hand and giggle, while Radek rolled his eyes. Rodney didn’t finish what he was saying, he reached for a piece of bread instead.
“What brings you north, Evan?” Corrigan asked as he reached for a bowl of vegetables. The food was being placed on the tables in front of them on platters and in bowls to be shared. Evan took a small piece of whatever was in the bowl in front of him, Rodney grunted in disapproval and dropped a second piece on the plate.
“I needed the work, really. And a place to stay for the winter. My village is gone, destroyed. This seemed like the best option, since I don’t have the experience to make it in the human lands,” he answered honestly.
The others looked sad. “Too many villages fell last year, all over the world,” Miko said quietly. They ate in silence for a while. The food was surprisingly good, although he decided he didn’t like the orange vegetables in the syrupy, sticky, sweet sauce.
Stifling a yawn, a thought occurred to Evan. “Uh, Rodney, do you know where I’m supposed to sleep?” He had gone straight to work, his pack with everything he owned was under his chair.
“Woosley didn’t give you a room assignment?”
Evan shook his head. “He sent me straight to work.”
“He’s so concerned with production, he probably forgot. He Gates home every night, he’ll be gone by now. We’ll have to get you squared away tomorrow. There’s a spare bed in my room, you could stay there tonight,” Rodney offered.
“I guess that will be fine, if you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.”
Rodney’s room was large, with many objects scattered around that Evan didn’t recognize. He was too tired to give the place more than a cursory examination. He was unnerved by the washing up room, but thankfully, Rodney didn’t mock him, he just showed him how to operate everything. He stripped down to his small clothes and climbed beneath the covers. He was asleep as soon as he put his head down.
After the morning meal, Rodney took him straight up to Woosley’s office. He made Evan wait outside while he went in to talk to the administrator. After a short time, Rodney came to the door and beckoned to him. When he entered the office, Woolsey gave him a tight smile. “Lorne, good morning. Forgive me my oversight of yesterday. I had planned to place you in the bunkhouse with your department. But, well, after some consideration, perhaps Action Figures isn’t the best fit for someone straight from the woods. I think you might do better working with the reindeer, McKay will take you down to the West Pier. You’ll find a bunk there, and the work might suit you better..”
“Thank you, Mister Woolsey,” Evan was glad he wouldn’t have to go back to Kavanaugh’s department.
Rodney showed him how to operate the transporter, so that he could get to the dining hall on his own for the midday meal. “Look, if you don’t want to sleep in the barn bunkhouse, it can be a little smelly, you can use that spare bed in my room. It’s up to you, there if you want it.”
Smiling gratefully at Rodney, Evan replied, “Let’s see how it goes today. We can meet for the midday meal?”
“Sure. The reindeer guys are a little weird. Nice, but weird,” Rodney finished under his breath as they went out a door to the snowy West Pier.
There were elves and reindeer outside, running all over the place. Evan blinked in surprise at what seemed like chaos before him. An elf in a red hat and scarf spotted Evan and Rodney and called out in warning, “Hey! Watch out for Dancer!”
“Dancer?” Rodney said, looking to the right. “Oh, no.”
“Dancer, no! Dancer stop!” yelled another elf in a striped blue and white scarf. His dark spiky hair was lightly dusted with snow. He was running towards Evan and Rodney, slipping and sliding on the snow, despite his winter boots. “DANCER!”
Before he could react to the warnings, Evan heard a wet snuffling and then he was being licked all over his face, neck and head by an exuberant reindeer. The deer, presumably Dancer, pressed so close that Evan was knocked over, which did not stop the tongue assault, the reindeer followed him down.
Both elves skidded to a halt beside them and wrapped their arms around the huge reindeer, pulling him off Evan. Rodney got his hands under Evan’s arms and hauled him to his feet, brushing the snow off him as he muttered about horny reindeer.
“Sheppard! Mitchell! What the heck? Have you no control down here? The lead team is running amok all over the place.” Rodney pointed at the reindeer cavorting in the snow.
The one in the red hat shook his head and patted Evan’s arm. “Are you okay?” He had a friendly smile. Evan nodded.
