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Open Window to Your Thoughts - Stargate: Atlantis - Evan Lorne/David Parrish - Words: 1,534
Written for the Parrish/Lorne Thing a Thon; Prompt: Parrish comes across a lost sketch pad dropped in the hallway.
Summary: David Parrish isn't an artist, but he can see the appeal.
Content Notes: None. PG-13
On AO3: Open Window to Your Thoughts
It was first thing in the morning when David Parrish nearly fell over the sketchbook. It was a standard sized sketchbook, artist quality paper and a yellow cover that had pencil doodles covering it until the yellow was only visible in the backgrounds of various sketches. David - having dropped his own sketchbook, his laptop that was in a case for just such occasions, and a pair of pots that thankfully didn't shatter on impact - picked up the stray sketchbook, stacked it with his own, picked everything off the floor and headed down to the greenhouse.
He was already late for the departmental meeting, he was usually running about twenty minutes behind schedule and that was on a good day, and it was just as likely that the sketchbook belonged to one of the other botanists. They were the only ones who really used them, detailed drawings accompanied by photographs were still one of the best ways to document plant life, though some people in the exobiology and anthropology departments supplemented their reports with drawings as well. But this far toward the south pier, well, no one really came out here but the botanists and the people who thought that having a picnic in a greenhouse devoted to science was a good idea. It wasn't a good idea, and David had sent out several emails to that effect and had Dr. Weir make an announcement at one of the city wide meetings without seeming to make an impression on the rest of the expedition.
The meeting went quickly enough, David making his case for using a section of the main greenhouse to make a garden that was similar to one of the ones he'd seen on P3F-821. The department head had agreed, but only if he could get a team to take him on a return trip for the rest of the plants he would need. The rest of the botanists had nodded sympathetically when he'd just sighed; getting a team to go on a botanical expedition, even when the botanist in question had off-world experience, was difficult at best. The military and the 'hard' sciences all claimed that their work took priority and the science based missions frequently were delayed for months. David didn't mind so much, most of the time, because he liked staying alive and knew that the military members of the expedition were the only thing between him and a whole army of Wraith. But, sometimes, it would be nice if the rest of the expedition remembered that botanists actually performed life saving work and were instrumental in drug research and a whole host of other areas. They weren't just gardeners or people looking at pretty flowers all day.
He spent the rest of the day in what he termed 'his greenhouse'. While it wasn't technically even his own workspace, no one else worked out there and David was free to turn up some music and work at his leisure without running into anyone else's plant beds or poisonous leaves. It was late, well past when dinner was usually served when David came to a stopping place for the night, pausing at one of the sinks to wash off his hands and arms and pull his shirt back on, before he went back to the small office-style area he'd set up in the front corner and started up his laptop. When he moved his laptop, intent on updating growth charts and notes that he'd taken on the progress of several plants, he realized that he still had the rogue notebook and hadn't asked around at the meeting.
David turned on the small lamp that he'd salvaged from the engineering department and flipped open the front cover expecting to find a name. Instead, he found a beautiful sketch of Atlantis from the sky, probably from a puddle jumper considering the angle. He moved so that he was closer to the lamp, his laptop and plant charts completely forgotten as he started turning pages. A lot of the early pictures were of the city; from balconies, from the piers, and one of the Atlantis under attack by the Wraith. The drawing was eerie; David remembered the attack well, remembered hiding with a small group of civilians with a radio and handguns and waiting for evacuation orders. But the drawing seemed to capture the city at it's strongest, how it held up under the attack and survived time and again, and David found that incredibly beautiful.
As he continued through the book he started finding sketches of scenes on planets, a few that he recognized from the mainland, but most of them were off-world. These sketches starting changing, moving from scenes of villages, civilizations and architecture to forests and plains. Plants started to appear in close-up, the book starting to look much more like that of a botanist, but still clearly the work of an artist. David paused on one of the pictures, recognizing a tree that was sketched there as being from P3X-686, the lower gravity on the planet letting the branches curve and swoop in ways that would never exist on Earth. There was a figure at the base of the tree, his head tipped back with a look of contentment that made David smile just looking at the picture. It took him a minute to realize that the figure was a depiction of him, which meant that the sketchbook belonged to someone that had been on that planet.
He kept turning pages as he tried to think back to last month and remember who had been on the team that day. David noticed that he was starting to appear more and more often in the drawings, usually occupied with examining the local flora but sometimes just sitting and staring in the distance or leaning back during a break. He immediately recognized the background in the last drawing; it was his greenhouse. In the picture he was kneeling in one of the plant beds, carefully loosening the roots of a particularly delicate plant that bore a strong resemblance to an acroptilon repens.
