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Story Notes: This was written as a response for a challenge I participated over at an LJ community I manage where they gave me the quote "We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love." by Mother Teresa as a prompt. I had three fandoms fighting over this quote and that's not a pretty thing to host in your head. I am happy with the overall result, though I think it turned out fluffier than I originally intended. Then again, it is John we are talking about :-P
Timeline: Some time during S2 or S3, I don't know and don't care, you decide.


Elizabeth is crossing the bridge to her office when her eyes take in the strange shape on her desk. Her pace slows, but she keeps walking as her eyes finally identify the object. She doesn't fight the smile that overtakes her.

She remembers her early years, very early years, in high school and college. She wasn't the most popular girl in either place, but that didn't make her the least desirable. In fact, because she was unattainable and unconcerned with silly advances, boys busied themselves trying to win her affection.

She was always diplomatic about it which could have been the training that paved the way for her current career. She would accept the roses and the serenades, as best she could, without seeming arrogant or unkind. They were all great and impressive things these boys, and eventually men, did for her. Such displays of affection most women would kill for, but not Elizabeth. She always preferred the private and subtle displays of affection, signs and words that would become like a language, their language, which anyone could hear but not fully understand.

Finally, she walks behind her desk and can't force herself to take a seat. Her hands roam around the small snow globe on her desk. Only he would have been listening to her, his watch so thorough, to realize what this gift would mean to her.

"Elizabeth," Laura had asked, "Best country you've ever been in?"

"In the Pegasus Galaxy?"

"That's going to be a small list," Rodney muttered.

"I asked Dr. Weir, not you, or are you having identity crisis again?"

"Kids," John, as always, tried to stop the fight before it begun.

"Sorry, Colonel." Laura turned her attention to Elizabeth, looking at her across the cave, a small wood fire between them. "I actually meant planet Earth." She shot Rodney a glare after the last statement.

"Oh," Elizabeth knew they were all staring at her, expecting to hear about Europe or China or both. It took time for her to decide, but it only took one memory to help her reach her decision. "Antarctica."

"You can't be serious," Rodney snorted. That wasn't a question.

Elizabeth smiled, "I am."

It was Laura who asked the question now, "Why?"

Elizabeth looked at John before answering and he quirked an eyebrow, curious about the answer himself, but when her eyes lingered on him for a second more than they should have, he smiled. Could he have known the answer then?

"It's where we found the way to Atlantis," Elizabeth explained, avoiding John's gaze. It was the place where her life begun, the place where they found the chair, the place where she had first felt the rush of being the expedition leader... it was the first place she met John.


Elizabeth is still standing behind her desk, this time with the snow globe in her hand. There is an igloo inside, a small mountain behind it and placed not too far from the igloo is a helicopter. It's the helicopter that makes her smile the most.

"Elizabeth, did you get my report on the-" Rodney bursts into her office, in a hurry as always, but stops once he notices her reverie. "What's that?"

She finally takes a seat but doesn't let go of her gift, "It's a snow globe."

Rodney gets a good look at it and the contents inside. They make no sense to him, but they do to her. It probably doesn't seem like much or mean anything at all to him but to her it means the whole of planet Earth.


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