Crossing his arms, the one in the striped scarf said, “Don’t worry, McKay, they aren’t amok, they’re just playing a game.” He patted the rump of the reindeer that was rubbing his face against Evan’s arm. “Off with you, Dancer, go play tag. Leave the new guy alone.” The reindeer trotted away after giving Evan’s arm one last bump with his nose.
“Dancer is a bit enthusiastic welcoming new people, I’m Cam, this is John. Woolsey called down, said he was sending someone new. You’re Lorne, I assume?”
“Evan, yes.” He shook their hands when they each offered them.
“I need to go now, before the monkeys wreck my systems. I’ll see you for midday meal, Evan.” He pointed a finger at John’s nose, “No tricks, he had enough yesterday from Kavanaugh’s minions.”
Cam slapped Evan’s shoulder as he waved to McKay. “Ugh, they stuck you in Action Figures? Well, we’ll forgo the traditional stall shoveling, dirt candy canes and reindeer poop initiations, I think you’ve been punished enough for one winter.”
His day was much more pleasant working with Mitchell and Sheppard than with the machines and Kavanaugh. By the time the midday meal came around, he was worn out from exercising with the reindeer. The lead team, the eight that pulled the sled on Christmas Eve, were affectionate, intelligent and rowdy. It seemed to Evan that they didn’t stop moving. He set up an obstacle course for them and kept the times that it took for them to run through it. They were quite competitive, he quickly learned. The fastest two would lead the sleigh, and they were constantly practicing for Christmas Eve. There were other reindeer to care for too, the ones that pulled the other sleds and sleighs.
John had promised that he and Cam would start teaching Evan how to drive the sleighs when midday meal was over, which had him looking forward to the rest of the day. He and Cam had walked to the dining hall with Evan and accompanied him over to the table where Miko, Corrigan, Rodney and Radek were already seated.
“Evan, how’d you cut your face?” Rodney asked, looking him over with concern in his eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had worried, even a little bit, about Evan. It made him feel good.
“I’m fine. I played tag with the reindeer. I caught Vixen and she decided to fly and I was still holding onto her neck. I fell a few feet and landed on the ice. I’m just a little bruised.”
Rodney scowled and glared across the table at Sheppard, who held his hands up and tried to look innocent. “I warned him that Vixen plays rough, and I told him not to hold on when they start to buck.”
“I forgot. It’s fine, Rodney, really. I had fun.”
His assurance seemed to pacify Rodney, and the meal passed pleasantly, with jovial conversation and good natured ribbing. When the whistle blew and it was time to go back to work, Rodney walked beside Evan and then pulled him aside before he could get into the transporter with Sheppard and Mitchell. McKay waved them on.
“Be careful, Evan, okay?” Rodney said. “Fliers are a weird lot.”
He smiled and patted Rodney’s arm. “I’ll be fine, Rodney. It’s nice that you’re concerned, though, it’s been a long time since I had anyone to look out for me.”
“It’s been a long time since I felt the need to...” Rodney blushed. “Uhm, okay, we need to go back to work. I’ll see you later.” Rodney shuffled his feet and jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the transporter. When Evan moved to the door, Rodney cleared his throat. “Uhm, wait,” When Evan turned back, Rodney leaned down and touched their lips together in the barest of kisses. When he pulled away, he looked nervous.
“Oh,” Evan whispered. He stepped into the transporter and Rodney followed. Evan pressed the indicator for the West Pier. When the door opened, he went up on his toes and kissed Rodney’s lips quickly and ducked out the door. His steps were lighter as he went to meet John and Cam by the sled barn.
John and Cam teased him several times about the apparently goofy grin he had on his face for the rest of the day. Evan just laughed it off. He was having too much fun for this to be work; flying the sleighs was exciting, once he got the hang of it. Mitchell and Sheppard were a little different than the other elves Evan had met, but he thought that he understood them. Maybe that made him weird too, but he didn’t care.
When he met Rodney for dinner, he was grinning broadly, and he babbled on about flying so much that Rodney reached over and stuffed a dinner roll in his mouth and laughingly told him to eat his meal before it got cold. He grinned and shoveled food into his mouth.
When the meal was almost done, Evan looked around the table at his new friends. His future looked so much better now. “I’m glad I came north,” he told them. He looked straight at Rodney and returned his smile. “So glad I came north.”
The End
Also for slashing_lorne 12 Days of Lorne