"I was hoping that someone would find that. Not sure that I wanted that someone to be you, but I'm glad that it isn't lost somewhere."
David looked up, unsurprised to see Major Evan Lorne standing in the doorway. Outwardly he looked the paragon of the calm and suave military man, but by the way one of his hands was tucked against the side of his belt he could see that the Major was nervous. "Glad to see I guessed right. I would have guessed Coughlin," David said, naming one of Lorne's teammates, "but I've seen some of his attempts at stick figures."
"You don't mind?" he asked, looking down at the drawing of David.
David thought for a moment, trying to decide if he minded Lorne hanging around his greenhouse and drawing him. Major Lorne was the only team leader who let David come out with them, and hadn't seem put out the two times David had approached him and asked if his team was available for a botanical expedition. "I don't mind at all, Major."
"Call me Evan," he replied quickly, ducking his head slightly. "Have you had dinner yet?"
Closing the sketchbook, David handed it back to Evan and smiled, wondering just how likely it was that Evan had left the sketchbook for him to find. "I haven't, though I think you already know that." David raised his eyebrows and to his amusement Evan blushed.
"I didn't see you when I walked by. Are you interested in getting something to eat? I know where they keep the good sandwich making stuff," Evan offered, tucking the sketchbook under his arm.
David shut the lid on his laptop and grabbed his jacket from the counter. "I'm always up for the good sandwich making stuff, as long as Athosian beets don't count as good." He refrained from asking if this was a date, though he was almost 100% sure that it was. It was pretty much the clumsiest way he'd ever been asked out, but also probably the sweetest. And Evan's drawings of him said everything David needed to know about how Evan felt about him. Oh well, David would just have to teach Evan how to date properly. It was the least he could do.
"No, Athosian beets are definitely not good sandwich making material. However, the cheese from P5W-975 is like nothing you've ever tasted before," Evan said, grinning brightly as they started walking toward the transporters.
"I'm hoping that's a good thing," David said. "Speaking of good things, what would you think of a trip to P3F-821?"
"What's so special about P3F-821?" Evan asked.
"Well, apart from being a spectacular setting for our first date, there's a couple of plants I'd like to pick up while we're there," David said, grinning when Evan flushed again. "Unless you think that sandwiches in the mess hall should count as our first date."
Evan shook his head, smiling like he couldn't help himself. "No, I think P3F-821 sounds like the ideal location for a first date."
"Good," David said, thinking of the drawings he'd seen in Evan's book. "No, perfect."
Written for the Parrish/Lorne Thing a Thon; Prompt: Parrish comes across a lost sketch pad dropped in the hallway.
Summary: David Parrish isn't an artist, but he can see the appeal.
Content Notes: None. PG-13
On AO3: Open Window to Your Thoughts
It was first thing in the morning when David Parrish nearly fell over the sketchbook. It was a standard sized sketchbook, artist quality paper and a yellow cover that had pencil doodles covering it until the yellow was only visible in the backgrounds of various sketches. David - having dropped his own sketchbook, his laptop that was in a case for just such occasions, and a pair of pots that thankfully didn't shatter on impact - picked up the stray sketchbook, stacked it with his own, picked everything off the floor and headed down to the greenhouse.
He was already late for the departmental meeting, he was usually running about twenty minutes behind schedule and that was on a good day, and it was just as likely that the sketchbook belonged to one of the other botanists. They were the only ones who really used them, detailed drawings accompanied by photographs were still one of the best ways to document plant life, though some people in the exobiology and anthropology departments supplemented their reports with drawings as well. But this far toward the south pier, well, no one really came out here but the botanists and the people who thought that having a picnic in a greenhouse devoted to science was a good idea. It wasn't a good idea, and David had sent out several emails to that effect and had Dr. Weir make an announcement at one of the city wide meetings without seeming to make an impression on the rest of the expedition.
The meeting went quickly enough, David making his case for using a section of the main greenhouse to make a garden that was similar to one of the ones he'd seen on P3F-821. The department head had agreed, but only if he could get a team to take him on a return trip for the rest of the plants he would need. The rest of the botanists had nodded sympathetically when he'd just sighed; getting a team to go on a botanical expedition, even when the botanist in question had off-world experience, was difficult at best. The military and the 'hard' sciences all claimed that their work took priority and the science based missions frequently were delayed for months. David didn't mind so much, most of the time, because he liked staying alive and knew that the military members of the expedition were the only thing between him and a whole army of Wraith. But, sometimes, it would be nice if the rest of the expedition remembered that botanists actually performed life saving work and were instrumental in drug research and a whole host of other areas. They weren't just gardeners or people looking at pretty flowers all day.
