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John sat in the back of the tack room, oiling Atlantis' reins. He shifted on his stool as the warm late summer sunshine continued to fall on him from the doorway, making the metal pieces of the reins glitter in his lap. The sunlight abruptly dimmed and John looked up.
In the doorway leaned a figure in red with a gittern slung over his back and his arms crossed. As John blinked a bit, the backlit figure's face resolved into that of Bard Master Lorne. John's face became enveloped in a grin.
"Long time, no see, John," Lorne said with a returning grin as he uncrossed his arms and walked into the tack room slowly. "How the heck are you?"
John dumped the reins on the floor and surged up off the stool to walk forward and give the bard a hearty slap on the shoulder. "Lorne, you old reprobate! Where the hell have you been?"
Lorne shrugged elaborately and crossed his arms again. "Oh, you know. Here and there. Out Hardorn way for a while, then went down to SeeJay. Stopped in Rethwellen for a while and picked up a few new songs from a fellow down there that does some pretty damned good composition work. Wrote a few new ballads for some pocket change." He tilted his head to the side. "You know. The usual."
John looked him over. Lorne looked fit and healthy, his scarlet riding leathers a bit dusty from the road. "You just got back, didn't you?" he asked. "You need something to drink? I've got water here, or we could go get a pint at this tavern that..."
Lorne waved him off with a hand and wandered to the back to pull up a spare stool and sit down. "Na, I'm fine. Stopped at this place I know of on the way in that makes this fabulous stout. I'll have to show it to you before I go."
John gave him a look as he went back and sat back down on his own stool and picked the reins back up off the floor. "You're not sticking around?"
"Not planning on it, no," Lorne admitted looking a him ruefully. "Thought it would be good to check in though." He looked away, toward the door and said quietly, "How's the queen? She well?"
"Elizabeth's fine, Lorne," John replied softly. "You could go visit her. She'd like that, you know."
"Has that pompous ass Landry finally keeled over from heart failure because he couldn't bully someone into doing something his way, then?" Lorne asked a little bitterly.
John sighed. "No. Half the Heralds would have hopped onto their Companions and gone and searched for you if he had." He shifted and bumped Lorne in the shoulder with his own. "Teyla says Elizabeth misses you."
Lorne sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees, dropping his head down. "I miss her too."
"Then screw Landry and go visit her!" John exclaimed. "The two of you are lifebonded for Haven's sake!"
"You of all people know it's just not that simple, John," Lorne replied tiredly, sitting up and looking at him. "Look at your circumstances."
John scowled at him and looked away. "My circumstances have nothing to do with the fact that the two of you belong together."
"She failed to have any children by Sumner before he died," Lorne reminded him. "She still does not have an heir that the council won't have knock down, drag out fights over and I'm still a commoner."
"Nobody important cares about that, Lorne!" John cried out, holding an imploring hand out to his friend. "The Heralds are behind you. Arch-priest Halling opens up every Council session with a thundering denunciation of this ridiculousness and curses Landry and his cronies for going against the will of the gods. The people on the street think it's a travesty that the two of you aren't together!"
Lorne stood up and walked away briefly before turning in agitation. "And yet the Council still refuses to approve the Queen's proposal to marry me, John. Elizabeth rules by the law of the land. She's can't, we can't just ignore the law and expect it to end well. She would lose the crown, John. Do you want to deal with what would happen next?"
John winced at the thought and looked down. He was quiet for a moment and replied, "If I had to in order for you guys to be happy, I would. It's not like I'd ever be in the same position as you."
Lorne laughed harshly. "No you wouldn't be, because you would be dead. The minute Elizabeth stepped off the throne, there'd be a flock of assassins after you. And I don't care how good your Heraldic training is, with one against dozens they would take you down before the Council would be able to get its head out of its collective ass." He stopped and dragged both hands over his face, then blew out a deep breath. "Look, John, I didn't come here to go over this argument for the umpteenth time. I came by to visit an old friend and perhaps sing a few songs and share a few drinks with him."
John shoulders slumped. "Fine. It's just...it's hard to see the two of you being held apart like this. You belong together and this just isn't right."
Lorne came back over to where John sat and laid a hand on his shoulder, giving him a bittersweet smile. "That's where you're wrong, John. We're always together. Just never in the same place, is all."
John sighed, shook his head and then gestured to the free stool. "Siddown. Get that gittern off your back and play me something."
Lorne slung the gittern off his back and lowered himself back down onto the stool. Once there, he put the gittern in his lap, wrapped his hands expertly around it and strummed a few chords. "So, any requests? 'My Lady's Eyes' perhaps?" Lorne asked with a sudden impish look.
John eyed him sourly. "You play that piece of drivel within a day's ride of me and I'll beat the crap out of you, Lorne."
Lorne laughed and slapped the body of the gittern with the flat of his hand. "That's the old friend I came to see."
John's mouth quirked up in one corner and he slanted an eyebrow at Lorne. "I wouldn't mind if you'd play 'Man in Black' for me. I haven't heard that one in a while."
Lorne's mirth faded and he gave John a serious look. "You still aren't playing?"
John looked away and shook his head. "I only bring Man in Black out of his case when I've been commanded to for a mission. There haven't been any of those in a while. He's getting pretty dusty."
Lorne gave a deep sigh, then said, "John..."
"You know how you didn't come here to have your old argument?" John interrupted, looking off into the distance. "Well, I don't want to have my old argument while you're here, either."
Lorne slumped and then let out a defeated breath. "Fair enough," he replied. He strummed the gittern, paused, turned one of the tuning keys just a hair and strummed the strings again, head turned slightly, listening closely.
John tilted his ear to the gittern as well, then murmured as the sound died away, "Yeah, she's in tune again." He then turned and looked at Lorne again. There was faint pleading in his eyes. "Play 'Man in Black' for me?"
Lorne grimaced, then nodded. "You always did like the depressing tunes, didn't you?"
John gave him a faint smile. "I named my gittern after the song. What do you think?"
Lorne rolled his eyes. "Smartass." He shifted on his stool and resettled the gittern in his lap. " Well, I guess Queen of My Heart and I will cope with playing it for the sake of friendship." He then shifted his fingers on Queen's fretboard and began