He spent the rest of the day in what he termed 'his greenhouse'. While it wasn't technically even his own workspace, no one else worked out there and David was free to turn up some music and work at his leisure without running into anyone else's plant beds or poisonous leaves. It was late, well past when dinner was usually served when David came to a stopping place for the night, pausing at one of the sinks to wash off his hands and arms and pull his shirt back on, before he went back to the small office-style area he'd set up in the front corner and started up his laptop. When he moved his laptop, intent on updating growth charts and notes that he'd taken on the progress of several plants, he realized that he still had the rogue notebook and hadn't asked around at the meeting.
David turned on the small lamp that he'd salvaged from the engineering department and flipped open the front cover expecting to find a name. Instead, he found a beautiful sketch of Atlantis from the sky, probably from a puddle jumper considering the angle. He moved so that he was closer to the lamp, his laptop and plant charts completely forgotten as he started turning pages. A lot of the early pictures were of the city; from balconies, from the piers, and one of the Atlantis under attack by the Wraith. The drawing was eerie; David remembered the attack well, remembered hiding with a small group of civilians with a radio and handguns and waiting for evacuation orders. But the drawing seemed to capture the city at it's strongest, how it held up under the attack and survived time and again, and David found that incredibly beautiful.
As he continued through the book he started finding sketches of scenes on planets, a few that he recognized from the mainland, but most of them were off-world. These sketches starting changing, moving from scenes of villages, civilizations and architecture to forests and plains. Plants started to appear in close-up, the book starting to look much more like that of a botanist, but still clearly the work of an artist. David paused on one of the pictures, recognizing a tree that was sketched there as being from P3X-686, the lower gravity on the planet letting the branches curve and swoop in ways that would never exist on Earth. There was a figure at the base of the tree, his head tipped back with a look of contentment that made David smile just looking at the picture. It took him a minute to realize that the figure was a depiction of him, which meant that the sketchbook belonged to someone that had been on that planet.
He kept turning pages as he tried to think back to last month and remember who had been on the team that day. David noticed that he was starting to appear more and more often in the drawings, usually occupied with examining the local flora but sometimes just sitting and staring in the distance or leaning back during a break. He immediately recognized the background in the last drawing; it was his greenhouse. In the picture he was kneeling in one of the plant beds, carefully loosening the roots of a particularly delicate plant that bore a strong resemblance to an acroptilon repens.
"I was hoping that someone would find that. Not sure that I wanted that someone to be you, but I'm glad that it isn't lost somewhere."
David looked up, unsurprised to see Major Evan Lorne standing in the doorway. Outwardly he looked the paragon of the calm and suave military man, but by the way one of his hands was tucked against the side of his belt he could see that the Major was nervous. "Glad to see I guessed right. I would have guessed Coughlin," David said, naming one of Lorne's teammates, "but I've seen some of his attempts at stick figures."
"You don't mind?" he asked, looking down at the drawing of David.
David thought for a moment, trying to decide if he minded Lorne hanging around his greenhouse and drawing him. Major Lorne was the only team leader who let David come out with them, and hadn't seem put out the two times David had approached him and asked if his team was available for a botanical expedition. "I don't mind at all, Major."
"Call me Evan," he replied quickly, ducking his head slightly. "Have you had dinner yet?"
Closing the sketchbook, David handed it back to Evan and smiled, wondering just how likely it was that Evan had left the sketchbook for him to find. "I haven't, though I think you already know that." David raised his eyebrows and to his amusement Evan blushed.
"I didn't see you when I walked by. Are you interested in getting something to eat? I know where they keep the good sandwich making stuff," Evan offered, tucking the sketchbook under his arm.
David shut the lid on his laptop and grabbed his jacket from the counter. "I'm always up for the good sandwich making stuff, as long as Athosian beets don't count as good." He refrained from asking if this was a date, though he was almost 100% sure that it was. It was pretty much the clumsiest way he'd ever been asked out, but also probably the sweetest. And Evan's drawings of him said everything David needed to know about how Evan felt about him. Oh well, David would just have to teach Evan how to date properly. It was the least he could do.
"No, Athosian beets are definitely not good sandwich making material. However, the cheese from P5W-975 is like nothing you've ever tasted before," Evan said, grinning brightly as they started walking toward the transporters.
"I'm hoping that's a good thing," David said. "Speaking of good things, what would you think of a trip to P3F-821?"
"What's so special about P3F-821?" Evan asked.
"Well, apart from being a spectacular setting for our first date, there's a couple of plants I'd like to pick up while we're there," David said, grinning when Evan flushed again. "Unless you think that sandwiches in the mess hall should count as our first date."
Evan shook his head, smiling like he couldn't help himself. "No, I think P3F-821 sounds like the ideal location for a first date."
"Good," David said, thinking of the drawings he'd seen in Evan's book. "No, perfect."
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